Unfortunately it is not a great photo and does not do justice to the mighty power of the winds and seas this evening along the coast of Lavreotiki, in Greece. We finally have a real taste of winter weather beginning today after a fairly mild month of January. We even saw snow flakes coming down during the day, while just north in Keratea, snow had accumulated on the ground for a short time before the temperature increased to 5C, melting the white away.
The colder air arrived this morning along with high winds and gusts powerful enough to shake and rattle doors, cause trees to bend, and has taken down at least one metal pole that I counted. Compared to last year, we’re thankful the electricity has not gone out, although there is still the rest of the night for that, and according to the forecast, even more severe weather tomorrow.
When I heard about possible snow on the ground in Keratea, I thought we should go for a drive just to see, but I truly doubted there would be anything at this temperature. As I suspected, the snow had disappeared, but with the worsening weather, it was a good opportunity to buy some tsipouro for the cold hours and days ahead. A quick stop at the “Kava” in Keratea, and then it was back to this wee spot. But before driving to the house, I thought it would be interesting to take a drive down by the sea to check out the conditions on the beaches.
We drove to Perigali – Περιγιάλι Beach, where I got out of the car and walked along the beach, taking in the very angry waves smashing against the rocks with force and fury. The sea water had tried to claim back much of the beach as the waves rose much higher than what it does in the summer months, when there is more calm. There is quite the contrast with the beach at this time of the year and in summer when it is mostly calm.
This is the same beach were we flew a kite last year on “Clean Monday.”
After a few minutes of deciding the winds and cold air needed more clothing than I had on, we drove to the next beach called Joneema (Τσόνιμα) Beach, and then even further along the coast to Vromopousi (Βρωμοπούσι) Beach – a beach considerably longer than the other two. All along the coast, we had glimpses of the sea waves crashing against the rocky coast line – such that my windshield often became covered in sea salt water spray. Tomorrow during daylight, it might be more interesting to see, but I love the sounds of crashing waves against rocks at night – just unfortunate it was so chilly and windy, as the high gusts made it feel like it was below freezing.
When we arrived at Vromopousi Beach, I decided to see if I could get some photos with my Samsung Galaxy S9, but I am not very confident with its camera and don’t like the photos it takes. But, I did manage to take a few, including the one at the top of this article. It doesn’t do justice though to the sea’s fury and how big most of the waves were. Not a sea condition you would want to go swimming in!
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll hike along the coast a bit with my camera and see if I can get some better shots as the wintry weather continues in this part of the world.
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