Discovering Crete, Part 16 - The palm beach of Límni Préveli I

in #photography6 years ago (edited)

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Greetings Steemians!

Slowely but surely my travel report comes to an end. But before that I would like to present you my personal highlight of my Crete stay: the palm grove of Límni Préveli, reportedly one of Island's the most beautiful beaches.

The beach is located at the end of a river valley west of Agia Galini. On both sides of the river grows a veritable jungle of palm trees, eucalyptus and the ever-present oleander shrubs. Upstream you can find enchanting fresh-water swimming spots in a seemingly tropical surrounding.

At the river mouth a large lagoon lake has formed, whose reed beds attract ducks and many other water birds. A true paradise for bird watchers. On both sides of the beach high rock walls pile up, perfecting the dramatic setting of the entire location.

I wish I had known that the beach can be reached by boat starting each morning from Agia Galini. Because getting there over land has proven to be quite tedious. Coming from the east one has to drive on a pretty rough dirt road for which - retrospectively - an off-road vehicle would have been highly recommended. I did not have one and so I had to drive really at snail's pace, hoping the tires would survive the hardship. Well, they did. Finally, the rock walls bordering the beach must be overcome on foot. A pleasure after the bumpy ride.

So let's get there:

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No valley without a mountain range.

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Aeolus is blowing incessantly here.

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Into the blue.

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A seemingly controversial construction project along the road.

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And further on foot over the cliff.

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Just one more corner...

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...and there it is, the palm beach of Préveli. A beautiful sight, isn't it?

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One last descent before I can plunge into the cool wet.

I hope you enjoyed this first glimpse on Límni Préveli. Don't miss the next episode where you can follow me to the lagoon lake and into the valley with it's marvelous palm grove.

Thanks for watching and 'til next time!

Shaka


All photos were recorded by myself with an Canon EOS 7D / Tamron 18-270 mm in Mai 2018. All rights reserved.


Discovering Crete - All previous posts:

Part 1, Agiofárango I Part 2, Agiofárango II
Part 3, Monastery Odigítrias I Part 4, Monastery Odigítrias II
Part 5, Phaistos I Part 6, Phaistos II
Part 7, Phaistos III Part 8, Mátala I
Part 9, Mátala II Part 10, Kamilari
Part 11, Agía Galíni I Part 12, Agía Galíni II
Part 13, Zarós Part 14, Island glow
Part 15, Back country trip
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It seems incredibly great place to swim and discover!

Wenn man für's Motiv arbeiten muss, ist es umso bereichernder, nicht? Eine gute Geschichte hört jeder gern. Ich erinnere mich ebenfalls, als wir im Urlaub bloß einen Fiat Panda hatten und uns damit über ziemlich steiniges und auch noch steiles Gelände wagten. Teilweise hatte ich Furcht, dass wir es nicht bis zurück ins Hotel schaffen würden, ich hörte schon die Reifen platzen. Darum kann ich gut nachvollziehen, wie es gewesen ist, im Schneckentempo über spitzes Gestein zu fahren. Ach, wie herrlich muss dann der Sprung ins Meer gewesen sein!

Im nächsten Bericht hoffe ich, Palmen zu sehen. Oder bin ich blind? Oder heißt der Abschnitt nur so, weil dort eine kleine grüne Oase direkt am Wasser ist? Ist jedenfalls ungewöhnlich. Gerne wäre ich jetzt dort anstatt in Hamburg in einem zugegeben schönen Hinterhof. Die Stadt ist gerade sommerlich still und alle Locals sind im Urlaub. So viele Touristen schwärmen in die Stadtteile nicht aus und es ist eine nette Abwechslung. Das ein bisschen aus dem Nähkästchen geplaudert.

Ich habe mich gefreut, als ich die Bilder größer zog, dass die Schärfe erhalten blieb. Auf der Suche nach Palmen ;-)

Bis bald!

Just in diesem Moment ging die Fortsetzung raus, mit ganz vielen Palmen! :)

Ja, die Fahrt auf der Piste war wirklich grenzwertig, aber wie das so ist, man denkt immer, nach der nächsten Kurve wird es bestimmt besser...

Das Meer dort war absolut grossartig. Angenehm frisch und glasklar. Das tollste Badeerlebnis des gesamten Urlaubs.

Danke für Deinen Kommentar, viele Grüsse nach Hamburg,
Shaka

The massive rock sitting a few meters in the water on the last picture looks stunning. Unfortunately I guess the water there is to narrow for climbing it and jumping into the sea from up there?! :)

It is possible, I will show you in the next post :)

Nachdem ich mir aus gegebenen Anlass nochmals die Implikationen der DSGVO zu Gemüte geführt habe komme ich zu dem Schluss, dass ich den wackeren Burschen, der von diesem Fels aus einen Rückwärtssalto dargeboten hatte leider nicht auf die chain tackern kann bzw. sollte...🙁

Ich bin danach selbst einmal um den Fels aussen herum geschwommen. Das Wasser ist dort tatsächlich bereits tief genug, geschätzt 6-7 Meter. Die Hauptschwierigkeit ist das Hochklettern...

Beim Betrachten der Fotos kann man richtig Sehnsucht bekommen.
Ein Königreich dafür, wenn ich dort jetzt "in See stechen" könnte, v.a. weil es hier heute so schwül-warm ist.
Diese Fotos sind in der Tat (ein weiteres) Highlight Deiner Serie. Meer, Strand & Sand - das ist für uns Landeier immer ein Hingucker!

I hope that you've really enjoyed these travel times and for sure we've also travelled with you in this journey through your posts. And i believe that you've had great and amazing time for sure.

And i really liked the beach part and that is true artistic piece means, that rock is going under the water and that's reflecting the collaboration between water and that rocky mountain.

And in my opinion people who are exploring this place, for sure getting the pure breathtaking essence because in my opinion sea view is great to watch and we can explore nature's greatest actions.

Those cliff pictures are unique to watch and that view is just awesome where we can see just one rock and awesome water view, it's reflecting as greatest landscape scene of nature.

Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂

Hello,
the palm grove of Límni Préveli was also one of my best place ever. Atmosphere in the beach so peaceful. And you can enjoy swimming. After you can take a shower in freshwater. So cool.

Here one of my picture with Michalis in the palm grove.

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Haha, cool that you have been there, too! Thanks for sharing!

Another series of spectacular landscape shots. The Preveli Beach looks amazing and it is not even as crowded as I would expect, being it on Crete :) I started following just recently so I missed most of the previous posts where you might have mentioned that but did you also make it to the renowned Cretan olive groves?

Btw you have some serious photography skills, have you tried participating in any of the photo contests run here on Steemit? I can recommend a few if you want...

Thanks a lot!

I think the fact that it is quite tedious to actually get there saves the beach from being too crowded. However, I was there in May which is still early season. Not sure, how it look there in summer.

Do you have a particular olive grove in mind? Generally, olive groves are almost omnipresent on Crete. Some of these olive trees are really impressive, a captured a very old one in this post.

Ah, I did not know you were there in May... it probably got more tourists by now but it still looks like a very nice and peaceful beach :)

I did not refer to any specific olive grove, I just saw a documentary about Crete some time ago and those groves look truly stunning. I believe they are everywhere though (similarly to banana plantations on the Canary Islands).

Looking forward to the next episode @shaka. Have a great day.

Hello friend, a lot of problems with Internet, finally I was able to see your publication of the return and I am left with a sweet taste of having enjoyed that fabulous trip through Crete, my passion as I told you is the beach, I live 1 hour from the beach and I'm very pleased to make the trip, seeing your excellent shots, I can not stop congratulating you for that hard work you did, because even though it was an adventure trip, you took a lot of your time doing this beautiful and cultural work, giving day by day explanation of what you saw and what you were researching with the inhabitants of that area, I repeat this excellent work should travel the world through national geographic. This beach of palms of Límni Préveli I, I find it similar to my beloved beach of Cata, it mutes me the landscape and it gives me melancholy to be there, nevertheless I consider myself well served with your fabulous publication, and buy the ticket for your next one adventure towards the lake of the lagoon. This image for you friend, my beautiful Tasting. Greetings friend @shaka

What a way to wind up your trip! That beach is enough to lure any traveler there for the duration of the vacation

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