Leaving Glystra behind us, we head south along the main road that runs parallel to the sea. We pass through the awful, tourist sprawl of Kiotari, both sides of the road dominated by huge hotels that cater for the German and Italian visitors. Once away from Kiotari, we continue towards Gennadi, a small town that has not succumbed to the tourist dollar, and from Gennadi it’s a 25 kilometer drive through deserted countryside to Kattavia where we branch left along an undulating road that will take us to Prasonissi, the southern most point of the island.
The road winds its way across the scorched fields, then becomes very narrow as the descent to Prasonissi begins. We go over the top of the headland, round a hair-pin bend and from here, the wonderful panoramic view grabs us as very few other sights in Greece ever have.
In front of us, a couple of hundred feet below is a huge expanse of golden sand, stretching for maybe half a mile before it narrows into a spit that links the mainland with Prasonissi island. Incredibly, to the left of us is the Mediterranean, gently washing up onto the sandy spit and 10 meters away, opposite the Med, to the right, is the Aegean, thundering ashore courtesy of the Meltemi that has been gathering strength for several hundred miles.
It is a beautiful, surreal sight and so we drop down to the beach and leave our car parked to the side of the famous "Pharos" (lighthouse) Taverna.
There is every conceivable type of water sport happening here with the windsurfers preferring the quieter Med side of the water whilst the surfers take to the Aegean’s rollers. The Aegean is so rough here today that the sand bar is covered with water, meaning that unfortunately, we can’t walk over to the island. But this doesn’t detract from the experience of seeing these two great bodies of water just yards apart, one resembling a quiet lake with scarcely a ripple upon it’s surface, the other a raging tempest.
We linger here for an hour or so, watching the waves and the water-sportsmen before deciding that we definitely need a drink to cool down and head for the beckoning taverna and some much needed shade.