]]>
Crystal clear waters, endless sandy beach. Windy, uncrowded. Super safe bay with a stunning flat section, and a mini-wave section.
It sounds like the trip of a life time, on some remote island in Fiji. Too far away, too expensive.
Guess twice.
Welcome to Keros beach, on Limnos Island, Greece.
Keros, a vast, sandy beach, with turquoise shallow waters, blessed with Meltemi wind. A magic flat section on the North side of the beach, a bump and jump section in the middle, and small but nice waves on the South end. And the spot is empty.
Even in high season, there are maximum 50 riders on the beach, and the beach is 3 km wide, so it can handle many more with absolutely no stress.
Conditions
Limnos is an average wind spot, with the Meltemi normaly blowing force 4-6. Some days can be flat, but some days can also be super strong, like most of the Greek islands. You should expect to use kites between 8m-11m, but often, smaller. The best part is the beach morphology, offering complete flat sections and a mini-wave spot at the same beach.
For those big wave fans, the island features one of the best wave spots in Greece, Gomati, but it is mostly a winter spot, so chances are better if you visit early or late in the season.
About the island.
Far away from mass tourism, Limnos resides at the North-Eastern part of the Aegean Sea, still offering deserted beaches (more than 100), idyllic small villages, archeological sites, and natural reserves. Located where the Meltemi wind starts it’s journey over the Greek island, Limnos in ancient times was also known as ‘Anemoessa’, which means ‘windy island’.
What makes the island so attractive is the unspoiled terrain and the natives. On Limnos you can see Greece as it was 30 or 50 years ago. The local wine, the local cusine, the unspoiled landscapes and the idyllic beaches, will want you to stay forever.
Landscapes
Keros bay is within an environmental protected area. The scenery is unique: sand dunes, salt lakes with flamingos, isolated beaches full of small shells, make you feel that you are not in Europe or Greece, but in a completely different continent.
The beach
The beach is sandy, the waters are turquoise and crystal clear, and the wide bay makes it super safe. On the beach you will find Surf Club Keros, which is an International Kiteboarding Organisation Affiliated center. All instructors are experienced, but super friendly. As they say, Surf Club Keros is a kite school from kiters for kiters, so the vibes are mellow and the smiles are wide!
Equipment-wise, you can try out brand new equipment from Cabrinha!
Accommodation
Being within an environmentaly protected area means that there are no big buildings around Keros, hence no hotels or studios by the beach. But you can go ‘Glamping’. You can stay at Surf Camp Keros which is located on the hill besides the bay, in one of their Luxury Safari tents, combining the feeling of camping with the luxury of a hotel room. The tents are very spacious (25sqm for the double and 35sqm for the jumbo tents) and feature wood decking, high quality furnishing, a bathroom and shower, plasma tv, but the best part of living there is the view you get every morning when you wake up-or while you are having breakfast in bed! Highly recommended!
Otherwise you can stay in your own tent at our Camping place close to the beach!
Getting to Limnos
Flights: You can fly to Athens (ATH) or Thessaloniki (SKG) and pick a domestic flight to Limnos (LXS).
From the beginning of May till the end of October, there is a Thomas Cook direct flight from London.
Ferries: There is a daily ferry from Kavala to Limnos, and 1-2 Ferries per week from Thessaloniki to Limnos.
Visit the Surf Club Keros website for more info and directions
Contact:
Surf Club Keros
www.surfclubkeros.gr
info@surfclubkeros.gr
Surf Camp Keros
www.surfcampkeros.gr
info@surfcampkeros.gr
Related External Links
]]>
Related External Links
]]>
What you see here is a Shelf cloud which is a type of an Arcus cloud. This cloud could be seen in Hatteras yesterday the 22nd of May and I doubt that any kiteboarders decided to take a session during the time.
A shelf cloud is a horizontal wedge shaped cloud that rush forward along the ground. The shelf cloud is in turn connected to the base of a parent cloud, usually a thunderstorm i.e. a big cumulonimbus cloud, but it can be attached to other convective cloud types as well. The leading edge of the shelf cloud gets its characteristic shape due to the cold sinking air coming from the storm cloud behind it. This downdraft spreads out across the land as the leading edge is heading towards you. With this leading edge comes a strong gust front.
The storm cloud behind the shelf cloud might be very high (1,5 miles up to 14 miles) with strong upwinds. These upwinds are caused when the warm air in the middle of the cloud rushes upwards through the cloud. The cumulonimbus cloud often show up with its characteristic appearance of an anvil. The anvil consists of a veil of ice crystals in the upper part of the cloud, just at the bottom of the tropopause. The upwinds that reach this level is relatively colder than the tropopause, hence the moist air is diffusing laterally. This cold air in turn creates downdraft on the outside of the cloud. The rain and hail in these downdraft bring a lot of air that smashes towards the ground where it is being pushed forward in front of the cloud. This is the strong cold gust that we feel just before a bad weather cloud is coming in. The upwinds in the cumulonimbus clouds can be as strong as 20-30 m/s. They are therefore extremely dangerous to kiteboarders. In other words it´s not a good idea to be out kiteboarding either if you see a shelf cloud or a cumulonimbus cloud. There is a high risk that you get lofted, which happened to the guy from the unbelievable “Top Hat video”.
Massive cumulonimbus clouds can, if the conditions are right, transform into supercells. Supercells can be described as cumulonimbus clouds with strong rotating updrafts. The rotation occurs when the updrafts are combined with wind shear. The wind shear make the air turn into a huge vertical spiral inside the cloud that is being bended upwards thanks to the updrafts.
If you face a supercell when kiteboarding then you better not just head toward the beach asap, but packing down your stuff and get the hell out of there!
Related External Links
]]>
Related External Links
]]>However, the itchy scalp is not the worst issue right now, but an infected insect bite. I got bitten by something a couple of days ago, right above my right knee. I scratched a little on this bite and apparently managed to make it infected. The infection gradually got worse from day to day until yesterday when I staggered away to a clinic. And yes, I staggered. The infection hurts so much that I barely can walk. Anyway, the doctor gave me an injection of antihistamin, a tube with hydrocortison and some tablets with antihistamin.
The antihistamin makes you very tired and drowsy, so I slept for several hours in the afternoon. I actually had a good night of sleep the last night as well, even though I slept on my back, unable to move without feeling the pain in the infected area. Probably thanks to the antihistamin, nothing bad without anything good :)
In case anyone is interested in seeing what the infection looks like, here is a picture.
The white stuff you see is the cortison, applied right on the bite.
So, even though it´s windy today, I can’t go kitesurfing. I better do as little as possible. So you might think that all is just shit, but it´s not! The fact that I´m flying home soon is nice =) And I´m spoiling myself a little extra these last days with some awesome meals =P
I´ve got a bit tired of grilled tuna, so I tried something different the other day, Kare Karé! The chef that tought me to make Chilli Chicken made this dish for me. I just bought the ingredients at the market, handed them over to the chef (his name is Alan btw) and was served this super meal!
Talking about flying. A bird at Villa Frency had a nest in a small tree. This bird was brooding three eggs that were hatched one day. I followed the rapid growth of the chickens. They went from blind newborn chicks to flying feather balls in just about one week!
It´s about lunch time here now, so I´m heading to Levantin for another Chilli Chicken. My knee actually feels a little bit better, perhaps can I walk normally soon!
Related External Links
]]>
Related External Links
]]>
Took a day of yesterday, i.e. I didn’t go kiteboarding. Instead I decided to check out the White Beach. The White Beach is a paradise for sunbathers! Clear water, white sand, plenty of space, coconut palms and refreshening drinks and food are always within reach. This beach pretty much fulfil all criteria to be called a perfect beach!
Unfortunately I don’t belong to those that value a whole day on the beach, I get bored quite quickly from laying in the sand letting the sun’s insidious rays burn my body. But I don’t mind a nice beach walk, so I walked to the end of the beach where I turned to walk back.
On my way back I passed two small girls, maybe 4-5 years old, dragging sacks filled with bottles and cans in the sweat of their brow. I asked them if they wanted help with carriage of the sacks. For a moment they hesitated, probably cause they were afraid that I would steal their cans and bottles, but their hesitation turned into joy as soon as they understood that I actually offered myself to carry their heavy loads. So I took both sacks in one hand and started walk along the beach with the two girls running along my side, I guess it was that day’s good deed =)
By the way, I have stopped updating every day as you may have noticed. I think I was a bit to naive when I though that I would manage to update this site with a new post everyday… That´s why I stopped putting the days number in the titles =P
Anyway, today has been another good kitesurfing day! I also made a new friend on my way to the beach! Check him out! =)
