Sunbathe with endangered wildlife and dive for ancient treasure off the island of Alonissos, one of the world’s ‘most sustainable’ destinations
There are only three of us on board, and we lounge on cushioned seats, lapping up the sun as we glide past deserted coastlines dotted with sea caves, where the monk seals come each year to breed. “They actually thought the seals were extinct until a German zoologist discovered a colony here in 1976,” Captain Pakis tells us.
Near the tiny, uninhabited island of Peristera, we plunge into the water once more. We’re hoping to spot the remains of one of the ships – they include a merchant vessel and its cargo of several thousand wine amphorae – that sank off this notoriously dangerous coastline sometime in the fifth century. The ships now belong to a protected area, known as Greece’s “Parthenon of shipwrecks”, which is the Mediterranean’s first. Opened in 2020, it can be visited on organised trips.
He holds his finger to his lips and points. Ahead of us a monk seal lies on a half-submerged rock, its sleek black head shining like melted chocolate in the hot sun. Pakis whispers that these seals, the rarest of the 33 extant seal species, can dive to depths of up to 200 metres.
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