Swim & Hike: Red Cliffs and the Goatherd’s Church

This is an lovely introduction to sea swimming on the wild West coast of Crete, where we combine a short hike to reach a secluded beach with a sea swim to explore the bay.

Transportation
We start from Kissamos and drive together for 25 minutes. If you have your own transport, you can come with your own vehicle, giving you more freedom to stay on the beach after we finish the swim & hike.

The Hike
We leave the cars at the main road and set off down a dirt road, passing beehives and oleander plants. As we walk there are fantastic views over the bay and behind us too, to the hills that tower over us. We quickly reach a tiny hidden church, mostly used for shelter by goatherds, then we continue descending to the pebbly beach through the carob trees. The walk down to the beach is about 1.5km. We return to the cars by the same route (uphill!) after the swim.

The Swim
We set off from a pebbly beach and we swim along the steep, red cliffs which give their name to this beach.
At the point of the cliffs there are a number of rocks, and the water is slightly shallower, giving amazing bright turquoise colours to the water. We use a number of natural rock formations as markers, which form a natural triangular route to follow back to the beach. The last section of the swim is along the beach. The whole of this swim is within the bay – which is often sheltered from the wind –  and so is particularly adapted for those who are new to sea swimming as it is possible to turn back or get out at various points. After a refuelling snack on the beach, we return on foot to the cars, then back to Kissamos.