Pounta beach is a wonderful sandy stretch next to the small ferry terminal for Elafonisos. When we visited it was nearly deserted. I wasn’t here for the beach though, I wanted to find the underwater city of Pavlopetri which is just offshore to the left of a tiny island of the same name. I had seen the BBC documentary about it and it looked fascinating. There are also short documentaries on Youtube.
The Bradt Guide and the information board on the beach both mention that the city was marked out above the water with buoys. There was no sign of them but it was not too hard to find the ruins. Do not expect to swim over tall buildings, all that is left now are the foundations but it’s still fascinating to swim above the remains of a once flourishing city that is over 5000 years old. The BBC documentary was helpful and really brought the place to life and helped me make some sense of the once flourishing city. I attempted to film underwater using my phone in a waterproof case and you can see the amazing results below!
Ferry to Elafonisos
You can’t book the ferry for the short 10 minute hop over to Elafonisos, you just turn up, buy a ticket and drive [or walk] on to the next available boat. In the summer the boats depart every half hour. For the timetable click HERE. It wasn’t busy when we were there so we drove straight on and within minutes were pulling into the island of Elafonisos.
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