It is more than a year and a half since an antiquated freighter ran aground off Drapanias in Kissamos Bay, breaking in two after the dramatic rescue of its 10-man crew. With legal problems hindering the possibility of any salvage operation, the rusting hull sections have remained stubbornly in view, joining a handful of wrecks around the shores of Greece which have morphed from eyesore into tourist attraction. It’s presence is well documented in a succession of drone videos on YouTube, the most recent of which dates from last June (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjumqzG5g50).
Continue readingTag Archives: Kissamos
Cretan infrastructure projects under way
While several major infrastructure projects have been announced for Crete and are assumed to be under way, with intermittent updates being issued about their progress through the various stages of planning, a certain cynicism prevails among the general public, based on past experience, as to when and indeed if they will finally be completed. It is therefore encouraging to receive information which confirms that things are actually happening, albeit out of most people’s sight.
Continue readingMeasures taken to protect Elafonissi
Visitors to Elafonissi this summer are finding it much changed from the picture it has presented in recent years. Restrictions on the numbers of umbrellas and sunbeds and a ban on cars entering the protected area have changed the appearance of this environmentally sensitive site for the better, though quite a few things remain to be done.
Continue readingA solution to car parking at Balos
The popularity of Balos as a destination for tourists has for many years been a source of problems. The sheer volume of visitors, apart from degrading the attractions of the beach itself, has resulted in severe congestion around the inadequate parking space at the end of the Gramvousa peninsula, from which once can make the descent to the beach by foot. A recent satellite shot from Google Maps, obviously taken on a summer’s evening, shows a line of cars parked at the roadside reaching 1.3 km back from the parking area.
The solution of closing the dirt road up the peninsula to cars and providing a minibus service to make the journey was mooted quite a few years ago, but little had been heard of it recently. However, it is encouraging to know that the matter has not dropped entirely off the local authority’s radar: the municipality of Kissamos is shortly to issue a tender for the creation of a car park at Kaliviani at the bottom of the peninsula, where there is already a ticket station charging 1 euro for admission to the road up the peninsula.
The online competitive tender, for a total of 321,767 euros ex VAT, has a deadline of the end of February and will be funded from the EU Maritime and Fisheries Fund programme for 2014-2020. The municipality is aiming to have the parking area ready during the spring so as to be available for the new tourist season, although the mayor of Kissamos, Giorgos Mylonakis, is as yet unwilling to commit himself to a schedule. “We have done proper studies and worked together with the right people, and so the project is to be tendered in the near future. I believe that after the tender we will be able to draw up contracts and proceed with the work. I don’t know if it will be ready this year. I don’t want to give a schedule, but we will try to have it in place this year,” he told Haniotika Nea.
Once the parking area is in operation, cars will not be allowed to go to the end of the route, but will stop in Kaliviani and passengers will be transferred by bus to where the current car park is. The project as planned will comprise:
– surfacing the parking area
– creation of a drystone perimeter wall
– installation of precast concrete channels for rainwater drainage
– creation of entrance and exit routes with flowerbeds containing plants and shrubs.
The parking, once in operation, will not only reduce the tremendous volume of vehicles which daily crowd onto the Gramvousa peninsula in the summer months, causing a nuisance to visitors and downgrading the environment. It will also result in better control of the flow of visitors and safety will be improved, since accidents have occurred in the past through drivers not knowing the route. (www.haniotika-nea.gr)
Twinning of the municipalities of Kissamos and Kythira
On Monday 12th December, the second phase of the twinning of the municipalities of Kissamos and Kythira took place in Kissamos, attended by the minister for Culture and Sport Lina Medoni, local government representatives, Cretan clergy and citizens. In a ceremony at Kissamos town hall, the mayors of the two municipalities signed a protocol providing for the further development of friendship, exchange of experiences and the promotion of issues of common interest.
The mayor of Kythira Efstratios Charchalakis, accompanied by the municipality’s general secretary Efrosini Kasimati and the head of its Workers’ Association Polyxeni Alexidou, was on a two-day visit to Kissamos, during which the visitors also took part in the celebrations honouring the town’s patron Saint Spyridon.
A simple ceremony was held on 1st September 2021 on the island of Antikythira to mark the twinning of the municipalities of Kythira with Kissamos. The twinning protocol was signed in the community office of Antikythira by the mayor of Kissamos Giorgos Mylonakis and the mayor of Kythira, Efstratios Charchalakis. The agreement was to be completed with the corresponding ceremony held on Cretan soil on 12th December 2022. In the picture, the delegation from Kissamos, with the mayor Giorgos Mylonakis in the centre, arrives by ferry at Antkythira. Photo: kythira.gr
Following a service at the historic church of St Spyridon in the centre of Kissamos, the second phase of the twinning ceremony took place at the town hall on the afternoon of 12th December. It was attended by the minister of Culture and Sport Lina Medoni, Chania MP and former Education minister Vasilis Digalakis and Amphilochios, Metropolitan of Kissamos and Selino. Also present were the Metropolitans Makarios of Gortyna and Arkadia, Damaskinos of Apokoronas, and Kyrillos of Ierapytni and Sitia, the mayors of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis and of Sfakia Manousos Chiotakis, local government representatives from all over Crete and many members of the public.
The mayors, in their remarks after the signing of the protocol, emphasised their intention that the action should not have a merely symbolic character, but should mark the beginning of a close collaboration between the two municipalities in the fields of culture and tourism, cooperation in the sectors of civil protection and volunteerism, and highlighting of the challenges faced by every municipality and the characteristics which make each one unique.
The mayor of Kissamos spoke warmly of the municipality of Kythira, emphasising the links between the two areas, both geographical and communal, with many long-standing contacts between their residents.
In his turn, the mayor of Kythira said that the twinning of the two municipalities should have taken place long ago, because of their cultural links, which he said date back to antiquity. Mr Charchalakis himself has roots in Kissamos, his grandparents’ village being that of Charchaliana, which is a few kilometres south east of Kissamos. Reviewing the historical links between the two areas, he referred to the incorporation of ancient Antikythira under the influence of Falassarna, and the establishment of Cretan refugees on Kythira and Antikythira after the Ottoman conquest of the island, also mentioning the discovery on Antikythira of an icon of St Myron, archbishop of Crete in the 4th century AD, who became the island’s patron saint, and the ordination of Cretan priests during the Venetian rule.
The Culture minister Lina Medoni also emphasised the cultural links between the two areas and the importance of the openness to outside influences which the twinning implies.
Following the speeches, the mayor of Kissamos gave Mr Charchalakis and the Culture minister copies of the Tilifos Agreement, recorded on a limestone stele found at Tilifos near Falassarna, which marked an alliance between Falassarna and Polyrrinia in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. The mayor of Kythira in his turn gave Mr Mylonakis a copy of the Antikythira Ephebe, a bronze statue of a youth which was found in 1900 near the wreck which yielded the Antikythira Mechanism and is exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. To the Culture minister he gave a tablet which was used as a notebook around the 4th century BC to teach writing to children, which has inscribed on it the letter K – the initial letter of both municipalities.
Following the exchange of commemorative gifts, there was an official dinner at the Cultural Centre of the Metropolis of Kissamos.
Immigrants arrive at Palaiochora
In what must be one of the largest ever such arrivals in the area, 430 immigrants were towed into the old harbour at Palaiochora at midday on Tuesday, aboard a rusted steel trawler of 30 metres length which had lost steerage, causing the occupants of the vessel to send out a distress signal. Some 300 of the passengers were Syrians, the rest being from Egypt and Palestine, among them 50 women and 30 children. The exact numbers have yet to be established.
The overloaded ship had departed from a port in Libya with Italy as its intended destination and had been at sea for four days. Its steering having failed, it had put out a distress signal in the area south of Crete where winds of 7 Beaufort were blowing. Commercial ships sailing nearby, as well as the frigate Kanaris which had been at Souda over the weekend, went to its aid, and with the help of Coastguard vessels it was towed into Palaiochora, arriving around 2.00 pm.
On Tuesday some 150 people were transferred by bus to the ANENDYK ferry Samaria in the tourist harbour to spend the night, there being insufficient accommodation in the town. However the remainder stated that they wished to remain on the trawler, asking for the steering to be repaired so that they could continue their voyage to Italy. Talking to journalists from the ship earlier, they had said: “We thank you for your help. Thank you for saving us, but we want to go on to Italy.”
Talking to journalists, the mayor of Kandanos-Selino Antonis Perrakis said that there was no hall big enough to house so many people in the area, but the municipality was helping by providing water, croissants and blankets, while it was preparing a meal of chicken and rice for them for Tuesday evening.
Help was also being provided by volunteers from the Civil Protection Service of Selino and the Kissamos Red Cross. Doctors, nurses and the ambulance of the Kandanos Health Centre were also on hand, together with the Centre’s Director Eftychis Aligizakis, providing first aid to three of the immigrants who were unwell. Another two – a diabetic and one with a head wound, were taken to the Chania Hospital for treatment. “It’s the first time we have had such a large number of immigrants, we never had more than 100 people before,” Mr Aligizakis said.
“The ship’s engines were working but the steering was not. They were originally going to take it to Palaiochora Harbour, but since the entrance is narrow and there was a heavy sea, the Coastguard was right to take them to the Skala [the old harbour], since with so many people on board there was a danger of it hitting the reefs in the channel and the people drowning inside the harbour,” said Antonis Bitsakis who had accompanied the trawler with his vessel Thalassolykos [Sea Wolf].
In a statement, the Shipping minister Giannis Plakiotakis said: “The Coastguard has once more showed not only the level of its capacities, but that it sees the saving of human lives as a priority of its mission.” He congratulated the Coastguard for planning and executing the rescue operation under adverse weather conditions.
On Wednesday, UNHCR stated that it was taking over the feeding of the refugees as from that day, and the necessary equipment was being transported to Palaiochora for that purpose. Also on Wednesday it was reported that the diabetic, a youth of 15 years, had been taken to the children’s unit of PAGNI in Heraklion for treatment.
More photos and a video of the immigrants can be seen on the Haniotika Nea website.