Firiplaka

Since the approach by road is the same as that to Tsigrado, I am repeating myself somewhat: To get to Tsigrado and Firiplaka, you drive along a lorry track through one of the “mining areas” and pass a big Imerys plant located on the slope of Tsigrado Volcano. Just before your destination, the track splits at the Cape of Tsigrado.

Cape of Tsigrado and Firiplaka
Cape of Tsigrado
Bay of Firiplaka
Bay of Firiplaka

To get to Firiplaka Beach, you turn right at this fork in the road. From a small car park you have a view of the entire bay. And this gives you an opportunity to judge at a glance whether the beach is currently even accessible. Below the car park there are in fact a large number of boulders in the shallows which you first have to climb over to reach the beach. Strong surf can make this area impassable.

If the surf is within limits, you can haul your bathing gear over a few humped boulders and reach the beach. Otherwise this eye of the needle is inaccessible.

Firiplaka beach is mostly sandy and remarkably flat so you can run many metres into the water before getting really wet. It is hemmed in by an extremely steep cliff, which makes the warnings of rock falls seem credible. Here too, like in Paliochori, strata of varied colours are visible. In contrast to Tsigrado, Firiplaka has a minimal infrastructure – a small beach bar which in high season, with its seats for hire, seems to hog the beach, which is narrow in the first place.

Update 04/20