Beach Cleaning in Gramvousa

Last Saturday, the Kissamos Beach Cleaning team went to Kalyviani beach, in the Gramvousa area, to pick up some litter.

This is the Western corner of Kissamos Bay. We chose it because it’s a beautiful spot, and we know that it collects huge amounts of rubbish, especially when the wind blows from the North-East, as it often does and as it did last week.

There were ten of us. We started from the beach in front of the apartments, and we proceeded West, picking rubbish as we went. We found it relatively clean, until we got to the part in front of the last greenhouses. Among the rocks and in front of the greenhouses we found lots and lots of rubbish, partly washed-up from the sea and partly coming from land, from the fields around: floating plastic, bottle tops, fishermen’s glowsticks, shoes, tar, plastic bottles, plastic sheets, plastic plastic and more plastic. We also checked the two bins that we had placed along the beach.

We easily collected 20 big bags in less than two hours. We were encouraged by some supporters, and we were joined by a local villager whom we hadn’t previously met. We were also treated to cold drinks by the vice-president of the Gramvousa Association, that we’d like to thank for the kind gesture. Once we finished, we sat for a drink at Viglia apartments, that we also thank for the support.

We discussed coming back for more, as it still looked like we barely scratched the surface. Prompted by our new beach cleaning friend, we also discussed going back to Falasarna, where we also know more is needed. There’s plenty of action for everyone!

Till next time!