A Day at the Beach – Palea Monemvasia

Tuesday 26^th October 2010

Got up around 9am to sunshine with a few wispy high cirrus clouds. However, it looks like there are some alto and stratus cumulus coming in from the south east.

Luckily the clouds stayed in the south east and provided a very interesting display throughout the day. It appeared to be a cumulo nimbus cloud (I wouldn’t say that it was stratus as it was so distinct and not spread across the sky). However, rather than risoing to the typical anvil shaped top that would normally be expected, it appeard to meet a definite temperature inversion or barrier, and so it spread out with parts detaching themselves and being blown inland, while the rest of the cloud tumbled in constant turmoil, shifting from a smooth topped – almost lenticularis appearance – to a ragged fluffy top. A PowerPoint presentation showing the transition of the cloud can be seen here.

All this was observed from the beach at Palea Monemvasia, where we spent most of the day.

We had driven down to Poli beach looking for Epidaurus Limera, but had found only Captain Hook’s beach bar, closed for the winter and the road ending in a pair of locked gates. Returning to the main road we took the next turn and although we followed the signs for Epidaurus Limera we could not find it (see the post for Thursday 28^th), unless the ruins are the walls that are visible at the back of the beach or the look out tower visible on the promontory.

The beach is excellent. Lots of parking and a decent amount of sand, with only a small pebbly line to get into the sea. A note of caution though; the current is very strong and the bottom drops off very rapidly, so that six feet from the shore I was out of my depth (I’m 6′ 1″ tall).

After spending most of the day on the beach it was back to the cottage for another cold shower and tea on the patio. I had thought that a day of glorious sunshine would have been enough to heat the water, but obviously not – probably because the solar panels are shaded by the cottage and the olive trees.