A guide about sea kayaking in Greece
Why go kayaking in Greece? Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which about 170 are inhabited; some of the easternmost Aegean islands lie just a few miles off the Turkish coast. Greece is bordered to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the west by the Ionian Sea. Only to the north and northeast does it have land borders. The amount of islands itself is a good reason to go sea kayaking in Greece. Let’s have a detailed look about the whole islands in Greece to get an idea how they are more or less structured.
The islands of Greece
The Ionian Islands off the western coast of Greece structurally resemble the folded mountains of Ipeiros. Of the six main islands, Corfu (Modern Greek: Kerkyra), opposite the Albanian frontier, is the northernmost; it is fertile and amply endowed with well-watered lowland. The other islands, Paxoí (Paxos), Lefkada (Leucas), Itháki (Ithaca), Kefalonía (Cephallenia), and Zákynthos (Zacynthus), lie farther south; lack of rainfall accentuates their gaunt, broken limestone relief, although Lefkáda and Zákynthos have sheltered eastern plains. A seventh island, Kýthira (Cythera), is grouped with the Ionian Islands for administrative purposes but is geographically discrete.
The Aegean islands, also exhibiting the characteristic land forms of the mainland, are situated in distinct clusters in the Aegean Sea, east of the Greek mainland. Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are particularly the Cyclades, Sporades, and Dodecanese groups. The Cyclades consist of about 30 islands. The Dodecanese, or Southern Sporades, include Kálimnos, Kárpathos, Cos, Léros, Pátmos, Rhodes, and Sími. The Sporades, or Northern Sporades, include Skyros, Skópelos, and Skíathos.
In the north, off Thráki (Thrace), lie Thásos, an oval block of ancient mineral rocks similar in composition to neighbouring blocks on the mainland, and harbourless Samothráki (Samothrace), an island of volcanic origin. Límnos (Lemnos), situated midway between Asia Minor and the Mount Athós peninsula, is almost cut in two by the northern Pourniás Bay and the deep southern harbour afforded by the Bay of Moúdros (Moúdhrou).