That little jetty is where the young men of the village jump into the sea to retrieve a cross thrown in by the local priest every Epiphany (7th January). Good health, wealth and happiness if guaranteed to the winner and also to the village for the new year to come.
Tavronitis is the next village west from Maleme. The central part, based around the main high street has many businesses such as:- mini-markets, bakery and cake shop, fishmonger, butcher, bank, newspaper shop, home-wear shop, pharmacy, hairdresser, cafes and bars. In fact it is a very busy little town.
The smaller local supermarket sells wine by the plastic bottle but you have to take your own bottle to be filled. As you can imagine it’s cheap but maybe best sprinkled on chips than drunk on it’s own, unless you’re desperate!
The long beach down below the village is mainly a shingle beach. It is very peaceful there, you can drive along most of the sea front and park up along the road. There aren’t many tavernas and bars right on the sea front in Tavronitis as the village doesn’t get many tourists (they tend to go a few kilometers further east either to Maleme or Gerani.) But that means that the beach front is unspoiled and you can have large parts of the beach to yourself.
The road along the front is quite wide, you can stop anywhere along here and sit on one of the many benches and just take in the sea or have a picnic. There is one bar down there called the Almyrikia, the seating is under the shade of large trees, the food is good and in the summer they also have live music.
It is very quiet along here and most afternoons the local shepherd will bring his goats from the field along the road to take them for milking. He does this on his motorbike and with the aid of his trusty sheepdog.
