Cruising – Ionian
It was a hot day at the end of August, and we were looking for somewhere to anchor for lunch and a swim.
Sailing down the east coast of Atokos, a deserted island five miles east of Ithaca, we spotted an idyllic beach, with white sand and turquoise water, and decided to have a closer look. We were taken aback by what we found. Lying on the beach was a family of four: a mum and dad, a teenager and a toddler (or so we assumed). They were lying together soaking up the midday sun, and occasionally one of them got up and waded in the water to cool down. Only the toddler was restless and constantly wriggling and demanding attention from its parents, who pretended not to notice it.
So far, so much like almost any other beach in Greece – except that these weren’t humans but a happy family of pigs! Not just any pigs either, but the wild pigs of Atokos.
It was of course irresistible, and in no time at all we had dropped anchor and rowed a line ashore to stop us swinging onto the other yachts in the bay. Then we all jumped into the sea and swam ashore to say hello to our porcine friends. They were clearly used to all this human attention and paid no heed to the long-limbed, hairless mammals that seemed to be so interested in them. After a while, the two big ones (mum and dad) got up, shook themselves off and
