Kamini, the fishermen's harbour

The walk from town is half the pleasure. The path leaves the harbour past the cannons and the swimming rocks of Spilia, then runs along the shore below white houses and bougainvillea, with the open sea on one side and the mainland mountains on the horizon. After twenty minutes it drops into Kamini, where the boats are pulled up on a ramp and fishermen mend nets on the quay.

Kamini has kept a working life of its own. Its boatyard and its fishermen's families were here long before the tavernas, and the village still empties of visitors after dinner, when the last water taxi goes back to town. It is the best place on Hydra to watch the sun go down over the Peloponnese with a plate of fish in front of you.

At Easter Kamini has a moment of its own. On the evening of Good Friday the epitaphios is carried from the church through the lanes and then, by fishermen wading into the water, out into the little harbour, while the crowd watches from the rocks with candles.