Seals and shipwrecks: lapping up the beauty of the northern Aegean

Sunbathe with endangered wildlife and dive for ancient treasure off the island of Alonissos, one of the world’s ‘most sustainable’ destinations

I tiptoe along the dune-edged path, bare feet scratched by bone-white slivers of shell as the sun rises above the Aegean’s waves. Ahead of me a Mediterranean monk seal lounges on one of the sunbeds of Marpunta, a remote resort on the windswept southern tip of Alonissos. I watch as he scratches his stomach and yawns showing pointy teeth, and then I sneak off to breakfast.

Over crispy, deep-fried fouskakia pastries and almond-stuffed amigdalota cookies, waitress Eleni tells me that these seals (Monachus monachus) often come to sunbathe on the hotel’s shingle beach. “They are an endangered species – there are fewer than 700 of them left in the Mediterranean and most of them are here near Alonissos, so you could say we’re pretty lucky.”