Melissani cave when the sun is overhead

Melissani is a cave lake near Karavomylos whose roof fell in thousands of years ago, leaving an oval hole open to the sky above brackish water so clear that the boats appear to float in air. You go down a tunnel cut into the rock, get into a small rowing boat with a guide, and are taken around the lit chamber and then into the dark one behind it.

The photograph everyone wants is the one where the shaft of light comes through the opening and the water goes an unreal luminous blue, with the boat and its passengers suspended over the bottom. It only exists when the sun is high enough to reach the water — roughly late morning to early afternoon, and best around midday in summer. Outside that window the chamber is in shade, the blue turns grey-green and the whole effect is gone.

This is the exception that makes the rule useful: the midday sun every other location on Kefalonia wants you to avoid is precisely the light this one needs. Plan the day around it — Melissani at noon, Myrtos or Assos for the evening.

Practical: it is a ticketed site with a queue that grows through the morning, and the boat ride is short — perhaps ten minutes — with the guide steering and other passengers aboard, so this is a place for a handful of frames rather than a session. Bring a fast lens rather than a tripod, expect no control over timing, and dress for a boat: the rock steps down are damp and it is cool inside. Nearby Drogarati cave makes a natural pairing if the queue is long.