Gramma Bay

There is no road and no practical trail into Gramma Bay (Gjiri i Gramës), so it stays quiet even in high summer. Sheer cliffs drop straight into the Ionian, and the inlet is narrow — only about 100 metres wide — but exceptionally deep and clear, which makes for memorable swimming and snorkelling once we drop anchor.

The bay takes its name from the Greek word grámma, meaning 'letter': its cliffs carry around 1,500 carved inscriptions dating from the 3rd century BC to the 16th century AD — the densest concentration of ancient sailor graffiti on the Albanian coast. The site began as a limestone quarry for the ancient Greek city of Oricum, and passing crews kept adding their marks for centuries afterwards.

Gramma Bay sits inside the Karaburun-Sazan National Marine Park, declared in 2010 as Albania's first protected marine area and a documented habitat of the rare Mediterranean monk seal. We give the bay the longest stop of the tour — time to swim ashore, look over the lower carvings, and snorkel the clear water before the cruise back to Dhërmi.

On the way there and back, the tour visits several other stops along the Karaburun coast: Saint Andrew Bay (a tiny white-pebble cove with its own clifftop chapel); the Blue Cave, a sea cave just past Gramma Bay where light refracting through the water turns the interior electric blue; a smaller jewel-like grotto we call the Blue Gem Cave with the same glowing blue water; and the Bat's Cave, a deeper, shadowy sea cave named for the bats that shelter inside.