The Pirate's Cave

The cave's defining feature is its entrance: a high, semi-circular arch — roughly 8 metres wide and 10–12 metres tall — topped by a chimney-like skylight where sunlight slips through. Waves carved it out of the limestone over millennia, and inside, light refracting off the water turns the surface a luminous blue-green while the curved walls echo every voice.

Its name comes from Petro Marko's 1955 children's novel Shpella e Piratëve ('The Pirates' Cave') — Marko was born in Dhërmi in 1913, and his book (and its film adaptation) made the cave a household name in Albania. There are actually two adjacent sea caves along this cliff, about 200 and 800 metres from the southern end of Dhërmi Beach.

On a calm day we idle the boat in through the arch, sometimes cutting the engine to drift, with time for a swim in the deep, clear water nearby. If the sea is rough the captain holds at the entrance rather than entering — a safety call we don't push.