Messolonghi. The Lagoon I Didn't Know Existed.

First visit 2015. Four or five times since. Still haven't seen all of it.

Kleisova lagoon, part of Messolonghi Lagoon National Park

I discovered the place in 2015. David was two and a half years old, and at some point the road changed. Water on both sides. Flat, calm, endless. Fishing huts on stilts. A small stone church sitting alone in the middle of the lagoon with nothing around it for hundreds of metres.

I had no idea this place existed.

Η Λιμνοθάλασσα του Μεσολογγίου

The Messolonghi lagoon complex is one of the largest wetlands in Greece and a protected Natura 2000 area. What most people don't realise is that it's not one lagoon.

It's a system of several. The one in these photographs is Kleisova lagoon, one of the inner lagoons accessible from the road that runs out toward Tourlida.

The road itself is worth the drive on its own. It's been recently redone. Good asphalt, bike lanes, benches along the way. But the side roads that branch off it are a different story. Rough, quiet, water right up to the edge. That's where these photographs were taken.

What you actually see

Fishing huts built on stilts over the water, some wood and reed, some more permanent. Narrow strips of land with cars parked on them and mountains in the background. The lagoon so flat and wide it looks more like a sea than an inland water.

At the end of the road there's also a beach. The whole area keeps revealing something new every time I go.

The national park

The Messolonghi-Aetoliko lagoons are part of a national park that covers salt marshes, reed beds, small islands and open water. It's an important stop on migratory bird routes: flamingos, herons, cormorants pass through here. In summer the light on the water in the late afternoon is something a photographer doesn't forget easily.

I've been back four or five times since 2015 and I've still only seen part of it. There's more lagoon, more side roads, more of the park I haven't reached yet.

Messolonghi the town

The town itself has its own weight. It's where the Greek War of Independence siege happened in the 1820s, where Byron came and died, where the defenders chose to break out rather than surrender. The Garden of Heroes is there, worth an hour of your time.

But the lagoon is what keeps pulling me back.

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It's about 45 minutes from Chiliadou. Close enough to be a half-day, easy enough to combine with Tourlida for a full day out.

Have you been there?