I was determined to get there before the influencers. Stepping off the first bus of the day at Sarakiniko Beach, the dusty trail down to the water seemed quiet at first. But as the walls of swirling white rock parted like waves, I suddenly saw them: hundreds of smartphone-wielding hotties wallowing in bright turquoise pools. And then I heard it: the faint but unmistakable, sinister hum of a drone.
Sarakiniko, one of the top sights on the island of Milos, suffers from being beautiful in an otherworldly, surface-of-the-moon sort of way. Although there are no hotels, restaurants or even trees for shade here, young people come by the dozen to get that sought-after shot. Despite the competition, it was undeniably staggering: huge meringue peaks of white rock rippling up from shallow waters, towering cliffs pocked by enormous, yawning caves. The tourists on its vast lunar landscape seemed like ants.
