Our closing weeks in Greece
After a lovely 24 hours relaxing in the sunshine on our little island where we made landfall in Greece, we headed over to Corfu, the last leg for Melanie and Woody. Greece has a lovely feel about it. The people are super friendly and the pace of life slow. The driving is super sensible and uncrowded, bliss on our bikes after the lunacy of Italy!
The Ionion Islands, the 5 islands down the west coast of Greece- Corfu, Lefkas etc, were a British protectorate for the first half of the 19th century. The legacy is that much English is spoken and there is a cricket pitch in the centre of Corfu town!
From Corfu Melanie and Woody headed home and Gordon, my friend from Canada arrived for my last couple of weeks.
Some big winds were brewing and unable to find adequate shelter on Corfu we headed over to the mainland where we found a lovely lagoon sheltered on all sides. The wind blew hard for a couple of days but we managed to get ashore on our bikes and explore some of the mainland. Citrus crops are the big thing here, with orange groves for mile after miles - and - Kiwi fruit! I had never seen these growing before (sorry no pic).
The next few days after the wind were spent mooching down the coast at a leisurely pace staying a some delightful villages devoid of yachting traffic - you don't see this often!
Rock 'n' no Roll moored stern to the harbour wall Greek style - all on our own.
We discovered a river emptying into the bay where we were anchored so blew up our 2 man inflatable canoe and set off to explore. What a treat! We paddled about 3 miles up stream getting multiple sightings of the illusive and skittish kingfisher. As we paddled back downstream we stumbled across 3 separate otters, a treat indeed!
And on our return .....'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit on a boat and drink beer all day' - I'm not sure about the 'teach' bit however - guess how much we caught as the fish jumped around the boat laughing at us!
50 miles south of Corfu we arrived at Preveza, our over winter destination just north of the island of Lefkas. We were a few days early so went into the large inland sea east of Preveza to explore. The giant lagoon is 25 miles long and there was not a boat in sight. The sailing charter season was over and everybody had laid up their boats for the winter; we had the place to ourselves.
Our first treat was a pod of dolphins as we sailed across the lagoon in the evening sun and my first sighting of a dolphin jumping clean out of the water doing a majestic back flip.
Anchored on the north side of the Lagoon at the end of a long spit of land we had a lovely bike ride to the town of Arta with its rather super medieval bridge.
On the way we had a feast of wild life, notably several flocks of flamingos.
The time then came to put the boat to bed for the winter. We have left her in the water this year in a marina at Preveza. At this time of year the only way home is from Athens, a 5 hour bus ride away. We spent 2 nights in Athens and took in the Parthanon, the huge temple sat on the rocky outcrop of the Acropolis.
That's it for this year. Its been a varied and exciting year during which our new boat has passed all its tests with flying colours; we are thrilled with it. Next year we will head north up the Aegean Sea visiting Albania, Montenegro and Croatia; there's plenty of dreaming to do over the winter!
The Ionion Islands, the 5 islands down the west coast of Greece- Corfu, Lefkas etc, were a British protectorate for the first half of the 19th century. The legacy is that much English is spoken and there is a cricket pitch in the centre of Corfu town!From Corfu Melanie and Woody headed home and Gordon, my friend from Canada arrived for my last couple of weeks.
Some big winds were brewing and unable to find adequate shelter on Corfu we headed over to the mainland where we found a lovely lagoon sheltered on all sides. The wind blew hard for a couple of days but we managed to get ashore on our bikes and explore some of the mainland. Citrus crops are the big thing here, with orange groves for mile after miles - and - Kiwi fruit! I had never seen these growing before (sorry no pic).
The next few days after the wind were spent mooching down the coast at a leisurely pace staying a some delightful villages devoid of yachting traffic - you don't see this often!
Rock 'n' no Roll moored stern to the harbour wall Greek style - all on our own.
We discovered a river emptying into the bay where we were anchored so blew up our 2 man inflatable canoe and set off to explore. What a treat! We paddled about 3 miles up stream getting multiple sightings of the illusive and skittish kingfisher. As we paddled back downstream we stumbled across 3 separate otters, a treat indeed!
And on our return .....'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit on a boat and drink beer all day' - I'm not sure about the 'teach' bit however - guess how much we caught as the fish jumped around the boat laughing at us!
Our first treat was a pod of dolphins as we sailed across the lagoon in the evening sun and my first sighting of a dolphin jumping clean out of the water doing a majestic back flip.
Anchored on the north side of the Lagoon at the end of a long spit of land we had a lovely bike ride to the town of Arta with its rather super medieval bridge.
On the way we had a feast of wild life, notably several flocks of flamingos.
The time then came to put the boat to bed for the winter. We have left her in the water this year in a marina at Preveza. At this time of year the only way home is from Athens, a 5 hour bus ride away. We spent 2 nights in Athens and took in the Parthanon, the huge temple sat on the rocky outcrop of the Acropolis.
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