Hello all followers.
This post is actually written by Bobbie although blogger says it was Bill.
We left Australia two weeks ago for a stay in Greece. We were travelling with some friends, one of whom was celebrating a “significant” birthday and invited friends to join her and her family.
Our destination was Vounaki Beach Club, a British Holiday resort about 40 minutes from Preveza on the South Ionian coast in Greece. We had to travel there via the UK, as it was a package holiday, so our flights were very long. Our first week at the resort was a week of sail training, so that we would be qualified to sail “our” boat Kate, a Dufour 405, with a flotilla of other holiday sailors in the second week.
The training was tiring but fun. The instructor was very thorough and either the calmest person I have ever met or an Oscar contender for best actor. Rob managed to get all three of us, (me, Bill and friend Kieran) successfully through the basic sailing course. Probably not so difficult for Bill who has sailed a lot, but a lot to digest for Kieran and me.
The weather was cooler than we expected and partly cloudy most days, but pleasant all the same. Four of us are also swimmers, so we swam everyday in the beautiful cool, clear, blue water, anywhere from one to two kilometres, depending on which beach we were at. We also explored the nearby town of Paleros, a tiny Beach town that was probably once a fishing town but now exists mainly on tourists. Had a lovely dinner one night at The New Mill, a restaurant that looked like a backyard covered by a huge grapevine trellis. Dinner included a 5 litre bottle of retsina, which we (unfortunately for some) managed to finish.
We also made an evening excursion to Lefkata, the main town on the nearby island of Leftkas. Very pretty harbour town with a huge marina, a maze of cobbled streets and alleyways, and another huge dinner of a variety of Greek food, (stifado—a beef stew, moussaka, spinach and cheese pies, fresh seafood, grilled feta, and the ever present chips.)
Our flotilla got off to a slow start as torrential rain the Sunday evening of the second week and very high winds on the Monday meant we lost a day of sailing for safety reasons.
Tuesday we sailed to Dessimou, a deep bay where we anchored for lunch. We later travelled through the Stanton Meganisou, a steep-sided, narrow scenic channel that our Pilot Book informed us was .5 metres wide at the narrowest point. We think this was only a scary typo, as we sailed through with ease to Sivota, on the southern end of Lefkas. We spent the evening in Sivota, a narrow town stretched along the harbour.
Wednesday we sailed to Fiskhardo via Vasiliki. Vasiliki is a wide, protected harbour on the south eastern end of Lefkas. It has beautiful turquoise water and a shallow, sandy beach. We swam to shore from the boats, but were too cold to sit around in wet costumes and try the coffee shop, so we had to swim back.
Evening found us in Fiskardho. This is a narrow pretty harbour with the oldest buildings on the island of Cephalonia. Most others were destroyed by an earthquake in the early 1900s. The entrance to the harbour is framed by both a new and an old Venetian Lighthouse. There is also a Roman cemetery and lots of walking tracks. Lovely Italianate buildings line the narrow quay. Berthing was limited so we had to raft up along the rocky shore and sea wall, then blow up our dinghy and navigate through many ropes to get to shore.
We had dinner on the quay, and later found a beautiful restaurant called Panormos, which has a lovely terrace overlooking the bay lighted by the full moon. We had four coffees and desserts, which set us back €50 or slightly less than $100 Australian. Good thing we didn't have dinner.
I have thought lately that restaurants in Australia were getting expensive, but they haven’t got a patch on Greece or Britain.
Thursday we set off and had something of a sail, then had to motor to get to Nisos Atoko by lunch. Atoko is a rocky, uninhabited island with only two small anchorages. When we got to the larger one, One House Bay, it was sunny and crowded. We anchored and rafted up with our friends, then went for a swim to the beach and round the boats. The bay is named for a small cottage and shrine, occasionally used by its fisherman owner.
After lunch we sailed a bit, but light winds left us motoring up Stenon Kilamou to Kalamos. Kalamos is a small village with a very crowded wharf when all of our flotilla boats were in. Kalamos should be called Georgetown, as George owns the biggest taverna, a grocery store, and acts as volunteer harbourmaster,
We wandered up to the older part of the village above the docks, finding a lovely ornate church, bakery and town square. Apparently the town is shrinking as the younger people move away for work and do not return. Many vacant and some burned and abandoned douses seemed to support this, although we did meet one family who live here half the year and half in the USA.
Dinner at George’s confirmed that the Greek tourist menu is limited and starting to repeat itself. We were particularly amazed by the large number of stray cats who lived around the restaurant and wharf, the most we have seen in any village.
Friday we sailed to Sarakiniko, a bay we had almost to ourselves for a long (2 kilometre) swim. The water is so incredibly clear and we saw fish, starfish and sea urchins as we swam.
After lunch we had the best wind we have had for the whole trip and we sailed all the way to Abelike. Abelike is only about 7 nautical miles from Vounaki, and we had been there already one day during training. That day we had anchored in a quiet side bay, but this time we tied up at the wharf at the end of the bay near the taverna. It was a very tight squeeze. We had time to walk around the bay and look at all the huge villas with steep slopes terraced by stone walls. Most were fenced and gated and one had its own little chapel, about the size of a single garage.
Dinner at the taverna was below average, as far as I was concerned as service was excruciatingly slow and my food was cold. They did agree however, not to charge for it. Others fared better.
Saturday was our last day of sailing and we had to be back at Vounaki by 17:00. We motored to nearby Spartakhori, but the moorings were very full and we were waved off anchoring, so we left. We moved to a small cove just north of the town and anchored. Bill, Kieran and Louisa decided to walk back to town to see the view and old town. The rest of us stayed and swam from cove to cove. Later in the day we sailed part way back to Vounaki, but had to motor to dock as the wind was very light.
This marked the end of our sailing adventure, and Sunday we flew back to the UK.
Next stop Iceland.
