Corfu – Day 2

8

After 12 hours sleep, we are refreshed and ready to go. We had a breakfast of Greek yogurt (so thick and yummy) with banana and coffee and tea. Then we tried to figure out where we had hidden everything on ourselves. Maybe stowing all our stuff while half asleep wasn’t the brightest thing to do.

After finally getting ourselves sorted out, we head up and pay for another day at the marina at the office. Then we wander over to the scooter rental…and wait…and wait…and wait….and then Kirk goes looking for the owner…and everyone says…”Oh, he’s around here somewhere”. We are definitely in Greece again. Eventually a couple shows up on a scooter and we rent two machines. Kirk remembers that my red scooter was better last time, and he doesn’t want to be left in the dust again, so he gets a red one too. And he doesn’t even break it this time!

We decide to head North first, we are aiming to head up as far as Acharavi before rounding back down by coming up over the mountains. By the time we were done…we had become intimately familiar with Acharavi….

But first we left Gouvia and headed up to Ipsos Beach. Lovely little party spot. Although we are in front of tourist season, it is obvious that many of the places we pass through are will be party central in the months to come. We are glad we are here ahead of party season.

After Ispos Beach, we gained elevation as we headed upwards into Kendroma. The roads here are very narrow, in many cases what is a two direction roadway is about what we would consider a half a lane. In Kendroma we are stopped at a traffic light, very odd since this is a teensy little place and doesn’t seem in need of a traffic light. We wait….and nothing happens. Eventually the light goes green and we move forward. As we round a few tight hairpin corners we realize this is probably the Greek equivalent of a controlled one way bridge.

We pull over to admire the view at Kalami and find a vacant bench to sit at. We pull out the sandwiches we made and have lunch. Down below two boats frolic in the clear waters. One blows donuts…the other …stops….a British fellow (seems like today all we have heard is British accents) sitting on another bench makes a telephone call and starts saying hello and that he is on the lookout waving…apparently he knows the fellow in the second boat…and he’s run out of fuel! We chat with him for a bit and he asks us about our visit. We mention that we are here for 28 days of boating and heading for Lefkas….he says…”You ought to be able to make it farther than that!!!” We explain that we plan on it, that is just where we will end up. He seems relieved that two people are not planning on chartering a sailboat to travel a grand total of about 60 nautical miles in 28 days. When we tell him that we are out for the day on the scooters he suggests taking the road up as far as Acharavi and then taking another road back down to pop out at Ipsos again. Sounds great….in theory… in practice this proved a little more challenging than he made it sound.

Off we go. And on the way we see an aquaculture facility below. Wonder what they are farming.

Outside of Acharavi we fuel up the scooters to make sure we have enough to get back. We know we are taking the mountain road and assume that there may be no fuel. A whopping 8 Euros to fill the little beasts and we are off again. We pass through Acharavi, quite the little resort town, and on the other side take what looks to be the correct road. Looks can be deceiving!

I pull over and ask Kirk to go back and look at the sign we just passed while I scan the high quality map provided by the scooter rental (yeah …right…) After he goes in circles two or three times on the road we realize we are going the wrong way. Hey, what a surprise!

We turn around and backtrack back into Acharavi. We try again and head back looking for the right road. After we pass completely through Acharavi…we are left with the realization that we have missed the road yet again. Around we turn once more. This time Kirk seem that if I’m in front, somehow I will know how to get were we are going. What a silly man he is!

I turn at a sign that points inland and says “Old Town” We never did see “Old Town”, but we found Acharavi once more. But not immediately. First we headed up a lovely old road through groves of gnarled and twisted trees and wound through a small valley. Spread out under all the trees were black nets. We stopped to investigate and realized that these were olive trees and the nets placed on the ground were to catch the fruit as it falls.

Off we go again and find ourselves passing through a small village. To the right, the road rises and narrows. to the left it expands and drops. We thing that the left is the right direction since our map show that the road we want is wide. Down we go…and eventually we stop as it just doesn’t seem right. Firstly it is going downhill and we should be going upwards. Secondly, we are heading towards the water and we should be going into the mountains. We stop and turn around and go back up to the fork in the road. And pull out the map…again…. We decide eventually that we were heading the right way and go back down the road. And end up in Acharavi…again…. This place is like the centre of a maze…it just lets you go and then sucks you back in again.

Out comes the little map that is getting rather tattered. Left. Then we see the sign…what we have learned is that we must unclear our natural assumptions. When you see a sign, turn….NOW!!!! No, the turn is not coming up, it’s RIGHT THERE!!!

So we turn into what appears to be an alley between two buildings and think we have made yet another mistake. After snaking through said alley for a few turns it opens up into what amounts to a two lane highway. A highway in Greece is not quite what we are used to. On we go and the road begins to rise. Up, up, up. Kirk feels a raindrop…then we encounter more and the temperature begins to drop. Pretty soon we are driving through the rain and getting quite cold. Kirk blames me…apparently I always find the mud/rain/water/bumps/rough roads/ etc…… when I am in the lead. And I did not disappoint today. Soon we are fully in the mountains and getting cold and the rain is getting heavy. We find a strange little gazebo in the middle of nowhere and I decide to pull the two scooters inside to wait out some of the rain and try to warm up a bit. As the odd vehicle goes by we get odd looks. I think we might have commandeered a bus stop….although I can’t imagine a bus being up here.

On the road again and we arrive in Spartilas and begin the most amazing series of switchbacks to head down the hill. Although we were still being rained upon, as we dropped elevation the air warmed. Still raining a bit, but as we pass through Dassia there is water running off buildings and across the road in rivers. Apparently we didn’t get the worst of that cloudburst. But it’s not raining now and the air is quickly drying us out.

We run the highway back down into Kyrkera (Corfu Town) and as far as Kaneni and actually find a Starbucks at the end of the road!! Eventually we stop for a glass of wine long the waterfront and take a quick walk down the breakwater where we discover, much to my chagrin, that there are in fact tides in Greece. Check this out…what a massive low tide here…how can I possibly be without tide tables!?!?!?!? My goodness… it’s almost like the Bay of Fundy!!!

A quick visit to the Old Fortress in Corfu Town before heading back to the boat for dinner.

We had so much fun that we ask to rent the scooters for another half day before stopping in the supermarket ( I love that…what we call a mini-mart they call a supermarket) to get a bit of meat to throw in a pasta dinner. While there we decide to grab a bottle of wine. Still no sign of our beloved two-twenty, and the four-ten Demstica left a bit to be desired…but we found a bottle (jug?) of Eight-ninety! Yes, it seems expensive doesn’t it…but not for 5L! How can we resist. But I make Kirk carry it back to the boat…I certainly don’t want to be seen carrying such a large quantity of cheap wine!!! As we wander by the restaurant we wonder if the patrons are looking at us and our find. They are probably smirking at us…but we are reasonably certain that what they are buying by the half litre is probably what we just bought for half the price…for 5 L! What the heck, if it’s undrinkable we can always use it to fuel the scooters!

5L takes a long time to chill…we’ll taste test tomorrow! We aren’t brave enough tonight!

A full day…and now we are tired.