The Blue Scooter is Better (a.k.a. Tutti Fruitti)

11

So after we got our one scooter (when we thought we had ordered two…at least “The Guy” did bring two helmets…), we realized we had to get rid of one backpack. So we zipped back the the boat and I became the pack mule.

We had to laugh though. When you rent a car back home you need your drivers licence, your credit card for deposit, address, phone number etc, etc… This fellow looked at Kirk’s International Drivers Permit. He did ask if we had a phone – we said yes but couldn’t recall the number off the top of our heads – no problem apparently, left that part of the form blank. He asked where we were staying, we said on a boat, he looked confused and asked for the name of the resort, we pointed to the harbour, he looked confused, we made a boat motion with our hands and said “sailing”. OK, left that part blank too then. No phone, no fixed address, no credit card…here’s your helmet, pay me 20 Euros, have it back here tomorrow at noon.

Off we go. Destination…Lagana. Nesting place of the endangered loggerhead turtle. Sandy beach, South facing bay….sounds like paradise. Off we go…and miss the turnoff of course. Eventually we decide…as usual…something isn’t quite right. We stop, pull out our “map” …such as it is…provided by the scooter “Guy” and try to figure out where we are. A fellow on a motorbike pulls up to us and asks us where we are trying to go. Lagana, we say, he hums and haws and says we have missed the turn (Big surprise), but then says there is another way and to follow him. We take a few turns and he turns off and points down a road, as we pull alongside he says to follow the main road all the way. We thank him and head on our way….and a few minutes later are positively horrified at the spectacle in front of us. The first words out of my mouth are “This is Las Vegas Greek style”

It is horrendous! In front of us are bars and strip joints. A place bears a massive neon sign exclaiming “Cocktails and Dreams” There are bars and clubs called Captain Morgans, Black & White Bar, Sabotage, Kamikaze, Potters Bar, Fishers Pub, Rescue, Zeros. Alongside this are Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway, Pizza Hut, MacDonalds….. It’s hideous! NONE of this belongs here! We are so appalled that we have slowed down and a truck is honking behind us. We pull over and just simply stare. We head for the beach and are even further appalled. All we see are white or red bodies atop rows and rows of beach chairs with umbrellas stuck in the sand. This is not only the worst example of tourist commercialization we have ever witnessed…it is on one of the only nesting grounds of the endangered loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean! We can easily see that this place turns into a music thumping, drunken festival every night, and beyond that we can’t imagine why anyone would come here. Zakynthos Town doesn’t look so bad anymore…

We drive along and are just stunned. Can’t put it any other way. We both think how horrified we would be if we had booked a holiday to Greece and landed here.

We drive back up the “Strip” and stop to pull out our “map”. When we do a fellow at a nearby bar/tavern/restaurant/club…(call it what you will here…) to ask us if we need assistance. We say we are looking for the beach (meantime a shifty looking kid slips in behind be and my pack…), he points back to Lagana…we say no…the beach, he says Lagana and points back down the road…we say NO….and look on the map for anything other than Lagana on the beach…. we say Kalamaki….he points up and around the corner…we say thank you and head up. The shifty looking kid really didn’t have anything he could “acquire” from my pack. All zipped and strapped up as it was.

Down the road a bit and we find another resort, although a quieter, softer one. We stop at the single taverna at the beach and park the scooter. We walk over to a booth at the edge of the beach and read a sign. A woman asks if we have been here before, we say no and she hands us a pamphlet on loggerhead turtles and tells us to walk only on the dark (wet) sand as the turtles nest in the soft sand. We chat with her for a few moments about the nesting periods and hatching periods of the turtles and I ask her how they know where they have deposited eggs. They have volunteers who come to the beach every morning and look for turtle tracks and disturbed sand. If they find disturbed patches they mark them with baskets so people won’t damage the nests. Well, this is making us feel a bit better.

We walk along the beach for a bit and notice the strangest rounded egg shaped things washed up on shore. They are fibrous and when I tear one open we think it may be some kind of seed? But they are different sizes and we are unsure. I pick one up and walk back to the information hut and the woman I spoke with about turtles. Se sees me and smiles…and calls it “sea flower” It is apparently merely bits of fibrous sea plants that pile together and the wave action rolls them into balls which wash ashore. They really are rather cool!

We hop on the scooter again and are bound for shipwreck beach lookout. We anchored there yesterday, but today we want to see it from above. Kirk is my bug-screen…his mantra is “keep mouth closed” but he ingests a certain amount of protein anyway. We duck massive black bees and hear various insects tinging off our helmets. Kirk lets out a yelp and touching his nose, he thinks he is bleeding…but he’s not. He says he needs sunglass wipers to clean his shades. He has bug guts all over them.

We really need to point out here that navigating by sign, and/or map, in Greece, is sort of a “feel your way along” kinda thing! Since the maps may have one spelling and the signs may have another, or they may be in Greek hieroglyphs, or there may be no sign at all…you really navigate by trial and error. The map may show a “major road” which may be slightly better than a one lane alley….heaven help you if it indicates a goat trail…..

After various fits and starts and trial and error we think we are on the right road. We climb the mountains and pass through olive groves and up into stunning pine forests. We pass valleys with agriculture and gorgeous Venetian villas set in stunning pastureland and both agree that if there were not Greek flags here there and everywhere….we might well be in Italy…not that either of us has actually ever been. It just is not what we were expecting…. but it is cooler than the 34 degrees C we saw in the town of Zakynthos earlier today!

We round a corner on a hill and see a rock quarry. There are several dotting the island and this one has left a stand of rock like an island with a single tree on top. I stop to take a few photos and hear a clang, clang, clang sound coming down the road. When I walk out onto the road I am confronted with a sea of sheep and goats hurtling down the road towards me. I jump back but I startled them and they turn and head into an olive grove and clang away through the trees.

We head off again, climbing, climbing, climbing….our little blue scooter is really working hard. We can imagine it thinking I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. We have the Little Scooter Who Could! As much as I love scooters…riding on the back of one with a pack on your back…leads to a seriously severe case of “flat-butt-syndrome” (note, that was “flat” not “FAT”). So we stop to take a break. And when we do…Kirk puts his foot down and nearly topples us. I ask what that was all about and he says the road is slippery. “The Guy” did say to us to be careful and that the rods were like glass…but we thought we had missed something in translation. Turns out he wasn’t kidding.The road “looks” normal, but when we put our feet on it with our Tevas…they almost slip out from under us. It is almost greasy. There seems to be a thin white film over the road…marble dust. We passed several marble quarries on the way here (in fact, we stopped at one and while I was taking pictures I was almost run over by a mixed herd of goats and sheep hurtling down the roadway). It is, for lack of a better word, greasy, which sort of makes us wonder what we have been driving over…

On we go again. And we think we have a vague idea of where we are going….the maps really are crappy. Left, right, up, down. This MUST be it! We arrive at a strange little junction in the road and stop to pull out the map. The sign on the road indicates that it goes to Vromi Bay. This is where the charters go out to visit the blue caves and Shipwreck Bay. We want the Shipwreck Bay lookout. So we think we have it all figured out until we head up the road and it is blocked off. We about face and as we do so I hear a British voice call out “Are you lost?”I ask Kirk to turn and call out “No we are just traveling in circles” She laughs and we stop to tell her where we are trying to go. She says she really ought to tape record this conversation….and tells us to go back to the for in the road, hang a left, then another left and continue on until we find the signs. She says the maps are criminally terrible but assures us that since we are on a small island, we really will find our way….have fun she calls!

She seems nice, friendly, and earnest and we choose to believe her….and with good reason. She has not steered us wrong. As we round more corners we pass through several areas where vendors have set up shops along the road selling souvenirs – blankets, clothing, carved turtles, We don’t stop. In fact, we have not acquired one single item since we have arrived. All our shopping has centred around food. Another corner under shaded trees and a man sits at a table laden with bottles of honey and olive oil. He starts to wave at us and yell out. He points to his donkey and a small pony tied to the tree, we shake our heads. He yells out “Honey, Olive Oil….Tutti Fruitti!!” as we pass…..“Tutti Fruitti???” He caught our attention and that becomes the catch phrase of the day. We wonder why he thought we’d get off a hard scooter seat to sit on the hard back of a donkey… But on we scoot.

Shortly thereafter we find the turn and head downhill. We feel sorry for our little scooter…its not a high powered thing and we are taxing it’s little sewing machine engine severely carrying tow adults and a backpack full of camera gear, water, a laptop….we wonder if we might have to push it back up this hill…we were sure going slowly up some of the ones in the middle of the island.

At the bottom of the hill is a short set of stairs to the lookout platform hanging precariously over the cliffs. A woman sits at a table and tries to sell us honey, olive oil, wine and nougat. No Tutti Fruitti here…

Down the steps and out onto the platform. What a view! There are no boats here right now and the waters are placid. It’s unfortunate that it is overcast because the waters are not as blue as they could be. But it is a stunning view down to where we were anchored the previous day.

When we leave there is another couple on a quad. We let them leave first since we are certain they have more power than we do and we don’t want to get in their way. Turns out the Little-Blue-Scooter-That-Could surprises us by passing them on the way up. Who knew!!?

We decide to continue on our circumnavigation rather than retrace our steps and head left at the top of the hill. We pass through more forested areas, see spots where fires have been, see pastureland, vineyards, olive groves. We climb bit more before beginning to descend towards the North coast. We pass through areas where there is a great deal of building going on by Island standards. Gorgeous new stone villas are being built here and there, we see where some of the rock from the quarry is going. We see an old stone turret ahead and turn down a gravel road to find it. A large green snake slips across the road and into the bushes. When we find the stone structure we stop and get off the scooter (Man my butt hurts!). No sign, no interpretation, not on our map…we have no idea what its history is. This seems to be common…we have stopped at various historical sites that have no information whatsoever.

Back on the road again, a lizard shoots across the road, its tail straight up in the air, reminding us of a chipmunk. It stops like a deer caught in the headlights when it sees our scooter. Kirk swerves and he darts the rest of the way across the road into the safety of the grasses.

Down, down, down we go. We find the main road (such as it is) and head up to Ay Nikolaus to see if there is space there for sailboats. It is a ferry port, and there is one sailboat there…but the berthing doesn’t look good. We realize that when we leave Zakynthos Town we will be leaving the island for good. We head back up the road and pass a stunning tavern…a woman runs to the step and calls out to us as we pass, inviting us in, we have a big hill with many switchbacks in front of us and The Little Blue Scooter is wound up for it already….no stopping.

Farther along the road Kirk pulls over. I ask why he has stopped, He says it’s a “butt break”. It’s getting harder and harder for me to swing my leg off this thing. I’m not sure I’ll want to look at another scooter for quite some time… A van holding six passengers stops beside us and a man calls across from the drivers seat “Could we trade maps!” They said they passed us on the hill back there and now they are passing us again. They seem certain that we know where we are going since they have passed us twice without trying. They are trying to get to the shipwreck lookout. Luckily I actually do have a relatively good idea of where we are and look at their map. There is a road just back a ways that forked, I tell them to take it inland and they should pop out near where they want to be. I tell them I’m quite sure they will take a wrong turn and end up on the doorstep of a nice lady who will tell them to turn around and go left, left at the next two forks in the road….but that they will get there. We repeat her words of advice…”It’s a small Island, you’ll find your way…have fun!” They turn around and off they go back in the direction they came. They don’t pass us again so we have either completely confused them now, or they made it.

The red track on land was our GPS logged circumnavigation of Zakynthos by scooter

We make it back to town and head straight for the boat. We want OFF this thing. We will walk the rest of the evening, thank-you-very-much! We dump the helmets and head out in search of WiFi and a Strongbow. If we can find both, we will plant ourselves for the evening. The first place we stop at says they have Strongbow but no WiFi… we cave and sit down. The fellow returns but says he was mistaken, no Strongbow…would we like something else, we say no thank you, and rise to leave. He asks us where we are from and we say Canada, Vancouer! Big smiles from him and his friend. He has friends and family in Vancouver and starts to list places they live – Port Coquitlam, Kerrisdale, Burnaby, New Wesminster… the other fellow has been to Whistler. They ask where we are staying on Zakynthos and we point to the harbour. The smiles get larger, they say they saw our flag out there and are happy to have been able to say hello. They wish us a wonderful holiday and a great stay on Zakynthos.

We continue our search. Eventually we find our way to the main shopping area. Several blocks of marble lined streets with stores such as Benetton, Rolex and the like. It opens to a lovely square with restaurants lining all sides. It’s like last time in the Cyclades on Paros…we went left when we should have gone right. We have warmed up to Zakynthos today, although it is good to have seen all sides of this place.

A charmer of a Greek man comes up to us to woo us into his restaurant. He hands be a flower and encourages us to come. We ask if they serve Strongbow. Affirmative! Do they have WiFi? They have a clear signal from a free source across the street. DONE! We sit and the Strongbows arrive. We ask for ice and lime and he returns with two classes with ice and a rather fluorescent liquid. Ummmm….nope…just a slice of lime please. No problem, the glasses are whisked away and two new ones with ice and a slice of lemon are inside. Good enough. Limes are hard to come by here too apparently. We recall this from the Cyclades. It’s cold, and it’s Strongbow. And we have free WiFi. One of the best signals we’ve encountered yet.

We order a starter of saganaki. Very good! We order a half litre of barrel wine. He returns with a bottle and I wave him to stop. Barrel wine I repeat. This is he as, they just bottle it so it looks better for the tourists. How much I ask..the same he says, 6 Euros. OK. It is good. We laugh at the label. Mr. George’s house wine. We try to get the label off but can’t. We order a plate of tsatziki and it is the best we’ve ever had. We order spanakopita and while not the best we’ve had, it is very good. When we arrived there was no one here, since we sat down it has filled. Funny how all it takes is one table of customers. We outlast them all and are chatting with the waiter. He laughs at us and asks us if we want more starters? We say no, we are finished….but does he have a label we can have? No, but he brings us a half filled bottle and pours us more on the house. We say we will take the bottle and soak off the label and return it tomorrow…maybe he will fill it for us again? He seems to think we are slightly crazy but shakes Kirk’s hand and kisses my cheeks when we leave. He says he hopes he will see us again.
We meander back to the boat, several others try to steer us into their establishments along the way. They try hard without being offensively pushy and when it is apparent that we will not come in they wish us a nice evening.

Day 2 in Zakynthos was much better.