This morning we heard a familiar sound, a voice on a PA system hawking wares…we are almost positive it is our traveling chair gypsies again. We saw/heard them twice in Poros and once in Sami and they have made it to Fiskardo too.
We are starting to try and use up the remainder of our provisions. We had the most wonderful strawberries, a rare treat and something we have not seen since Corfu. And we bought them off the back of a truck. In Kioni there were two trucks that came through the town blaring their distinctive horns (reminds me of an ice cream truck). They had a scale hanging off the back and stopped at each of the restaurants on the quay. We picked up a few things and they really did have some of the best produce we’ve seen to date. However, sadly we just can’t seem to get away from plastic bags. We try to remember to bring at least one with us whenever we head out, but we just seem to acquire more and there is virtually no recycling anywhere. Fiskardo touts itself as a more ecologically minded town, but we haven’t seen anything that resembles a recycling container anywhere…and everywhere you go there are plastic water bottles since it is the only potable water. It’s hard to reduce your footprint when the infrastructure is missing.
On the far side of the harbour there are ruins sticking up from the trees. There is apparently a walk that leads out to the lighthouse and up to the ruins so we head before the day gets too hot. On our way around the bay we run into Dave and Sandra and they are heading out shortly. We hope to hook up with them again in Syvota on Tuesday. We have decided to bypass Vasiliki since we stayed here for two days. They tell us that the walk out to the lighthouse is nice and to follow the yellow dots. The trail has been marked with yellow dots on rocks as you go, which of course doesn’t stop us from getting lost once we are past the ruins….but that’s just normal for us.
There are actually two lighthouses. The modern one, which is set up a little higher, and the old Venetian one, which is still in remarkably good condition. And yet again we are amazed at the lack of signage and the ability to go pretty much anywhere here. We climb up the old lighthouse and it has a very nice view from the top. From there we continue on the path and find the ruins. Absolutely nothing to tell us what they are of though. Later we find mention that it was probably a sixth century basilica, but that’s all we can find on it.
Eventually we lose our yellow dots, find some red trail markings, wander across someone’s field when we lose all trail marks, and stumble onto a road. It’s hot now! We stop to investigate a praying mantis on the road and eventually find our way back to the harbour which is now virtually empty of yachts. Everyone has moved on and the next wave will eventually arrive.
While we hide in the shade of the bimini we hear some big engines arriving and look out to see a boat that is totally out of place here. A massive boat that looks to belong in Florida has arrived. In fact, it is from Key Largo. Obviously it was shipped here since he’d need his own fuel tanker following him to get that across the Atlantic! It backs into a spot perpendicular to us and sports the most massive looking Danforth-like anchor we’ve ever seen. It’s bigger than our dinghy! We both think… “Gads, hope THAT doesn’t cross our anchor line, we’ll NEVER get THAT up!” Kirk pops up to the bow and the fellow at the anchor says he sees our line and drops inside it. WHEW!
A bit later we see a fellow standing near our boat taking pictures of it…he kinda looks proud, so we ask if He’s on the boat from Key Largo, yup, it’s his boat. We chat with him a bit and it turns out that they just arrived in Corfu yesterday and he is on his way to Istanbul before knocking about Turkey and back through the Aegean in June. They came from Corfu to here (about 100 nm) yesterday! Talk about missing paradise! Although he probably wouldn’t have been able to get in some of the places we went up that way anyway. His two crew show up a bit later and we have a chat. They joke that they saw the Canadian flag when they came in and said “Flood torpedo tubes one and two” The boat is a 74 foot Viking with 4000 hp diesels. Frank, you’d be drooling. Apparently there is an 82 foot one being loaded right now and heading here. The boat actually looks familiar and the owner says he had it in Vancouver and up to Desolation in 2007. It’s gorgeous, but we are glad to not be next to it overnight, they didn’t turn the generators off all night.
As we sit on the boat a foursome stops by and says they took our advice and went to Sami and rented a car to visit the island and that they went to the winery and bought a carload of wine. After they leave we look at each other and “Do you remember when we met them?” Nope, was hoping you did” We puzzle it out since we weren’t in Sami that long ago, eventually we realize we berthed next to them in Vathi, they are from Holland and actually sailed there boat here from there. Mystery solved. We have spoken with so many people on this trip that it has become difficult to remember them all…and the fact that we have stumbled across the same people several times in different places sometimes adds to the confusion.
Dave and Sandra had mentioned a nice little bay three over that contained a cave. We decided to go have a look and found it easily. We had brought a flashlight along and drove the dinghy inside. Once through the low opening it opened up and there were several tunnels that went in quite some ways. It was pretty cool, but again, we have no idea of it’s history although it looks to have possibly been a mine at some point.
The masses arrived late today. One small flotilla that spread out a bit, but at one point late in the day when most of the quay was full six boats arrived and circled like sharks while jockeying for position. One 50 foot boat was quite a sight. There were about eight people on board. Two sitting doing absolutely nothing, four on the bow singing and dancing with one girl playing what looked like a ukulele, and two poor souls running back to front trying to deal with the anchor and backing it in and sort out lines.
Again, we think we have probably got an anchor or three across ours, but then again…maybe not. Some people came in and dropped before turing to look and see us…they came over after docked and apologized and said they thought they might be across us. We said we’ll deal with it tomorrow. When more boats came in though….at least two went perpendicular across theirs and we saw them later on and agreed that they probably have larger problems than having crossed ours. It got a bit breezy and gusty in the evening and we ordered a cappuccino aboard (now that’s just cool) while we played cards. The dock is lively tonight and the cocktail music bar whose doorstep we are on has a larger clientele this evening. Fiskardo is wonderful and I wouldn’t hesitate to return, but it will be nice to leave the bustle of it behind Tuesday when we head for Syvota.
Earplugs are a wonderful invention!
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3 comments
I’m guessing that basilica took a few cannon balls at some point, and never recovered.
Remind me never to go hiking with you two! You guys get lost waaayyyy too much!
Lost is only a state of mind…and it takes you to some great places you never expected to arrive at 😉