Half term in Corfu

 

 Corfu 23^rd May to 1^st June

We had an uneventful sailing from Igoumenitsa to Corfu. The trip took about 90 minutes and we spent most of this chatting to a woman from NZ who was travelling on her own around Europe.

It was a short drive from the port to the campsite that we had booked for our stay in Corfu – Karda Bay in Dassia. The first two days of our stay were mainly spent getting ourselves ready for the arrival of Liam (Jaquei’s nephew) and Millie.  This included shopping and washing as we needed to get all our bed linen and towels clean.  Liam was sleeping in our tent so we got that ready for him too.  Mike was really quite excited when we crept out of the campsite as quietly as possible at 2.30am to go to the airport to pick them up.  He has really missed Millie and we were both looking forward to seeing her. We were able to park quite close at the airport (might have been a taxi rank but our Greek is not that good). They were the first to get off the plane and Millie ran through to us whilst Liam waited for our baggage.  It was a happy reunion.

That day was a lazy day at the campsite spent round the pool and visiting the beach.  The pool was great, a 25m pool that went up to 2.65m deep. The beach was only 50 yards from the back entrance of the campsite so it looked like we had chosen a good spot to stay. The campsite was not very full but we did meet a lovely German man called Jurgen and his girlfriend Massia. We became quite friendly with them over the week.

Sunday we decided to explore the island in the van so we went northwards, through Ipsos, Nissaki, Kalami and ending up at Agios Stefanos. The roads were all quite narrow but Mike drove along them with his usual confidence. At Agios we sunbathed, swam, practised our skimming stone skills and visited the shops there.

Monday we picked up at 10am and taken out to a large boat as we had decided to go further up the north coast of Corfu. The boat was not full although there were about 20 people on board. The strait we sailed through is very close to Albania at one point it is only one nautical mile away. The boat pulled in at Agni on the way up where Jacqui had a quick swim whilst the others continued their skimming stone practice. We then continued to the most northern part of Corfu (and Greece – so we have now visited the most southerly and northern parts of Greece) called Cape Agios Spiridonas. Much of this area is naval grounds but we anchored in a small bay where we then had a good BBQ lunch and another opportunity to swim. Our main stop on the way back was at Kassiopi. This was quite a large town (for Corfu). Mike and Liam went up to visit the castle whilst Millie and Jacqui went shopping for some presents for her family. This included a brilliant pair of sunglasses for her brother. We had one more stop on the way back where we had the opportunity to swim through a cave. Liam and Jacqui both went but Mike and Millie decided to stay on board.  To be fair the day had been rather cloudy and the wind was cooling us down.  It was actually very good weather for the boat trip as generally we were warm enough all day but were not too worried about sunburn.

Tuesday was a more gentle day.  We drove into Corfu late morning and wandered around the old Fortress. We had lunch at a small café in a very pretty square that had lovely coloured blossom. In the afternoon we wandered around the narrow streets of the old town before heading back to the campsite.

Wednesday was the day Millie had been looking forward too as we had planned to go to Aqua Park.  The literature states it is the biggest European waterpark. I don’t know whether this is true but there were certainly enough waterslides to keep us all occupied all day. We left at 6pm as it closed and drove over to Paleokastritsa for supper. We parked on the harbour and ate spaghetti bolognaise before Mike drove us home. He had to be careful as negotiating the narrow roads, particularly where houses had low jutting out first floor balconies, took some skill.

Thursday and Friday we decided to spend at the campsite using the pool and the beach. Thursday we took our canoe out onto the water and then seeing that the watersports centre was open Millie, Liam and Mike booked to go on a huge sofa-like ring. They all had a fantastic time with Millie saying it was the best thing she had ever done. I tried to take some photos from the speedboat but it was not easy as we were all getting thrown around. That evening we were joined by Jurgen and his girlfriend for a meal. Secretly we had got a cake into the restaurant in readiness to surprise Mike.  Millie had brought presents out for father’s day and for his birthday and this seemed like a good place to celebrate. We all had a lovely evening together and then Liam left us to go out drinking with a group who had arrived from a Kon Tiki tour. 20 or so 20-25 years old seemed like a lot of fun.  
 
Friday turned out to be a lovely day even though thunderstorms had been forecast. We spent most of the day lazing around the pool, reading and playing ping pong.  We had an early BBQ as we all wanted to get a few hours sleep before we got up at 2am to take Liam and Millie back to the airport.

It was very sad to see them go.  We had a lovely week and are so grateful to Liam for bringing Millie out to us. Saturday morning, Mike and I cleaned the van ( a heavy rain storm from the Sahara had left everything covered in dust and sand) and packed up. We said goodbye to Jurgen and we hope to meet him again in Germany on our way home.  He has been so helpful in sorting out our replacement window with the Burstner factory in Germany, as well as being a very interesting person to chat with over a beer.

We then headed out to the Port, stopping for lunch on the way in another little bay. We had decided to catch the 4pm ferry and then spend the night again at Plataria before heading off to Thessaloniki. However once on the boat we then decided to get a few miles under our belts and so we headed off eastwards and ended up staying in Ionnina again.