Ralph and Karen's Tours

We left Delphi behind, hoping to return again one day, possibly in the winter and settled in for what was to be a very pleasant three hour drive.

The weather wasn’t fabulous, but for a day in the car a bit of rain was never going to hurt anyone. We had to head across the very bottom of the Greece mainland, before crossing the Patras Bridge to enter the Pelopponese, and then heading for the west coast port town of Kyllini.

What we didn’t realise, was how spectacular the first two hours of the drive was going to be. We literally hugged the Corinthian Gulf coastline for two solid hours. For those familiar with the Coastal Drive in Australia from Stanwell Park to Wollongong, this is what it’s like for two hours.

Considering it was raining on and off the whole way, it was just magnificent – I can’t imagine how much nicer it would be under blue skies…

This area is a significant and strategic location for ancient and modern maritime efficiencies. It is where the Adriatic, Ionian, Mediterranean seas all meet. As a result, the waterways are filled with any and all types of boats/ships heading god knows where…it’s fantastic.

We hit the impressive Patras Bridge after a hefty €13.30 toll, and cruised across to Kyllini where we had to negotiate getting us and our car into a ferry for the one hour crossing to Zante, on the island of Zakynthos. As expected, the process was like a zoo, with another ferry heading to Kefalonia at the same time – as a result, well you know what happened……

When we ended up in the correct lane to drive into the bowels of the YELLOW ferry, it was already past departure time. It’s Greece, right, so don’t sweat it. BUT – just 20 minutes later and the arrival cars, trucks, buses, people had all disgorged and we were loaded and ready to go.

Driving into the hull of this boat (I don’t think it’s a ship?) was disorganised chaos. You drive in, via a ramp lowered from the rear of the vessel, head as far as you can go THEN do a U- turn and park facing the exit. It works!

Karen wasn’t allowed in the car when I parked it – which was probably a good thing – so we arranged to meet at the most logical place onboard – the bar 🙂

Sure enough, on board wasn’t luxurious but comfortable. We found ourselves a nice couple of chairs on the upper outside decked as the blue skies appeared it was a lovely hour long trip; just enough time for a cleansing ale.

Getting off was another experience which we survived. We stopped at the main coastal and port town of Zante, which was busy and crowded as expected along the waterfront. A block or so back is a lovely pedestrian mall, with no end of restaurants, bars, shops, etc. but it’s busy.

So, after wandering around for a while we jumped in the car to find our accommodation for the next few days, in a little village about 20 minutes north of Zante town called Ammoudi. We took the coastal route which was a bit wild, but we passed through a bunch of quaint villages until we found Ammoudi. Wow – what a difference 20 minutes makes. This village has half a dozen hotels/apartments/villas and about the same number of restaurants and “Spiro’s Supermarket”.

So glad we opted for the village rather than the town. We have a beautiful apartment, huge verandah, overlooking a gorgeous pool with views down to the local beach called Psarou. Beautiful.

Peppi is our host…and she reminded us that there are “Lot of Grik pippel lif in Orsralya”.

There is the typical bar on site, but they also own a lovely Taverna right on the beach about 100m up the road so of course we tried it out. And so glad we did. Right on the beach, outdoors with shelter overhead and her three teen age kids running the show.

They have an awesome menu, but have a huge meze selection; like tapas but Greek. So that’s exactly what we did. Local beers and wine, some ouzo and very strong short black coffee and it was a deal. Our mezes included local calamari, garlic mushrooms, Greek homemade loukoukadia (sausage) in a mouthwatering tomato and three coloured peppers sauce, meatballs, skordalia (mashed garlic and herb potatoes) and of course bread. After every meal, the Greeks bring you a complimentary fruit platter, or sweet. Watermelon and local peaches and melons are right in season so it seems like you get half a watermelon when you can’t fit in one more bite….but it’s rude to leave it…

 

Zakynthos is home to one of the most well known and beautiful beaches in the world – the famous Navagio, or Shipwreck Beach. You’ve all seen photos of it, and this was one of the main reasons we decided to come here for a few days…to see if it lives up to the hype…(Spoiler alert …. it does).

The only way to get onto the beach is by boat, which leaves from a holy port village of Agios Nikolaos which is on the north western side of the island. To ensure everyone gets to experience the beach, boat loads of people stream in but are only allowed on the beach for an hour. Good plan I guess.

The beach is dominated by a huge rusted hulk of a ship hull, which beached in 1980 during a violent storm. Some stories say the ship was filled with contraband including illegally smuggled cigarettes and alcohol but no one really wants to talk about it…I think there is your answer.

Anyway, the first boats leave Ag Nik at 9.00 am so we took the leisurely 30 minute drive up the coast, enjoying the sublime views over some ruggedly beautiful coastal backdrops. We were among the first half dozen people there, and were assured a spot on the first boat of the day which apparently is a big deal. After spending an hour on the beach, the boat brings you back to another beautiful spot called the Blue Caves, where the boat enters and you all jump out and swim around like lunatics. How good is this!

Except……the swell was too high, and there was a bit of a breeze preventing the boats from landing on the beach. Maybe in an hour or so??? All the while, we were joined by approximately 15 million people on tour buses all wanting to get to the boats….we’d missed our chance. After about an hour, the head honcho of the boat company told everyone to go home…”no bott to Ssipprek Bich today”. And with that statement went about €20,000 worth of business to Old Mate with a resting bitch face….

We couldn’t believe it, but had to laugh about it, because what else can you do?

So – plan “B”. Which was what?

Ok…..we just got in the car and drove basically around the island as close to the coast as we could, and investigated some unbelievable places that we would never have seen had we done the stupid boat trip to the worlds most magnificent beach…..

Honestly, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to us because our day went from shit to sunshine in a blink.

Even though you can’t get onto the Navagio Beach except by boat, there is a viewing area up high atop the mountains surrounding the bay which give you the best views anyway, so we did that first. We managed all day to stay one step ahead of the tour buses at many of our stops…as we left they seemed arrive. Obviously because the beach was closed, the tour operators also went to their Plan “B”.

So, the lookout is quite a small viewing platform that holds maybe 12 people at a time, and really doesn’t give that great a view. BUT there is a very dodgy rock strewn path leading away from the beach with sheer drops of over 100m if you were to get too close to the edge..in fact there is a history of many tourists meeting their end by trying to get that one great shot. Since the advent of mobile/cell phones, the number of deaths has increased remarkably due to peeps seeking the perfect selfie….there are a number or memorials along the path…not cool.

Karen wouldn’t go within a bulls roar of the edge. Probably for the same reason she will never go on another cruise with me, but that’s a whole other story. I did, however take a few manageable risks and got to enjoy the sheer magnificence of what must truly be among the most remarkable looking beaches in the world – well as far as I am concerned it is head and shoulders the most beautiful we’ve seen.

Words and pictures don’t do it justice….there are a bunch of locals selling their own produce – wines, nuts, fruit, souvenirs, honey, olive oil etc so we bought a bunch of stuff to eat back at the apartment.

As we got back to our car after spending probably an hour there, we noticed that cars were now lined up along the side of a very narrow roadway for about a kilometre! Yikes! Glad to get out of here now.

So we continued our reconnaissance down the rugged east coast traveling along the narrowest, windiest, unsafe roads I’ve ever driven – but it was exhilarating and the views nothing short of spectacular. With just a very basic map hand, we dodged goats roaming the roads unattended, saw sugar cane growing alongside olive groves, entered villages so small that in a blink they were gone in search of some sign of a beach below…we entered a tiny blip of a village called Maries with a nondescript sign nailed to a tree saying “Vromi Port Beach”.

That was good enough for us. Down a hair raising laneway where oncoming cars had to reverse to let the other past, until we found our Holy Grail. A tiny hidden cove, with a few boats bobbing in the calm protected bay, and a swimming area, taverna and small parking lot. Nirvana! We parked 10 metres from the “beach”, dropped our stuff and dived into the clearest, crystal like water you’ve ever seen. Maybe 50 people in total just lying on the rocks – how and why do they do that? – and swimming.

After exploring some caves, and floating along in the heavily salted water, we headed to the Taverna on the beach for lunch and refreshments. Time to move along and as soon as we were leaving, three tourist buses from Navagio some how made it down this hellish roadway to OUR hidden beach!

About 30 minutes down the road we were getting more adventurous and took a gamble of a laneway leading out of a village toward the sea. On approach it looked nice, but the smallish car park was full so we thought we’d just keep going. Luckily for us, a car spot opened up so we said we’d just go and have a look…..well…..If Navagio has a challenger this place is it….it’s called Limionas – but don’t tell anyone, because this place has to stay off the radar….

There is no beach as such, just a large watering hole with even clearer water than Vromi- in fact there were ten different coloured waters here surrounded by sheer white cliffs, huge caves and – look I can’t even begin to describe it. We had left our stuff in the car because we were just having a look, even though we had our cosies on, but it was so ridiculously inviting we just dropped our tee shirts and jumped in – me off a sort of pseudo diving platform thingy.

There was a gentle swell flowing in and out of the bay and the water was like glass..to get out there are no steps or ladders, you need to rely upon the swell lifting you up onto a rock platform to exit.

Just gorgeous. Ahhhhhhh.

More of the same on our drive to the southern end of the island to Laganas Resort. Every corner we turned revealed another hidden gem of a swimming hole….

Laganas on the other hand…wow !!! It’s akin to Kings Cross/Vegas/Ibiza by the sea….and that’s during the day. Wow. Imagine by night. It’s busy, loud, crazy, with a beach that’s “ok” and full of twenty somethings riding quad bikes in bikinis with skins full of tattoos….I’m sorry, I’m really not that old but you’d have to poke me in the eye with an ice pick to stay there. Now, maybe 30 years ago????

So our long day was coming to an end, and a visit to Spiro and his supermarket was a plan. We needed something else to go with our Local red wine and almonds that we’d bought up at Navagio. Salami, ham, beer, local cheese. And that’s dinner.

We’ve finished most of it while sitting on our verandah overlooking the Ionian Sea while I’ve been typing this up and looking at our pics of the day. What a day. Up there with a PB of travel days, just roaming from place to place with no plan other than to find the next amazing place – which we managed to do; a few times.

One of the great days.

Back on the ferry tomorrow back to the mainland to start exploring the Peleponnese with our first stop being the home of the Modern Olympic Games – Olympia !

Let the fun and games begin!

For more amazing photos of the beautiful Zakynthos just click on this link

Efcharisto and kalinychta

Ralph & Karen