So where have we been the past while? We decided to enjoy
the area around Kissamos while waiting for the ferry that never came, so when
booking tickets off the island the travel agent asked if we’d been to Balos
beach, or Falassarna beach. They explained that Balos was listed as I think 35
on the top 100 list and that Falassarna was beautiful as well. Seems the only
way to get to Balos now is by an all day ferry excursion as the bad road in got
washed out with the spring rains, so we headed to Falassarna for a day.
As we drove into the area parking the Ford Fiesta in front of us
bogged down in the sand and got stuck. Seeing this I swerved to the left, felt
a slow sinking feeling and hit the gas, creating quite the rooster-tail but
getting enough momentum to not sink in. It is a beautiful stretch of beach
listed as #100 on the top 100 list of world beaches (so who cares). On that
list, Chestermere Beach or Long Beach isn’t even on there, come on, they have
to make it.
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| Vassiliki Bay from our Balcony |
So the only ferry available off of Crete close to where we were was near Chania at Souda and the travel agent went through changing our tickets to there. It meant travelling overnight, where the Kissamos ferry would have been a day trip back to the mainland (Glythio).
After leaving Crete and landing back on the mainland (Pireas) at
06:20 in the morning we made our way quickly out of Athens and up the coast
towards Pervaza, deciding not to head back to Kardamyli our option had we gone to Glythio. At the junction for
Lefkada island we headed to Vassiliki.
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| Vassiliki Village at Night |
as we had spotted some places that looked
like they would be good. On arriving we checked out a couple of accommodations
before finding Porto Fico Hotel, a family run hotel right on the beach.
Now it
has a windsurfing school attached to it “Human Sport”.
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| Windsurfing School |
So after a day of enjoying
the scenery, pool and sun we decided to give wind surfing a try with a couple
of lessons. Needless to say we’re not experts but it has whetted our appetite
for more when we get home. We interspersed lessons and practice sessions over a
few days and on an off day we’d head out exploring.
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| Egremni |
Now Egremni beach is also listed as I think #23 on the
list so we headed there. That is where Sandra’s swimming Youtube video was
shot. A very pretty beach, it still doesn’t compare to Porto Katsiki beach
which we had featured earlier.
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Sivota
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And today wanting to wind up our Lefkada island segment we
travelled 9 kms to another cove and village, this time Sivota, the home of the
Sailing Holidays flotilla fleet from the UK.
A very protected bay it attracts
Kayakers as well. One of the boats Sailing Holidays has is a fleet of Jaguar 27’s.
These are really Catalina 27’s that were sold under license to the UK by Frank
Butler. While old, they have been renovated and refurbished, now carrying self
storing mainsails, a completely re-worked interior with 3 berths (1 double). The
Lefkada island, Kefalonia Island group is almost identical in qualities to the
Gulf islands with 2 exceptions incredible weather and beautiful clear warm
water. And by the way, can they grow Basil here as well. Look at the leaf size. In fact the front leaf is over 5" in length.
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| Basil on Steroids |
While staying at the hotel we met extended family of the
owners in Noel and John McIlwraith.
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Sandra, Statsis, Jane,
Noel and John |
They hale from Australia and we’d share
many a story and chat in the afternoon heat, and finally with Stasis and Jane,
the owners we all went out for supper the evening before they left. Now
tomorrow will be our turn. We leave with great big smiles on our faces, meant
to stay 2 days and stayed 10.
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| Invasion of the Paddleboarders |
One day a large 100' yacht came into the bay and anchored, quite a ways out likely 1/2 a km.. The next morning, hot and calm a group of paddle-boarders from the Vass Club invaded. When you think you are in the middle of no-where's......
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