After a cracking overnight thunderstorm the weather settled enough for us to head over to the West side of the island again and to visit Palaiokastritsa.
We were all woken up around 1am for a lightning and thunder show. It lasted an hour or so, but unlike the last one in Dubrovnik, we didn’t lose the power as a result this time.
But by the time we were all moving around, the clouds had cleared and we had a glorious blue sky.
After a quick discussion on what to do today we decided to take advantage of the blue skies and head to Palaiokastritsa.
Once we’d visited the Germanos phone shop on Acharavi (they couldn’t do anything with Sue’s phone 😱), we headed to the north west coast of the island, about 40km from the villa. You don’t get anywhere very quickly on Corfu, so that 40km still took over an hour. Oddly the roads over the island were better than the coast roads.
In arriving in Palaiokastritsa, we did what any self respecting traveler would do, we got a coffee. We managed to park in a free, but very muddy car park by the mariner, and found coffee stop looking over the boats.
We then headed up to the monastery and the promontory just past it.
Unfortunately, the coves and beaches are not the idyllic unspoilt retreats you think they should be. This seems to be typical of Corfu, every square millimeter of beach has been commercialized, more on that later.
Sue, Phil and Linda then went for a dip at one of the slightly less crowded beaches. They reported that while the golden sand looked enticing, once you were in the water the sea bed was a mass of rocks and boulders… definitely needed beach shoes!
Thought for the day… Corfu is a juxtaposition of extremes. You will see gorgeously appointed clear blue swimming pools, with immaculate paving, right next to a dump of pallets, old washing machines and trash. It’s also really cheap. I appreciate that the cheapness is what drives a lot of the tourism, but you do wonder if slightly higher prices and a bit more tax going into the economy could clean up a lot of the rubbish from the roads, pavements and beaches. Corfu is a beautiful… dump!!!
After Palaiokastritsa Sue wanted to head up to the hillside town of Lakones. It’s a 4km drive from Palaiokastritsa, even though you can see the hillside town from the Palaiokastritsa beaches and it only looks to be a stones throw away. Those 4kms are back to back switchbacks, narrow passes and steep climbs.
It didn’t help that at this point there was an intermittent thump coming from the left front side of the van. It sounded like a suspension joint failure or something. But it went away after a few km and was probably just mud or stones from the marina car park bouncing around the wheel arches.
Anyway, once we got to Lakones, it was even more evident that this town wasn’t made for the tourist onslaught it was experiencing. The town was essentially single track road, and someone had the foresight to put in traffic light system that ran for 100’s of meters through the town, but the coaches that were trying to navigate the town were just bizarre… almost, but not quite, demolishing every building at every turn.
We stopped at the Golden Fox cafe/restaurant just on the other side of Lakones and were treated to some stunning views of Palaiokastritsa. The cafe staff were extremely friendly (once they realized we weren’t from a coach tour) and we sat and had some drinks in the edge of the cliffs in the sunshine !
After Lakones, Sue drove us back to Kassiopi where we plumped for the Tavernaki Restaurant again. The waiter was a bit grumpy tonight but the food was good.
A significant proportion of the meal was the usual politics and environmental discussion but we also spent quite a bit of time pondering where the villa was on the hillside, using Sue’s binoculars.
On the way home Sue stopped in a linen shop and bought a pink quilt, made by the family that runs the shop. We also learnt that their shop had been there 43 years and they were one of 3 shops on the Main Street back then. Now, there must be more than 40. we also learnt that the next town along, Acheravi (that we detested) was just olive groves 25 years ago and now it’s a sprawl of shop after shop after shop. What a shame! But of course the irony is… we’re the cause! ☹️
Well that turned out to be a much better day than we expected. We thought we were going to get washed out but the views, especially from Lakones, were stunning. But please don’t go there in a coach!
Here’s a Timelapse of the return trip from Palaiokastritsa…
I think we’re all hoping for a quiet day tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be wet from midday, but we’ll see.
Leave a Comment