Corfu - Day 7

We drove south-west today, for a walk at Korission Lake. First we parked at the village of Chalikounas, then walked to the beach where we saw some horses having a paddle.

The main part of the walk is on a narrow stretch of sand between the lake and the sea.

The sand bar is just a bit too wide to see both the lake and the sea at the same time.

At the middle of the lake there is an inlet with a foot bridge over it.

We had a look over at the lake to see what birds were there, but only saw a few egrets at this stage.

After the inlet the dunes got wider with more vegetation, so for a large part we couldn't see either the lake or the sea. We did see a tortoise on the path though. This was great because we had also seen a tortoise on our first day on Corfu 14 years ago.

This was the one we saw before.

We walked through the dunes for a while, eventually finding our way to what is supposed to be a flamingo viewpoint. We didn't see any flamingos there though.

We carried on past the end of the lake towards the next village, Agios Georgios. As we approached it the beach was much busier.

We then retraced our steps, this time staying near the beach rather than going through the dunes.

We had a drink at the Tayo beach bar, then found another flamingo viewpoint. This time we were in luck.

Once we got back to the car we took an inland route back to Gouvia, it was very interesting going through all the little villages.

We stopped at Lidl in Corfu town for some shopping on the way home.

After a drink on our terrace we made burgers, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes for dinner.

Corfu - Day 6

We went down to the beach to collect our motorboat from Billy's Boats about 9.45am. It's a 25hp one which is apparently the largest engine you can get without a licence.

We got aboard and headed north straight across the bay.

We'd been told we could moor anywhere, so we headed for a quiet jetty. However we'd only just tied up when we read a sign saying it was a private one and we weren't supposed to be there.

So we untied and headed a bit further up the coast to a jetty next to Avlaki Beach. We sat on the beach for a while and sunbathed. A cat came up and made friends with us.

We got back in the boat and decided to head a bit further north to Kassiopi, one of the main villages in the area. We moored right next to the centre of the harbour.

We walked round the village a bit, then up to the ruined Byzantine fort that sits above it.

Before we went back to the boat we bought some cold beer in a supermarket. We sailed south down the coast to Kalouri harbour, and sat with a drink on the harbour wall. We then walked to the adjacent village of Kalami, which is where the famous Durrel White House is.

We then headed back to return the boat to Gouvia. This time we stayed closer to the coast, to get good views of the various beaches, hotels, boats and villas on the way.

We handed the boat back about 5.30pm, it cost us a total of 180 euros.

Later we went out to dinner at the Sayam Chinese and Thai restaurant. We shared Thai spare ribs, spring rolls, chicken satay and Pat Panang beef curry. It was all very good. We stopped for a drink at Melodies bar on the way home.

Corfu - Day 5

We planned to walk to the top of the highest mountain on Corfu today, Pantokrator at 906 metres. However we drove to the village of Strinilas to start with, which is itself at 720 metres. There were loads of switchbacks on the road up.

The path went through the village, past some plantations, then into the forest with occasional views.

As we approached the summit the vegetation disappeared and it was quite barren. We were on a good track though.

There was the occasional flat plateau that had obviously been cultivated at some point in history.

For the last stretch to the summit we had to go on the road, which is there to service the plethora of communications antennae that cover the top.

There's a monastery at the top that we went in to, and a café and gift shop.

The views all around are extensive. The seaside resorts in nearby Albania are easily visible.

We headed back by a different route, some on the road and some on tracks. We saw quite a few wild flowers growing in the forest.

After reaching the car we drove back down the mountain, and stopped for a wander and a drink at Ipsos. This is not much more than a strip of bars and restaurants behind a narrow beach.

Back at Gouvia we had decided to hire a motorboat tomorrow, so we went round a few places checking out prices. We eventually reserved one at Billy's Boats, which is right on the beach.

We walked across the main road to the supermarket for a bit more shopping, then went back to the apartment.

Dinner was the rest of the spinach pie, with peas and sweetcorn.