Arrival on Greek Mainland

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Well to see Greece approach put a huge smile on Karl's face, Greece is his love, having spent so much time here. We were a woken by a knock on the door at seven, as the boat was to dock at eight. We changed, a couple of chocolate croissants coiffed down in the cabin and Karl left for the car loaded up with our stuff. As the boat docked the rest of us watched through our port hole and then eventually went to meet Karl by the car or so we thought. But oh no, “No woman and children here, go there”, as we were herded in a language no one understood to be with the other woman, children and old people, a thought …… and becoming even more melodramatic Onita looked around to stand next to two younger strong looking people who could save the children if anything happened! But all OK, we just walked off the boat when it was docked and Karl drove off to pick us up.

Greece was so different immediately, Asha noticed it at once, how the houses were not as tall and had flat roofs rather than terracotta tiles. Jay was really sad to say good bye to the ferry boat, only partially reassured that we still had another 4 ferry boats to catch during our holiday. Every body wanted to eat Calamari, but the kids wanted it for breakfast!

We had a long drive ahead of us and a hotel to book and find, so we started the journey onwards, down the west coast road in parts. We weren’t sure where we would stop, stay the night, but we knew we wanted to spend the next day in the Ancient site of Delphi, so the nearer the better. We drove for a few hours, thinking we might find an inland gorge and river to paddle through we had been told about, but this seemed to evade us. We did drive through several other gorges, how do you explain a gorge to your kids, well a herd of wilder beast and the lion king featured quiet heavily, and they both listened intently to stories about mountains how they are formed, and valleys and gorges.
We tried to stop for a brunch, but every café we stopped at was closed, with a few old men fingering their worry beads sitting up front staring at us. We tried to buy some fruit at some road stalls, but only vegetables for sale.

So our first stop was a little port called Messolongi , a playground and some amazing trees where bark was peeling off and we had a good forage. Upon leaving Messolongi we noticed it, smoke up ahead, and dark smoke, then the flames, a fire in the hills and we were being diverted. I(t became a bit of an adventure, with Jay pleased that super hero dad was driving us to safety, whilst Asha is typical Asha form was worried about the small animals in the fire. We all decided that being so close to the sea, our last resort was to drive the car onto the beach and just jump in so the fire couldn’t get us.
We then stopped for our first Greek lunch at Parga, on the Adriatic coast, calamari with quills for the kids at last. After lunch we really wanted to chill, so we headed for the beach resort of Nafpaktos. Here we were reminded of how friendly Greeks really arfe, we went in to the first café ordered four huge ice reams, and the owner refused to let us pay, he said he liked children. So full from ice cream and generousity we mucvkede about on a stony beach, in the sea, in the playground and just generally had a lot of fun.

Packed up back in the car we still had to find somewhere for the night, we phoned ahead and got two rooms in the best place in the little fishing town of Galaxidi. The hotel was a 19th century Captain House, maybe Captain Hook said Asha. The hotel was famous for its breakfasts and hospitality, we were lucky to get a room last miunte. Once settled in to a girls room and boys room we went into town to watch the boats and dinner.

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Comments

[Rick]

Missing the river!
What a shame! You missed what is generically known as a SPUNKER. The bridge at the end of the gorge is at 39º 19' 20.57" N 20º 36' 30.01" E according to Google Earth, should you wish to try again some day! Other than that, are you sure you went to Messolongi and then all the way back to Parga? If so, no wonder you missed the Acheron ;-))) Carry on with your fabulous adventures and have a WONDERFUL TIME! From Rick, who is already missing Greece after only a week at home!