A Trip around the bay

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Aunt Helen has ridden her bike from her town Vlihos, about 2 km away, to joined us for coffee this morning. We get a chance to fill her in on our trip so far. On a day to day basis, it sometimes doesn't feel like we have done much, but when we account for the last seven months of travel, I was surprised how much ground we have covered and how many places we have been.

Aunt Helen has brought the bus schedule and there seems to be a hitch in our plan to go to Italy on Wednesday in that there appears to be no bus from Lefkada to the ferry port at Patras that day. This may be a major hitch, but I think there must be some way to get there even if it involves going to another town first.

Helen has kindly found out info for us on the small ferry that runs from here to two nearby towns so we head over to the quay, just a short distance from our apartment, to buy the tickets. Unfortunately, a new schedule has been posted and it now appears that the ferry doesn't leave until 2 pm. We decide to head back to the apartment for lunch and Aunt Helen heads back to her town of Vlihos on her bike.

When we head over to the quay later that afternoon the ferry is already there. The boat is quite modern and carries a few cars as well as passengers. I have maps of the Mediterranean on my GPS, so we follow along trying to spot Scorpios, the Onassis island, as we head out of the Port of Nidri. Once out of the shelter of the bay, it is extremely windy and we end up sitting outside at the stern of the boat. Benjamin plunks himself down by the stern rail and spends the trip listening to his ipod (hopefully he took in some of the scenery).

The ferry stops at two small towns, Spilia and Vathis, before heading back to Nidri after about an hour. Both are reasonably big with shops and restaurants along the water front. On the way back, we now are certain that we have spotted the Onassis island of Scorpios, and feel a bit like paparazzi as we zoom in and snap away grainy photos of the buildings. It looks surprisingly low key and modest for the residence of such a wealthy shipping magnate.

When we return, we do some school work before picking up some take out souvlakis for dinner again (that take out place is just too convenient !). Evy has bought a few English language newspapers and we see that the weather forecast is calling for winds of 6 - 7 on the Beaufort scale this evening. This seems amazing as I believe that this is near gale force, but late in the evening, the wind is whistling outside and you can here the constant clinking shrouds of the yachts in the marina. Later, around midnight, there is a spectacular storm with lightning and thunder (Evy tells me. I slept through it !).

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