Communing with the dead, loggerhead turtle, and kite surfing

Wed 13th May

A day on site, chilling, reading, and doing jobs. I ventured onto the roof to find out why our automatic vent failed to close in torrential rain. The suspect was a small circuit board inside the cover - exposed to the elements when the cover is open. And indeed, the circuit board - simply interleaved copper tracks, was really very grodgy (to use a technical term). A good clean, and it's working fine. Must remember to add that to my list of pre voyage checks. (Ian - NB!)

Thurs 14th May

Left the site early enough to avoid the roadworks on the steep zigzag up to the main road, so we didn't have to squeeze past a crane on a steep bend. It was 1st gear all the way up, though.. Our first stop was Nekromantium, a very ancient site where the priests would commune with the dead at the gates of Hades. There is a dark grotto underneath where seekers of the oracle would be lowered through a hole to consult the spirits. I believe magic mushrooms were involved too.

Nekromantium

Nekromantium. Originally this grotto had no door, and no light, People were lowered in to commune with the dead and ask what the future holds

Nekromantium - a stork conveniently landed close to us

We spotted on the map a small island, connected to the mainland by a long causeway, Koronisia, which just demanded an investigation. Bit of a boring drive to get to, but a very good road all the way across the causeway. Not much on the island (but a lot of pi dogs!). The whole area is a wetlands nature reserve. It is all rather understated, charming, and non touristy. We are planning to spend the night on a huge and empty car park beside the sea.

Late afternoon a fresh onshore breeze brought a number of kite surfers, based at a small shack close to us. They were very good, and I took a vast number of pictures. I was able to try out some features on my camera - follow focus - because they were moving fast, and high speed bursts of pics, to take a number of pics as they were airborne. As they were nearby, and I had so many pics, I gave them my email and promised to send the pics to them if they got in touch. I hope they do.

Kite surfing at Koronisia

There is a restaurant very close by - "Tap Oida". Non touristy and much cheaper than in Parga. There was an English menu (luckily!) but the owner didn't have much English. (No complaints - my Greek is limited to a few letters from the alphabet). We ended up with a potato, anchovy and tuna salad as starter, and deep fried anchovies as mains. For dessert I had cherries - which turned out to be glace cherries, and Rosemary had Morello - similarly glaceed. With a jug  of wine and and tip, the whole thing was 25 euros. As we ate, families of swallows flew around us - and we could see a nest with 4 open beaks sticking out. We did wonder at the wisdom of eating whilst birds flew at high speed around us, and we had to duck a few times, but no unfortunate incidents occurred.

Tap Oida, Koronisia

As we went to bed, small fishing boats were setting out for a night's fishing

1452 miles.  N39.01385 E 020.91594.

Fri 15th May

A peaceful night (except for the pi dogs having a bark-in at some point). A lovely still morning.

Rosemary's photo of net cleaning. Notice the cat?

After a stroll round the harbour, watching the fishermen cleaning their nets, and their catch (which looked pretty meagre) being sold to a man in a small van, we set off back across the causeway - we measured it at about 3 miles.

The 3 mile causeway to Koronisia

Our target was the port at Preveza. This is huge, and full of yachts of all nationalities. At one point we assisted a large Australian catamaran come alongside. Its port engine had failed, meaning it could only go round in circles. Lots of pulling on ropes, and lots of shouting!

I thought my sailoring days of pulling on ropes was over!

As usual, the waterfront is wall to wall restaurants, but behind that the town was a normal busy town with a lot of real shops and very little tourist tat. A pleasant place, but not a great deal to see, And I have learnt that a club sandwich is way more than I need for a midday snack, especially when piled high with chips.
One highlight, walking along a quieter bit of the waterfront we came across a turtle, swimming about 10 yards away. He conveniently posed for lots of pictures.

Loggerhead turtle, Preveza

Meanwhile, 2 other motorhomes, obviously travelling in convoy, parked nearby for the night. Once again we had a pi dog bark in at about 2 am, but otherwise a peaceful night. At one point they were definitely singing. One dog would bark 3 or 4 times, then the rest would follow with a strange singing sound, and this was repeated for quite a while. I would have thought I was dreaming, but Rosemary heard it too. Passing cars seem to send them berserk, and they emerge from all over the place to chase them and bark at them. They completely ignore pedestrians, motor bikes and motorhomes. Interestingly, when we were in the Peloppenese almost all the strays were cats, and quite photogenic. Here on the mainland there are lots of stray dogs and very few cats. I did rather like the emporer like figure of this cat, obviously in charge of all he surveys.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity...
(http://monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Macavity.htm)

And because I can never resist photos like this:

lots of pics of me:)

1493 miles  N38.96073, W020.75756

Sat 16th May

A man from the marina came and said it costs 5 euros per night, no problem. It seems we could have stopped overnight in the nearby car park for free.

We retraced our steps slightly to do a shop up at a Carrefour - milk, wine, salad stuff, etc, then on to the island of Lefkas (or Lekada) via an "underwater crossing" which cost us 5 euros. (oh for a euro symbol!). Then on to the main town, also called Lefkada. This is a very pleasant town, touristy (there is a huge yacht marina here) but not overly so. They suffered a major earthquake in 1953, and a lesser one in 2003. As a result they developed a style of architecture they called "Carribean Tudor" - ground floor rebuilt brick/concrete, upper floor painted corrugated iron. Sounds grim but it's better than it sounds.

"Caribbean Tudor" architecture, following the 1953 earthquake

Lefkada street scene

Through a glass, darkly....

Late afternoon, we headed a couple of miles south for Camping Kariotes Beach. Lovely little site, shady, old olive trees very friendly owner, swimming pool. Trouble is, there's no sign of the beach and the swimming pool is empty! We did pay  5 euros for a couple of litres of the owners home made wine, in a plastic bottle. Actually, it's not bad. (I say that as a committed beer drinker!)

1523 miles  N29 deg 48' 15.7" E020 deg 24'50.7'

To Lekas/Lefkada

To Preveza via Koronissa