Thursday 10th May

Thursday 10^th May

We have had a couple of days in Nidri staying at the Goergio Palace Hotel a really nice family run affair and very reasonably priced.

This morning we hired a 125cc scooter and toured the northern part of island visiting the waterfalls just west of Nidri first off. We saw them about 6 years ago when we visited Greece with Russ and Lindi Towns and Alan Wicks on his boat. The valley still echoed to the sound of frogs calling and there were loads of Swallow tail butterflies again. This time though we drove up to the base of the waterfalls and then walked the last bit. It was hot and sunny so by the time we got to the biggest fall I was ready for dip so stripped off and went in as no-one about. As usual in these situations a couple arrived just as I was getting out the water! They were very understanding though.

After the waterfalls we drove over the centre of the island, the roads were really steep and winding making hairpins look straight but great fun as we only saw one other car between one coast and the other.

The views were fantastic with steep rocky valleys and smell of broom and other plants seemed to be heightened by being on a scooter. When we got to the west coast the sea was a deep turquoise off shore and lighter along the beaches that were almost white. Driving down the windy roads reminded us in a way of doing a similar route on a scooter along the Amalfi coast on our honeymoon.

We had lunch on the beach followed by a swim then wound our way back stooping in Lefkas to refuel. The attendant there was very helpful but I thought him putting extra air in our rear tyre was stretching the boundaries of politeness a bit!

Back at the hotel we swam in the pool then went out to eat at The Taverna Symposium where we had an excellent meal consisting of samples of all the traditional Greek food on the menu, a really good choice suggested by the waiter. He earnt his tip by teaching us some basic Greek like thank you, how to ask for the bill and goodbye. Well worth a visit.

Tomorrow if all goes well we intend to sail to Spartakhori on Maganisi.