Lefkada

The island of Lefkada is joined to the mainland by a causeway, on the edge of which stand Maura Castle.

 

 

We base ourselves at  Camping Desimi for a few days.  The camping is a few kilometres outside Nydri.

 

 

During our stay here we catch up with old friends, celebrating Joy's birthday, swim in the sea and explore the island on the scooter.  One of our days out was a scooter ride down the east coast visiting the many empty beaches and small fishing harbours.  Sivota seems very popular with the sailing crowd....

 

 

The beautiful clear water at Afteli,

 

 

The fishing port of Vasiliki'

 

 

and Vilho Bay.

 

 

Our second tour on the island was a morning walk at Nydri Falls.  The waters here are clear and blue and have moulded the rocks into a smooth finish.  This is a place to visit early in the season whilst there is still water in the river.

 

 

Fro the falls we headed across the hills to the west coast and down to Agias Nikitas.  Inland the island is very mountainous with stunning views back to the sea.

 

 

After a short trip down the west coast line we go back up into the mountains from Chortata to Agias Allias through an unusual high fertile plain, hidden by the surrounding mountains.

 

 

This rocky landscape is home to some wonderful orchids which were in full flower during our trip here.

 

 

After a long day in the saddle we head back to camp.

 

We sadly say goodbye to Lefkada, leaving through the town which appears to be home to thousands of yachts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kasoppi and Moni Zalongou

Back on the road again with the van.  Our destination today is Lefkada, but on the way we visited the memorial to the women of the Souli villages.  The women were involved greatly with the fight against the Turkish invasions and instead of being captured threw themselves off the cliffs.

 

 

 

Just below the cliffs is the ruins of Kasoppi.  The Kasopians were a tribe in the 4thC BC, and Kasoppi was their capital city.  They were very advanced and the city layout is very similar to the Roman style cities with an agora, baths, theatre and temples.  It is perfectly situated overlooking the sea, but high enough in the mountains for protection. 

 

 

Acheron Springs and the Souli Villages

Scooter trip inland today to the Acheron Springs.  The walk was impossible however as the river was in spate and the track was underwater.  The area is beautiful as the water is vivid blue and bubbling up near the cliff face.  We travelled upstream as far as we could then returned to the scooter and a drink at the café.

 

 

We drove from the gorge up into the mountains to visit the village of Souli.  The scenery is very rugged and the villages appear very austere, the houses are made of the local stone with small windows, basically designed to withstand the harsh winters.  The villagers have a hard life up here, making a living from rearing goats and sheep, there is evidence of rural tourism here as many of the old houses have been restored and being used as bases for walking tours etc.  We ended up at the top of the gorge which is overlooked by an old church.

 

 

 

Praga, Voltos beach and area.

Well here we are back in Greece, continuing our love affair with this beautiful country.

We headed directly south to meet with our Friends from last year.

After a phone conversation we found that they were not as far south as we thought so we stopped off at the Acheron delta visiting the Necromanteion of Efyra. (Oracle of the dead)

This is a Sacred site as it was supposedly the Gateway to Hades.

With the help of Opiates the religious sort advice from the dead.

 

 

From here we went down to the coast to the fishing village of Ammoudia wher we found a Camper stop for lunch.

We were just about to leave when our friends Joy and Andy turned up unexpectedly, so we settled down for a couple of days, catching up and fishing.

 

 



Having no success with the fishing we parted company and headed to Parga, agreeing to meet up later in the month.



We arrived at Camping Valtos near Valtos beach spending a couple of days here and exploring the area. We walked into Parga to visit the Castle and see the town and the next day went exploring towards the north visiting Syvota and the beaches.