Day 8 - tour of western and northern Corfu

This was to be an excellent familiarisation guided coach tour of the western and northern half of the island with our hostess Sophia giving us a non stop description of the many villages, beaches and mountains as we passed by or through them, and of course not forgetting the amazing driving skills of our driver-extraordinaire - Kosta, whose skills were put to the test on a number of occasions!

The first stop was at a cumquat distillery where we firstly watched a video on the making of the cumquat liqueur, wines and ouzo of the Mavromatis family and then were invited to taste some of their products.  Most bought small bottles of liqueurs made from the rather bitter fruit. We are not sure whether it was the contents or the Corfu shaped bottles that prompted the purchases.

Checking out the kumquat wares.

Part of the intrepid crew

Our next experience was a flat tyre but we managed to somehow roll in to the fantastic seaside village of Paleokastritsa which is nestled among a series of capes and on a couple of bays with the wonderfully clear water of the Adriatic Sea. We shared a couple of small boats that took us into a number of sea caves some of whose caverns were lit with sunlight slanting through rooftop crevices and showing us the cave dwelling fish.  The boat driving skills of our skippers had to be seen to be believed, taking us into places we could not believe a boat could go without at least a scratch against the rocks!

One of the many amazing caves on our boat trip around Palaeokastritsa.

A short coach climb took us to the ethereal monastery overlooking Palaeokastritsa which is still the home of seven winemaking monks.  Dick tried to tell us they were also famous for their chips but they didn’t really look like chipmunks. It featured superlative gardens, a charming bell tower, a chapel full of wonderful icons and a historical little museum – which included the prehistoric bones of the whale ‘which spewed forth Jonas’ !!

Monastery at Palaeokastritsa

From there it was hair-raising drive up the overlooking mountain to the village of Lakones established centuries ago by pirate fleeing groups, accessible in those days by donkeys only. Some claimed the view of Paleokastritsa and a nearby castle ruin from the Golden Fox coffee/bar restaurant as the best they had ever seen.

View from Lakones overlooking Palaeokastritsa

Judy, Jane and Marli checking out the surf

We then toured the northern beaches, reputedly the best in Corfu and swam and lunched waterside at Aharavi where most thoroughly enjoyed the scrumptious Corfiot speciality of Sofrito.  A few of the women (only) thoroughly enjoyed a swim in the sea and rubbed it in to poor Jan, who was still nursing her sore paw.  The men (apart from Anthony) just sat and enjoyed the scenery whilst downing a further Mythos or two.  Then it was another scenic drive down the east coast to our haven in Dassia. This took us to within a stone’s throw of a clearly visible Albania – another day in Paradise with plenty of Southern delights still in store.