Our delightful cove was invaded by a big fleet of charter yachts the next morning so we abandoned it for Euphimia harbour on Cephalonia. Good shelter from strong NW flow with excellent holding, so we lingered and listened to a BBC recording of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Cephalonia has been the scene of many calamities. The usual suspects of invaders have all had a go but perhaps one of the worst was in WWII as discussed in the novel. Once the Italian occupying troops went over to the Allied side, they became instant enemies of the German occupying forces who had been their buddies the day before. The Germans brought in reinforcements and eventually overwhelmed the Italians, executing thousands in reprisal. Things did not settle after the war with the forces of democracy and communism slugging it out in Greece including Cephalonia in a civil war. Sadly today, one sees a very active communist party in Greece, still proudly displaying the hammer and sickle flag, long abandoned even by Russia. In 1953 Cephalonia experienced a 7.2 earthquake which levelled just about every building on the island. As a result most structures today are relatively new. The island’s main business is tourism of course so we joined the hordes from a cruise liner to visit the Melisanni lake in a limestone cavern. Impressive colours as you will see in the photo gallery but a bit busy for our tastes.
Diomedea had enjoyable tacking for 17 miles up the Ithaca strait before reaching off to Kalamos island for a night at Port Leone, in company with a very magnificent superyacht. Whilst the water was clear, the shoreline was littered with rubbish mostly deposited by visiting yachts we believe. We constantly worried about rats coming aboard via our shore lines, so we bodgied-up some rat guards out of 5 litre plastic bottles, held in place by rags soaked in diesel.
Over to Meganisi island in flat calm we really began to feel the area heating up and were glad of a swim in the pretty Ormos Atheni. We hiked over the hills to the port of Vathi for ice cream and veggies. Our company in the anchorage was another super tinnie, Deja Too, yours to charter for Euro240,000 per week. Yikes. She kindly acted as a sea wall for us, for no charge.
A poorly researched decision to have the turbocharger oil return pipe on the Yanmar replaced saw Diomedea transit the Lefkas canal (min depth 4.5m) and head to Cleopatra marina opposite Preveza, the gateway to the Inland Sea. Why is it called Cleopatra? Wasn’t she from, like, Egypt? It was here that the Roman consul Octavian defeated the army and naval forces of the combined might of Antony and Cleopatra. These two scampered off in the midst of battle, back to Alexandria, after much of their officer corps defected to the Romans. As you know they went on to commit suicide (he by sword, she possibly by the bite of the asp - this is uncertain). This was a gift for Octavian as the other part of the troika of consuls faded the scene, leaving him to be the last man standing. He became the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, the most powerful man on earth, and renamed himself Augustus. He built a city called Nicopolis. We thought the name was because of all the local Greek guys (you know, Nic, Nic, Nic, his cousin Nic and so on) but in fact it is of course our friend Nike, winged victory, ie. the city of victory. The ruins remain today and are exceedingly impressive. The Roman walls are about 5km in extent with the Ionian on one side and a lagoon and the Inland Sea on the other. It was a major military base to exert control over Greece. Later on, in Byzantium, a new surge of building went on with inner walls and Basilicas for Christian worship.
Whilst we waited for our engine repair to occur, we toured the Necromanteion on the Acheron river, the place of departure to Hades. This was supposedly a temple in which, for a fee naturally, one could commune with dead spirits. Today we still paid the fee and entered the subterranean cavern but encountered no ghosts. The cavern is in fact totally artificial. It is an excavated pit with a man made stone roof. We were surprised the punters fell for it. Odysseus is supposed to have come here to talk with his fallen comrades but some research speculates that the building was actually merely a fortified farmhouse with grain stores underground. From here we visited the pretty town of Parga and its ruined castle. We had a great lunch and afternoon coffee. Our final tiki tour was to Lefkas island. We took a scenic drive to an 800m summit for outstanding views across the Southern Ionian islands before commencing what became the descent to hell. The map suggested the “road” down the other side was reasonable quality but it turned out to be an extremely stressful and damaging 4WD track, for which our tiny Fiat Punto was not suited. However, there was no going back so we pushed on finally emerging at sea level for a respite with frozen yoghurt as our comfort food. Back in Cleopatra we met a lovely couple on the exquisite yacht Mardor, a stunning 72 foot example of contemporary Italian marine design from the Felci yard. I want one.
Finally the engine was ready to go and we motored in calms to N. Paxos, anchoring in the gin-clear water of Lakka bay. From there it was a plod to our last Greek island of Corfu, from where we cleared customs. Diomedea anchored in company with about Euro150 million worth of superyachts under the Old Fortress of Kerkira and we had a pleasant stroll through the old town. It was a lovely evening as we dwelled on the many fabulous things we had seen and experienced in Greece. A total of 26 islands had been visited in the nine weeks. Our immersion in the history and culture of the land had been most gratifying and we would happily return in the future.
Pix in Photo Gallery on RHS of this page