Haven't been keeping this blog up very well lately for various reasons, one of which it's so HOT!! Not that I'm complaining but after 30 seconds of sitting inside, the sweat starts to trickle down your back in a rather attractive way. We've had to find a shady bit of the boat and stay very still taking plenty of fluids and resting. It's great!
After crossing through Levkas Canal, we anchored in Tranquil Bay opposite Nidri in Levkas. Nidri is a touristy little town with hundreds of tavernas and souvenir shops but we had had a sailing holiday here in August 2007 so came back for a bit of a reminisce. I don't think we ever imagined back then that one day we would sail past the holiday complex in our own catamaran!
After Nidri, we stopped for a couple of nights in Kioni in ithica. This is a beautiful little bay surrounded by steep slopes of houses and olive groves. Apparently the population has dwindled to less than 200 now with many of the locals emigrating to America or Australia. After the earthquake in 1953 many were evacuated and never went back. Now it's quite an upmarket place with delightful tavernas that serve a few more interesting meals rather than the usual Greek fare. Our friends Yiota and Yianni were here with their charterers so we all ate out together. We had goat that had been cooking over a wood fire all day and the best salad of figs and Manouri cheese with raisin vinaigrette.
This has made it very popular, of course, which meant that there was lots of noise well into the early hours, especially the Italians on the boat beside us who sang every Italian love song ever written accompanied by a guitar. Arrivederci Roma!