We left Ithaca and went on down to Agios Nicholaos in Zakinthos to meet up with a friend from Weston ED, Madeline (Madge to all her old A&E friends much to her disgust!) and her husband, Shane and the kids. They were staying with Shane's sister, Tracey in a villa up in the hills. We had a great day on the boat and on the little beach just sitting about and catching up on all the news from home. The next day we hired a very old battered Kia Sportage and drove up to Kipseli to Tracey and Deb's villa for the day. Swam in their pool and then had a great barbecue. It was like being back in Australia! Such a treat to spend time with them and their lovely kids, Daniel and Emma.
Agios Nickolaos is a great little placed. Not the scenic, crunchy little villages like Kioni but very easy to spend a bit of time in. Dimitri is the Main Man there. He tells you where to moor, takes your lines, gives you free water, free electric (albeit on a long electric lead with extensions on to all the boats! We had a feeling that if someone at the other end turned a hair dryer on, we would all burst into flames!). He owns the garage, delivers petrol, runs the tours to the Blue Holes and the Shipwreck, dives for lost anchors and lends a hand in the taverna in the evening. Fantastic man. Rod Heikell is quite dismissive of this place in the guide saying he had one of the worst meals in Greece here but he must have just been there on an off day (or they saw him coming!)
One of the highlights of the day was the ferry coming in from Cephalonia. At 7 pm, we took our Gin and Tonics to the front of the boat to watch the comings and goings. Not much happens but we always rather hoped a car would roll off the edge or one of the people coming off on a motor bike might get stuck on the ramp! We did see rather an aggressive argument one night between the Port Policeman and an Italian RV Driver. Don't know what it was about but we expected him to take out his service revolver and order him out of the car and up against the wall! Shane watched with us one night and was rather unimpressed. I think he thought we had rather over stated the whole ferry experience. No imagination some people.