"We're on the road to nowhere......."

Have you heard the one about a bloke called Paddy who finds a bargain upgrade for his Satnav on ebay, which gives him a detailed road map of all of Europe including Corfu, and then spends £300 flying out to Corfu to try it out?

Yep our 1st visitors arrived on Tuesday; Paddy and Lorraine are here for 10 days! They are staying with us in our studio annex, and one of the first things Paddy did was hire a car for a week so he can explore the island and use his satnav!!

Unfortunately, we woke up on Wednesday morning to some “changeable “ weather (it was peeing down) but we thought, head out for the monastery on the highest part of the island, do some exploring then lunch in a taverna which is a particular family favourite under an old elm tree in a village called Strinilas.

Paddy set the Satnav for the nearest point to the monastery we could find and off we went. It took us through some interesting local villages, past Sidari and on to Roda village. By the time we reached Roda we were in the middle of a torrential downpour, the sky was black, so the headlights and wipers were full on; it was like being in a tropical storm!

We carried on towards Acharavi; Keith was sat in the front with a map as well as watching the Satnav to see which way it was going to take us! This is a route that we have used several times, so we were surprised when the voice on the device said turn right!! But we had all agreed that it would be interesting to follow ‘her’ no matter what; just to see how accurate ‘she’ was and if there were some hidden gems that we had not yet discovered!

This “road” we’d turned into looked at first like an entrance to a quarry but turned out to be a narrow road, but within a few hundred metres it soon became a dirt track, we carried on as it seemed OK and could have been a link to the main road we wanted to join, just up ahead. But that main road didn’t materialise for several miles, and in the meantime we meandered through an olive grove or two and up and down a very picturesque hillside. Whilst the driving was very ‘challenging’ for Paddy, being a passenger was quite a ‘fairground ride’.

After 20 minutes or so we emerged out of the undergrowth onto a minor road and carried on towards our destination. We had another couple of minor detours where ‘she’ couldn’t tell the difference between a tarmac or concrete road or a farm track and a couple of times we all got out and let Paddy drive the car to a safe place to turn around, as the track we found ourselves on had become just two tyre tracks with a large ridge in the middle and the grass growing on it was dusting the exhaust and the underside of the car.

The Satnav called all roads “Road” …..pretty much in the same way that all bar owners here are called “Spiros”.

We finally found a road we recognised and with the weather and clouds closing in we decided to drive up the mountain to the monastery! Most of the next 5 or 6 miles we drove in thick cloud with minimum visibility and we were so grateful for the Satnav as she told us where the bends were and hairpins.

We arrived at the top of the mountain to see a sight which resembled a “Hammer” horror film, with 2 ornate gates half open at the entrance of a Gothic building which loomed in the fog and cloud

…….but no sign of Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee,

just a solitary monk and some very energetic German cyclists who had climbed nearly a 1000 metres on their bikes in virtual zero visibility. And it was absolutely freezing!

We wandered around, in our flipflops and kagools, giggling about the conditions and took loads of pictures and took shelter in the chapel

We were hoping the cloud would clear and we would have unrivalled views of the island above the clouds!!

But the weather was not clearing so back in the car and lunch!! When we got to Strinilas it was still chilly and instead of dining under the elm tree in the village the owners had opened the indoor bit to the taverna. So we ate indoors and drank the local wine, which clearly would not travel well or very far, probably not even out of the village! Paddy and Lorraine bought some local olive oil to take home and by the time we’d eaten the weather had cleared quite a bit and we enjoyed a scenic drive home, this time sticking to the main roads.
The jury is still out on how accurate the Satnav is. If it looks like a dirt track when ‘she’ says turn right it probably is just a dirt track!! And there were times when we drove on perfectly good roads and she had no record of them!!

“………we know where we're goin'
but we don't know where we've been.
And we know what we're knowing'
but we can't say what we've seen……..”


Paddy’s Response…..

“From my perspective: The booking of the visit and the purchase of the mapping for the Satnav were the opposite way round. The Satnav worked but did need to be over-ruled regularly. We did see some new and interesting places but following it slavishly would have got you in some serious trouble. Over the last four days Lorraine and I have covered about 350 kms North, South East and West and seen some beautiful places. The next few days are to relax and enjoy the weather and the relaxed atmosphere.

It has been really nice returning for the fourth time and being recognised and treated very well by all the locals. It has been especially nice spending time with Liz and Keith and watching our shares on the internet as they went up 20% in one day.

Apart from that one day of overcast and rainy weather it has been lovely, I would heartily recommend June (as Martin & Helen had recommended it to us). Now the weather for us is perfect Tee-shirt and shorts during the day and long trousers and sleeves in the evening.”