Wild Wood

"....High tide - mid afternoon
People fly by in the traffics boom
Knowing - just where you're blowing
Getting to where you should be going......"

With the summer season in full swing, the temperature is rising and many of our friends are turning up in San Stefanos for holidays; including Enid and John from Preston and  Dee and Paul Woodruff from Lancaster (‘Woodie’ to his friends).

Woodie and Dee stay in San Stefanos for a few weeks and then go to Kalami  for a few  weeks.  It was their recommendation that got Keith the superb gig in Cocktails and Dreams in Kalami, so we took them with us to the Tuesday night gig!  Half way through the gig, Woodie was ‘persuaded’ to get up and sing! ‘Reluctantly’ he did, and with a great rock’n’roll performance he went down a storm!

\Woodie being great fun as always

Enid and John have visited us in San Stefanos for the last 4 years and have completely fallen in love with the place!  And they have made many friends here, whilst staying at the Romanza Hotel

We always try to go out walking with them at least once during their holiday.  We (Keith) had planned to do the 17k walk to Paleokastritsa with them but the weather  suddenly turned hot and we opted to revisit the Sidari walk, a mere 7k!

At 9.30am prompt, five went forth to walk to Sidari.

Keith, Sue, John and Enid

Leaving Liz in charge of the village and on standby to do an emergency pick up;  if (a) anyone couldn't complete the walk, (b)  the ferry home wasn't running or (c) too long had been spent in the various pit stops along the way, resulting in missing the ferry or being too drunk to be allowed on board!  Liz reluctantly agreed to stay at home and put her phone next to the bed and retired to her office!

Coincidentally, the first people we saw at the start of our walk, were Woodie and Dee on their balcony,
catching some early sunshine before their own adventures with a beach buggy.

Woodie and Dee travel in style

After exchanging a few pleasantries, we trekked up into the steep olive groves above the village.  At this time of year there is still lush vegetation everywhere and plenty of wild life to spot and photograph.

Beautiful olive grove

   

Up in the olive grove an Eco-friendly house is being built and since last summer significant progress has been made in completing the structure made out of mud, recycled materials and a wattle and daub principle of rendering.   We scrambled down to take a closer look and some of the ingenious art and glass work used in the construction.

After an uphill hike we arrived in Avilotes and meandered the quaint and interesting back streets, viewing parts of the village tourists seldom see, which is largely unspoilt or changed by modern life or tourism.  Stopping by the local chemist in Avilotes, we again bumped into Woodie and Dee, now with their beach buggy; a few more pleasantries exchanged and onward again.

Doing her washing on a scrub board in the garden

We walked on to Peroulardes  for lunch, firstly taking a detour through the village to visit the Lagos beach resort with  The 7th Heaven Cafe Sunset Bar's spectacular viewing platform!

  

It was a must have photo opp for John and Enid but as we turned round to leave, who should we bump into?  Yep Woodie and Dee, looking very chilled, sitting at a table drinking cocktails!

We headed off back through the village towards Yiannis Taverna for lunch; passing houses festooned with colourful window boxes /old feta tins / and pots with an array of bright flowers and coloured grasses.  And of course during our very pleasant lunch stop we saw Woodie  and Dee ‘flying’ past in the buggy and into the distance.

We followed lunch by visiting a must see café neon with an enchanted garden, one of Keith and Sue’s discoveries; it is an oasis of wild plants and flowers in a garden constructed in the shell of a old collapsed building.

The next section of the walk is the hardest, up the long long hill to Cape Drasis ........

......for the most magnificent views of the coast and the beautiful blue/green waters in the cape.  Again many flowers and butterflies around, also an abundance of ‘critters’, either locust, grasshopper or crickets about the size of a cigarette packet.

This is a walk that Keith and Sue often do during the summer, as an organised day out for tourists for San Stefano Travel  and this was the trial first outing of the year.  We had some reservations about whether the paths may not have all been cleared yet, and as it turned out we were right to be concerned.  The path we needed down to Canal d’amour was completely overgrown with  long grass, and brambles,  so using  some local land marks and John’s in built sense of direction we followed a farm track, arriving on the main road ½ a mile up from our expected  arrival point In Sidari for a well-earned beer stop.

Then a quick trek across the ‘smelly bridge’ and the beach, to the harbour just as the ferry arrived.  We were greeted warmly by Nikos the boat captain and seconds later we were on our way home with some spectacular views of the walk we had just done.  We phoned Liz on route and she was waiting quayside as we disembarked and ran us all home, enough walking for one day.

As we pulled into the harbour,  on board a boat next to the ferry berth, two guys were  making steaks from a large freshly caught monster fish,  using what seemed like a hacksaw, a priceless’ living in Greece’ moment. 

Many people come to Corfu for the walking and there are various resources and marked out walks to do.  

Here are some useful links:-
The Corfu Trail.com
The Arillas Trail
Corfu Castaway Serious Walks
The Complete Book of Corfu Walks
Corfu Villages

......Back home, a quick siesta, then I sent Keith off to his gig in Roda … well he says he’s not on holiday! 

".....You're gonna find your way out - of the wild wild wood
Said you're gonna find you way out - of the wild wild WOODIE!….."