Islands of the Inland Sea

Islands of the Inland Sea

Wednesday 29th September... Linda - Loadsa photos today! We left Preveza just after 9am to get the 11am swing bridge opening at the north end of the Lefkada canal. How exciting. Then we travelled down the canal and about another 10 miles south to Nidri. I have to say the scenery on Lefkada island is just spectacularly stunning.... hence the loadsa photos. May have to edit them tomorrow, as running out of battery again. 

Approaching the canal entrance

Big yellow markers to keep clear of the groins

Locals

Bora La lining up for entry

Here we go

There's the swing bridge, opens every hour in the daytime

The ends lift up and then the whole thing swings open

Just like that

Bora La behind us and alongside the open bridge

...and again

We did it

Traffic lining up while the bridge is open.

No, it's not a queue for petrol !!

Part of the town quay

We've been waiting to come here, 

now we're just going straight past

Out into the canal again

It's quite wide and about 5 metres deep

Happy faces

Lots of shallow wetlands around

Views of Lefkada appearing

Getting more interesting

Bora La, two way traffic

It's a bit like England

Feels like home

Very green trees

Wow, high mountains in Nidri

Quite amazing views

Passing Tranquil Bay

Getting ready to anchor here... lovely

Thursday 30th September... Linda - A great night's sleep, well much better than of late. It did rain a little but I never heard any of it. The morning was serene and peaceful and picture perfect.

Good Morning Neighbours

Reflections in every direction

Flat calm waters

I took some photos of our plants as we are giving them to Phil and Cristina to look after because we are going home for winter, and they are going to Turkey. In fact the hanging plant was given to us last winter by Cristina because they went home. So it's all a bit of plant sharing going on.

The four of us went ashore to get our Transit Logs stamped. We've got about four stamps in it now so we are doing well, and we hope we are keeping the Port Police happy.

Landing by dinghy in Nidri town

The main street through town

I like this barrel sign

..and this blue crossed anchor sign for the Port Police

The famous George's Yacht Chandlery (apparantly)

Erm.. Oil Pie ???

The cake shop stop

Tempting

...and these

Views in the town

More pink flowers

We had a good walkabout and stopped for morning coffee and cake then back to the boats. We managed to get our flights home booked, and then went for a dinghy ride into Vliho to the Yacht Club.... more like an English pub really with draft beer, and they had cider too.

Some friends we made this year in Croatia turned up on their boat in the anchorage so we had a good chit chat with them. Then this evening we went with Phil and Cris to Taverna Elena. You actually take your dinghy to the dock where they are waiting to help you, take two steps, and then sit at your table. It's really quirky and fun to be sitting next to the dinghy having dinner. The food was great too and pretty cheap. Staff extremely helpful, friendly, and attentive. It was much fun. 

Look, there's the dinghy at the dinner table

Evening sky

Friday 1st October... Linda - It's so nice here that Phil and Cris could not drag themselves away, and so decided to stay for one more day.  They asked us over to Bora La for English Breakfast, which was sooooo good. After a couple of hours rest we got together again and went for a hike to the Kattappaktee Waterfall (Dimosari waterfall) about 3 kilometres inland. It was a pleasant walk through country lanes and then finally into a gravel track, not too much heat and some cloud cover, so not strenuous at all.

More morning photos

Yes, another

Arrival on Bora La for breakfast

Bora La means 'Let's go'

More pirates in port

Loads of restaurants 'with tablecloths'

This is where we are going

Funky flowers

Pomegranates

Very old olive orchards

Locust shells

All sorts of colourful flowers.... blue

Red

White (we have one of these at home!)

Orange marigolds

Country lanes

Cracking cafe at the waterfall

Bit further to go yet though

Getting near

More winding pathways

Cristina appears through small gaps

One more corner to go, Dean

Finally, we made it, I'm trying not to slide off the rock here.

Only a miniscule trickle of water, but worth the scenery

It must be deafening when the water flows here

Just a quick selfie moment before we leave

Retracing our steps through the gorge

Back at the waterfall cafe for refreshments. My ice cream treat was scrumptious.

Dean says these are nuts but not sure which kind

Blackberries now, whatever next?

Blueberries ??

Yellow flowers

More varieties

and here too

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and a very welcome change to get inland and do something different. Later on we all ate a the Yacht Club. Chicken Tikka Masala for Dean, Caesar salad for me. Pretty good choices. 

Curry treat

Saturday 2nd October... Linda - This current blog post may be called 'Islands of the Inland Sea', but so far we have only visited one island! but I promise there's more to come in due course. Meanwhile, this morning we waved goodbye to Phil and Cristina. They are wintering in Turkey, and although they love it here they do need to get a move on! So they continued their journey further south today towards the Peloponnese peninsular. Dean and I don't need to do any rushing as we only have about 80 miles to our own destination in the Gulf of Corinth. 

And so, this morning Dean decided he wanted to go to the Nidri Marine chandlery as he'd not been there yet. First thing we spotted was four new 12 volt boat batteries, and they were just the right ones he's had in mind.... Sealed Lead Acid. He's been debating what type of batteries to get for ages. We were hoping that the old ones would last for the next couple of weeks, but they've been performing badly of late. Seeing these new batteries sitting there in the shop was too hard to resist, and it makes sense as they were a good price and would not incur delivery cost like if we had ordered online. We did go for a coffee and croissant first to think it over, and then went back and bought them. 

Coffee and MASSIVE croissants

On the waterfront

Rustic tavernas

Mamma Mia's

Obviously we were in the dinghy and so we had to take the four new very heavy batteries back to the boat. They just about fit into the dinghy, and we went at slow speed back to the boat with them.

Not much room for Dean in the dinghy

Easy does it

We made it

New batteries aboard

Old batteries coming out

New batteries in place

Dean had them fitted in a jiffy, basically a straight swap. We feel happy about making the decision to get them, as we are pretty fed up with the constant worry of the old ones. In fact we had turned the freezer off this morning to try and save some power. We're running the food supplies down now, as we only have a couple of weeks to go before the boat goes ashore, so there wasn't too much in the freezer anyway.

Nidri Marine said they would accept the old batteries in return, so we loaded them into the dinghy and took them ashore. I waited with them on the pontoon whilst Dean went to get a trolley from the store.

So let's see how we get on with the new batteries overnight. Hopefully we'll still have lots of power in the morning....watch this space.

Sunday 3rd October... Linda - We almost came out in sympathy with the UK this morning. Reason? Our dinghy outboard engine was running very low on fuel and the petrol station was closed! Fortunately disaster was avoided when the second fuel station we tried was open. 

The new boat batteries were still on 12.5 volts this morning which was very pleasing, so far so good. It definately takes a lot of worry away at this late stage of the boating season. 

After the fuel episode, we went on another walk. This time about 3km each way to a beach just south of here. It was quite pleasant, and a the beach we indulged in beer, orangeade, chips, and cheese pie. It's not a real cheese pie, more like a cheese pasty. 

The road to the beach

Looking down from the road into the big bay where we are anchored

A few signs here

Very big blackberries in the hedgerows

We passed this house in the form of a ship!

Empty apartments here

We're heading down there

Pedaloes in the shape of a taxi

Brief walk along the narrow beach, nice water

Greek restaurant

Tomorrow we'll be on the move, not far though as we head to Meganisi.

Monday 4th October... Linda - Change of plan. We see that there is some weather coming through from the south on Thursday, so after consideration we have decided to stay here in Vliho Bay, Nidri. No jobs to do so we went ashore for elevensies at a nice seafront bar. Followed by a stroll down the high street and a lunch stop at Arnie's as they were advertising bacon sandwiches. We asked if it was real bacon, as last time we were tricked. The answer came back as 'yes it's real back bacon'. That'll do nicely. And when the food arrived we weren't disappointed, it was delicious. We got talking to the owners who were English and American. They've got a quiz on tomorrow night so we think we shall go. Also, we are planning on getting a scooter tomorrow morning and going to Lefkada town. I didn't take my camera today as it was low on battery. A couple of photos to follow shortly from Dean's I-phone.... 

Dinner plate size croissant (to share this time)

Me, overexcited at the bacon rolls

Tuesday 5th October... Linda - Well yet another change of plan. Good job we are flexible. The wind gusts on Thursday are looking decidedly dodgy out on these islands, plus a lot of rain and some thunder expected. As much as we want to stay around Lefkada and Meganisi (no we haven't been there yet!), we came to the conclusion that we should head for Messolonghi on the mainland.... about a 50 mile, 8 hour journey. The bad weather is forecast all over the North Ionion and it's a case of trying to get out of the worst of it as best we can. So Messolonghi is in the Gulf of Patras, and tonight we are anchored here along with another 5 or 6 boats. It wasn't a particularly exciting journey today. We passed a lot of small uninhabited islands along the way. 

Wild swimmers on the southern end of Meganisi

Calm anchorage as we passed Nisos Fermikoula

Nisos Oxia is where we entered the Gulf of Patras

The lighthouse on Nisos Oxia

Navigating the narrow channel into Messolonghi

Approaching the anchorage

So our 'Islands of the Inland Sea' blog post has actually turned out to be just one island. We are quite disappointed to have missed Meganisi, but there's always next year. 

I suppose I had better end this blog post then.

The next blog post will be called 'Gulfs of Patras and Corinth'