Kefalonia

Thursday 8th May...

Oh my, last night in Ithaka anchorage the wind blew up and the waves bashed under Thesee's stern until gone 4am. It even distracted us from the neon lights and loud music of the nearby disco. But all was calm this morning when we woke up tired and bleary eyed. 

Ready to move on to a new destination, we raised the anchor about 9.30am and headed south down the coast, turned right, and then sailed (slowly) across the four mile channel to Kefalonia..... a first visit for us both, and Thesee too.

Beautiful views as we travel south down Ithaka coast

Many calm anchorages this morning

Of course, the obligatory ferry to negotiate

Checking out a quiet anchorage on the south coast of Ithaka

At 1.30pm we arrived in Kefalonia at a small fishing village called Agia Efemia where there is a harbour and a quay. Dean called up on the VHF radio to request a berth on the quay, and Makis the harbourmaster welcomed us and took our lines. It looks a lovely understated village with a few tavernas along the quay. So we took a short walk-about....

At the local church, fabulous roses

Looking across the harbour towards the quay

Close up... Thésée unmistakeable

The stony beach of the harbour

Unusual lilac flowers on the trees

One of the tavernas

Outside the harbour wall

Very strange volcanic rock formations

A quick drink and ice cream in this lovely taverna

The 'beach' ??

I think we shall like it here. We've booked for three nights, how exciting.

Friday 9th May....

Kefalonia Day 2 - We have a hire car for two days to make the most of the island and see the main ports. First this morning, we drove the short distance to Sami where we could get yet another stamp in our transit log. A short walk along the quay where the ferries come in, and freshly made chocolate croissants followed. There wasn't much to see so we moved on. 

We began to drive inland passing the Odysseus Theme Park. I imagine there isn't much here as we've not seen it advertised and it hardly looked like Alton Towers. Not that we would go there anyway because Dean isn't a roller coaster junkie like me!

Odysseus

So we carried on to the lush valley that lies between the mountains to a monastery called Saint Gerasimos. Only small but very nice, and a good job I took a scarf to wrap around my legs because they ask you to dress modestly when entering. No photos allowed inside unfortunately.

Looking down the valley

Entrance to the monastery

Just a few minutes drive away was the 'Orealios Gaea Vine Growers of Robola'. AKA the Kefalonia winery. It was quite posh inside, and of course we treated ourselves to a couple of bottles of the Robola wine. Not sure what Greek wine will taste like though! Never seen that in supermarkets at home 😂. Maybe we can try it out on visiting guests? Any offers?

Entrance to the winery

Inside the shop

Still inside the shop

Outside the shop looking past the vines and up the valley

Our purchases.... look pretty anyway

Wine vats, or space rockets maybe?

Saint Gerasimos Church

Next was a drive down to Kefalonia's south coast and a place called Trapezaki Beach. The roads were quite windy and steep coming down from the mountains. When we arrived there was nothing there except a nice taverna and a bit of a building site around the tiniest of harbours. But we did get some clear views looking across the water to Zakynthos (Zante).

Zakynthos in the distance

Trapezaki Taverna

The building site

Our red hire car.... along with the rest

At the taverna

Nice kitty

We ordered a chicken caesar salad to share, it was very nice. Then we drove up to Argostoli. This is the capital of Kefalonia, there's a big town, an anchorage, and an unfinished marina there. I was looking forward to it. But in fact it the place was horrible. There was a cruise ship in the bay. I said to Dean 'If I'd paid for a cruise to take me there I would be disgusted'.

There was only one decent street, and that was nothing special. 

People talk about the turtles in the bay, and we did see one. It was bigger than what we had seen in other places, but that was the only highlight of Argostoli. 

Definately not a place I will ever go back to.

The turtle along the quay

I'm afraid I DON'T 💙 Kefalonia

On the bridge

Unfinished marina boat graveyard

A few boats here getting it for free

Saturday 10th May...

I have to make a correction to yesterday's blog. I said 'I DON'T 💙 Kefalonia. In fact, I DO 💙 Kefalonia, I just don't 💙 Argostoli!. Well, I shouldn't really love Kefalonia because last night about 9pm we were sitting in a quayside bar eating ice cream when all of a sudden the wind went MAD. We hurried back to the boat and got on board. For the next three hours all hell let loose. Even  Makis (the harbourmaster) came back about 10pm to see that all the boats were OK. He's such a nice caring harbourmaster.  It was just like we experienced a few years ago in Torba, Turkey when there was a storm nearby and we got our anchor chain wrapped up in a wreck.  But tonight we were tied stern to the quay with a side wind coming down the valley. We don't know what speed the wind was but the trees were blowing like there was no tomorrow. So much so that Dean had to start the engine to keep us from hitting the wall when Thesee's bow was being blown sideways. The wind receded to a near normal amount about midnight and we were able to go to bed. 

All that sorted! Today was our 11th Wedding Anniversary 💕. 

It was Day 3 of our Kefalonia Experience, and we headed north, first stopping for views of the famous Myrtos Beach, and then on to Fiskardo, right at the top of the island. 

Looking down on Myrtos Beach

The road went for miles around the very high and steep mountainside as we headed north.

Next we stopped for a view down to the village of Assos. It's quite a unique setting.

Assos

In Fiskardo, we parked up and strolled around the quay. This is a very holiday-ish destination and also extremely popular with charter boats. It's almost impossible to get a berth here because it's so small and popular.  We stopped for a light lunch and refreshments, then decided to head back to Assos.

Beautiful flowers in Fiskardo

One of the Fiskardo bays

Some sort of archeaological site here 

 A magnificent 'gentlemans' launch (motor sailor)

in Fiskardo

Now in Assos, Dean playing up for a photo.

It's beautiful, also an anchorage, but quite rolly today

And so, we arrived back to the boat around 4pm. Thésée was OK, even though the afternoon winds were in full swing. I'm going to rename this island as 'Windy Kefalonia'. 

Time for a Sangria to start our Anniversary celebrations, and then a nice meal out on the quay tonight. Happy Anniversary to US 💚💜xx

💙 Yamas 💚

The next blog post will be called 'On to the smaller Ionian Islands'