Kefalonia, Greece

Kefalonia Island

This island is on the western side of Greece in the Ionian Island group and is beautiful.  Stunning scenery; with contrasts from sandy or pebbly beaches to steep rocky cliffs.  Lots of trees growing on the hills, they were firs and some kind of cypress I think.   Bit of a sleepy tourist island with all the locals just preparing for the summer rush and in a couple of weeks the Easter rush, all the people are hoping for busy times, but most were optimistically cautious and seemed to think the economy might keep some people away.  Having said that, this island is not as touristic as some of the others on the eastern side of Greece.  Apparently there was a huge earthquake in the 1950’s which destroyed almost every village, so they have been rebuilding it slowly.     

Murray and Heidi at the Kyprissia castle lookout

Looking north

Leaving Kylini

We arrived late one night and got off the ferry and booked into a hotel at the port town of Porus. We walked around Porus a bit, there wasn’t much open and then we hired a car for a couple of days and headed off north east to explore.  The first village we came to was Sami, another port village but a bit bigger than Porus, next stop was Agia Limia then right on up to Fiskardo which was a beautiful bay with pastel coloured houses sort of more Italian style than Greek.   Just out of Sami (somewhere we stopped at a beach and we saw these eucalyptus trees with heads of big fish on them, it was really cool. 

Sights along the way

A flash big house being built

Kefalonian road-hogs!

Sami

Fish head attached to a eucalypti tree

Coming into another neat bay

Winteer storage - just pop it on the footpath!

 There were parts all the way that reminded us of Samoa kind of a mixture of old and new.  Many times we shared the road with wild goats – they looked a bit like British Alpines or Anglio Nubians but who knows.  Lots of olive trees of course after all we are in Greece and lots of other crops too.  On the high peaks there were lots of wind turbines, which I will tell you about later.  There were some real shacks and some real flash places and then the ’tourist’ villages were lined with cafe’s, bars and places to stay.  The people were very friendly and waved out and offered to help – not that us kiwis needed any help we had a map and Murray was in his element behind the wheel of a 1.3 car haha – good times.  After Fiskardo in the far north we headed south to an awesome spot called Assos.  We were winding around the steep hill and looked way down to what appeared to be an island and the water had that aqua blue look about it.  We could see the road weaving its way down the hill so we decided we had better check it out.  Man it was beautiful!  It wasn’t an island it was attached by a wee finger of land.  The island like part had ruins of a castle and a couple of caves.  There were taverns and places to stay everywhere – really pretty. We brought a drink and sat on the beach to take in the view and talked to some locals who were enjoying the sunshine as well.

Some dodgy looking sheep

Our first view of Assos

Assos

The windy road to Assos

Assos beach/village - beachfront properties for sale here at 2.1m euros

Our next stop was Myrtos Beach – this is the one regularly seen on postcards, by chance again I happened to be looking over the edge of one of these roads and said OMG stop the car you have got to see this.  We pulled over and got out and there it was right down the bottom this amazing beach!

Myrtos Beach

Sharing the road with other traffic

On the beach

 Another windy road weaved its way down the gully whilst we negotiated sharing the road with some rather arrogant goats.  The beach was absolutely deserted not a person or goat in sight.  Must admit by the time we got down there, the colours didn’t look anywhere near as vibrant, but the sun had disappeared a bit and it was getting a bit late.  I can only imagine how it would be in summer and the road would be terrible.  After here the road left the coast and headed inland – closer to those bloody wind turbines – how convenient!  Yes we just had to go and have a closer look, because unlike NZ  they were not fenced off and there seemed to be no ‘no entry’ signs anywhere so temptation was too much for Murray and we headed up the hill in our little white car.  I swear to god we nearly got blown off the hill, little car and all, they were massive turbines, Murray was really impressed and quite chuffed that he got to stand directly under one.  I on the other hand was cautiously watching the rumbling black clouds and rain that were coming our way and were happy to be heading down shortly after that.

Murray under his wind turbines - we must of counted about 40 - 45 of these beasts

We made it into Argostoli – the capital and found a hotel right on the port edge.  A very pretty spot with a lot more shops, cafes open than anywhere else.  The  walkway by the sea was cobbled with fancy curly patterns worked into the cobbles – reminded me of home a bit the pattern was like a punga tree fond and there were huge palm trees all the way along.  We found a nice Greek restaurant and had a nice dinner.  We had a few options what and where to go the next day and decided we would wait and see what the weather was going to do.  It was blowing a gale and we had had a few showers of rain too, but it was really warm. 

Agrostoli in the rain

The next day we headed off to find out about ferry, flights, bus, trains, and try and make some plans.  We were enjoying the island way of life so weren’t really in any great hurry.  We walked the shops and I got a haircut – at last not to bad a job too for 20 euros.  We decided we would head off for a drive, and decided not to go over to Lixouri (a short ferry trip across the bay) sounds like it was similar to this side.  So we headed to the airport to check out flights and came across a nice place called Ammes. 

Ammes beach

Lourdas beach

The coastline

Village road windy its way along the coastline

  Wow a neat little do nothing place right on the beach – hmmm so we went in and found out we could stay there for two nights for only 46 euros.  We checked out the local and stopped and had a quick drink and found out it wasn’t really open yet.  Then we decided to keep going south to check out another couple of beaches.  We drove what seemed miles and miles – but wasn’t and then came to a village called Lourdats and Lourdas Beach.  Another wonderful sprawling beach.   We decided an ale was in order so we headed off only to find nothing open until we drove past this white place which had its doors open and we looked in and the lady yelled out “we are not really open but come in and have a coffee on us” Cut a long story short they were a really nice English couple who had brought this place and were trying to open but there licence hadn’t come through yet so they couldn’t sell us anything.  It was a really cool place with a roof top area that had a 360ᵒ view over Lourdas Beach and the massive hills behind it, and a neat courtyard.  They were calling this place - Bar 360ᵒ, so check it out if you are every in this area.  We headed back into Argrostoli, went out for another nice dinner and made some decisions about tomorrow.

Leaving Porus - Murray didn't want to miss out on a photo - nerd!

Porus marina/port

heading to the ferry

After much to-ing and fro-ing we decided to take the rental car back to Porus and catch the 2pm ferry and then bus to Athens where we would stay the night and then the following day train north to Thessalonka, then bus to Sofia in Bulgaria, then bus to Smoylan  and then on to our next stop in Smilyan.  Maybe we would have another chance to check out another island later in our trip when the weather was a little more settled.

Thanks for having us Kefalonia – we hope to come back one day.