Roving the island of Kefalonia

Helena found another tour for us to go on today, this time to the highest point of the whole of the Ionian archipelago. It was part of a general tour of interesting places somewhat off the beaten track and we ha=enjoyed it very much. Instead of a boat we had a rather luxurious mini bus driven by Dimitri, a middle-aged and very affable local man in his own vehicle.  Melanie, our tour guide, has lived here for twenty years, would never return to live in England and gave us terrific service.  Interesting facts, pertinent details, unusual asides and a tendency to have a laugh, especially with Dimitri who she has known for many years.

We traversed nearly the whole of the southern part of the island, stopping for coffee and a visit to a Phoenician castle, which was the citadel and ancient centre in that era. Then we were driven up a series of hills and through a wonderful formal wildlife reserve to the very top of Mount Aenos where a new telecoms transmission centre was built at 1628 metres, apparently. This is quite high and is the highest point of all the Ionian islands in the west of Greece.

We all had to take photos to mark the occasion as we looked down and over the distant islands in the neighbouring seas.  The trees at this point are absolutely unique to this island and only grow above 800 metres. I asked Helena to pose and do a jig and she kindly obliged me, as you can see in one of the 'Extra photos'. The weather had been cloudy all day and sadly didn't improve so the views out were somewhat curtailed.

Then we descended the way we came and changed direction to the other side of the island to visit the 'big' town of Sami, population of locals being about 2000 people. The tour took us to their favourite restaurant which seemed to be a good idea, as it was a good family run business for local people and not just us tourists.

We sat down at our table on the edge of the harbour ordered our food, a plate of fresh sardines in my case and drank local white wine.  It is a tough life here, as several blippers have mentioned already, but we are hardy souls.  as we waited I turned to look at the water beside us and couldn't resist a shot of this fishing boat as it edged away from the quay to go to work. Then the sardines arrived (see another 'Extra photo') before I spent a good few minutes photographing swallows which were nesting in the arches of the restaurant walkway, also now in the 'Extra photos'.

A further drive to another viewpoint and then another small town completed a delightful day of the holiday, with the sun coming out for our last stop. The whole trip has been rather fine and a great way to spend a week so we aren't looking forward to leaving of Friday :o((