Today’s ride on Komoot (a massive ride of less than two kilometres)
I stayed in Vasiliki an extra night due to the national ferry strike. It may have been all transport but I’d never know. I was intending to take the daily 11am ferry to Fiskardo, Kefalonia on Wednesday but spent the day looking around the area. It’s a nice sleepy port village that I’ll bet gets crazy busy in summer.
Apparently, it’s a big windsurfing place too. That explained all of the equipment being cleaned and fixed ready for the season.
On Thursday morning, I took my time, packed up and went down to the port an hour before departure. There were cars and vans already lined up. I had a coffee at the coffee shop, got some more water, and went to the ticket office with 45 mins to spare.
Most of the cars had gone and there was no sign of the ferry by this stage. They’d relocated it due to the swell coming directly into the loading area. It was leaving in 30 mins from Nydri which was about 10 KMs north and over a big hill. The ferry guy told me he’d arrange transport, so he started making calls.
Finally, some German people (Tom and Olla) whose van was still lined up, returned and agreed to take me with them to Nydri. It was really nice of them. The ferry company said they’d hold the ferry until we arrived, and that was nice of them. It was nice all ’round.
There was no way I was riding to Nydri, even to catch tomorrow’s ferry, so it was great to still be able to get to Kefalonia today.
I said goodbye to Tom and Olla in Fiskardo, hit the supermarket, had lunch and thought about where to go for the night. Because of the delayed ferry, it was after 2:00pm with a strong wind from the west.
My original thought was to go to a place on the west coast and camp, but the wind ruined that idea. I looked at east coast options and there was a beach just a couple of kms away that looked suitable. It was a bit rocky but an ok campsite and almost deserted. A local tradie gave me the thumbs up, so I wheeled the bike down and looked for a place to pitch the tent.
It was fantastic. So relaxing. I sat around for an hour or so in my damaged chair – I still don’t trust it.
Later, I pitched the tent and got organised. I thought about a swim too, but the ‘beach’ was full of sharp rocks and by that time it started to get cool, so I wimped out.
After superb weather for the last week, it’s going to be cooler with some rain for the next week. I think it’s on the cusp of being very very nice after that though.
I had my dolmades entree while looking across to the island of Ithaca and watching the shadows get longer. Then I cooked up a mushroom pasta dish that went down very well. (It’s so easy when there’s a supermarket a kilometre or so from where you camp). Dessert was some chocolate, then a cleanup and some serious catching up on the blog. The phone reception here was really good. The only interruption was a herd of goats coming down to feed but they were very wary of me. Finally, it got dark.
All in all, this was a great day, finished off in a beautiful quiet spot that had idyllic written all over it. I thought about staying longer but rain was expected to start in the morning and continue for the rest of the day.