Corfu Day 6

Greek salads since my last blog: 2

Greek salads so far: 6

Number of times lost: We lost count

Double Greek salads! Well to be fair the extra one was a side dish with last nights excellent meal at our hotel. The feta was made into a mousse - very nice and I think that still counts.

We decided the hotel restaurant had to be given a chance and it delivered some pretty good flavours for very reasonable bill. A shared anchovy tart to begin, followed by octopus sous vide for Nareesa and rib-eye something or other for me. Other than they slightly over did my rare beef, it was pretty good. And with pairing wines by the glass for just over a fiver, they did a pretty damn good job. It will be back to our local tavernas by the beach tonight, but that is no hardship. Its a tough life.

But before that we have spent today making an attempt at Rob’s u-turn record of 14 in one day. OK we have fallen somewhat short (including car parks I think we might have managed 9 - excluding them a creditable 6 or 7), but it wasn’t for lack of trying. We got utterly lost in the island interior, where road signs and road markings are like hen’s teeth and all roads look much the same. Although as it turns out they all seem to lead to Corfu Town! I lost count of how many times we saw the old fortress on the hill overlooking the town and the cruise liners anchored off shore. As to who’s fault all this was? Well I was driving. Just saying! We did see a lot of lovely olive trees though!

This I think allows Nareesa to be inducted into the idiot biker hall of fame. Which I am sure she is absolutely chuffed about. But as is always the case on any bike trip (and this now counts as one) it is the getting lost that is the most fun. I just wish I had been able to take a picture of the two elderly Greek men in some unpronounceable village as we passed them for the third time. I’m sure they didn’t give a toss, but they did momentarily look up quizzically as if to say “WTF?”, or whatever the equivalent in Greek is.

We did eventually reach Agios Gordios, recommended by our hotel receptionist and, as it happens, by our friends Peter and Alison. Lovely place: sandy beach as it is on the west coast; lots of beach side tavernas to choose for our daily research project; and a lovely main street down to the sea to browse all the things we didn’t buy. The fact that it took us two and half hours to do what google maps says is a 35 minute drive is neither here nor there!

We did of course stop for coffee on the way - don't ask where, we have no idea!

Having finally realised that the main roads are so quiet it is not worth riding off into the boonies, we then headed up the west coast to Palaiokastritsa (I copied the spelling off google maps, but I still can’t say it), to beautiful sheltered coves, idyllic beaches, cliff diving and what looked like quite a few great places to stay. I wasn’t allowed to do the cliff diving for fear of breaking yet another part of my body that to date has stayed intact (probably wise, there aren’t that many), and it was too late to hire a boat (also wise, we would just have got lost), so we were forced to have another coffee overlooking one of the beautiful bays before heading back across the mountains to home.

And so another amazing day draws to a close. Just a dip in the pool to be had before sundowners on the beach, and then the onerous task of deciding where to eat dinner. Lucky for me I am eating so much Greek salad, or this would be dangerous territory!

Sad to give back the “big” Honda but two days probably enough. Feeling very lucky to be here for 9 nights. The standard 7 would mean that tomorrow would be our last full day. Sorry, I’m not quite ready to shut up and go home!

Some final pics of the day:

View approaching Agios Gordios, when we finally found it.

It says on here, that we are no longer on the road, or indeed any road!

I was not allowed to do this! Can't think why.

Nareesa's rather fabulous sous vide octopus last night.

And finally, today's research. Unremarkable to be honest, but no lettuce and white onions (not as good as red) and green olives (not as good as black). But in very nice bar overlooking the west coast and accompanied by an aubergine thingy that I won't be ordering again! Nareesa quite liked it though.

I'm liking Corfu!