Jenny joined us in Sami, Kefalonia on a lovely sunny day and sampled the delights of Greek food in the waterfront taverna's that evening. The following morning we motored in light winds to the capital of Ithaka, Vathy.  We have written about Vathy before but the photographs of the huge bay and tiny shoreline church tell a better story.

 

The next day saw us motoring again to the island of Meganisi and to Port Atheni where we anchored stern to the rocks.  This bay has become on of our favourites. We enjoyed swimming and dinghied Jenny around the bay and to the beach in glorious sunshine.

The next morning we walked inland to the tiny village of Katomeri where traditional Greek life goes on largely unchanged. The narrow cobbled alleyways and tiny gardens full of fragrant flowers.  The very elderly ladies still wear their layered black clothes with head scarves. We passed an old taverna with some elderly gentleman enjoying a game of back gammon together. I photographed the lovely old taverna but not the gentlemen out of respect----- as we left they called me back to get their pictures taken!!---see below.

As we wondered through the village a lady pulling a cart passed us calling out her ‘wears’, she had clothes hanging from it--- on the cobbled streets it felt almost a timeless moment where traders have sold their ‘wears’ for centuries.   These are the great moments of ‘off patch’ travelling.

In the square we found the church of Agion Apostolon ,built in 1840. We spoke to a shopkeeper who had returned to her ‘Katomeri’ roots from America who kindly asked the priest to open it for us—see photos.

 

From Port Atheni we motored the short  distance to Vathy the capital of Meganisi, again in glorious sunshine.

After an overnight stay in the pretty port we motored south through the beautiful channel between Meganisi and the islet of Thilia where the water shallows to turquoise. We continued down the coast passing the caves of Papa Nicholis once again. Once we cleared the south tip of Meganisi the sails went up and we headed for Frikes on the island of Ithaka.  Jenny did a fantastic job of helming the boat under full sail on a great beam reach for the 15 n miles.

  

Frikes is a tiny fishing village on the north east tip of Ithaka, now becoming a small stop over for visiting yachts with a few shops and taverna's. We enjoyed a calm overnight stay before getting up early to motor round the north coast of Ithaka to the harbour port of Fiskardho on Kefalonia.

We have written about Fiskardho in previous blogs, its a pretty harbour now developed by tourism but is a lovely place. After a nice day and swim at the nearby beach we had a lovely evening and overnight stay before heading south through the channel between Ithaka and Kefalonia to the harbour at Ayios Efimia.

We enjoyed our last day together swimming off the little pebbled beach.

 

We had a lovely time with Jenny,  exploring the islands, relaxing, swimming, chatting and eating good traditional Greek food.

 

Photos of-----------

Tioram waiting for Jenny

Vathy, Ithaka bay and shoreline church.

Jenny pops on shoes to go exploring.

Jenny helms to Meganisi

Port Atheni bay—Tioram moored to the rocks

Katomeri village and flora

Elderly gentlemen in the Katomeri taverna

 

See next blog for more Jenny Photo’s

 

love to all

Tina and Tony x x x