Nidri
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Wed 16 Oct 2013 15:41
Nidri (Neilson Pontoon)
Tuesday 24th – Friday 27th September
We motored down the Lefkas canal and on through the small islands dotted at the north end of the entrance to Nidri passing a couple of fishing type ports where we saw several yachts berthed –food for thought another time. Our friends on China Blue and Mariah were already berthed on the Neilson Yacht Charter company’s pontoon and had reported there was sufficient room for us to go there too. This was to prove handy as we could all then be together for Jacky’s birthday celebrations on the 26th. We arrived and decided to take a space on the north side of the pontoon which was OK but we discovered that the depth close in where we had to drop our anchor was pretty shallow – just 2 metres! We had 34 metres out and ended up in 3.5 metres once all fast on the pontoon. However the following day we moved to the south side of the pontoon when a space came available and were happier with laying the anchor in 4 metres and getting nearly 40 metres of chain out as there was much more space to approach from this side. The pontoon is opposite a small hotel with a nice pool and we were able to use this and the toilets providing we frequented the café/bar! The main high street of Nidri is just 50 meters from the root of the pontoon with all its shops and tavern and the waterfront promenade made a lovely evening stroll. Our other friends on Sycorax were on the main town quay and we joined them for drinks on the first night of our stay. They moved up to the Neilson pontoon the following day to be nearer to the rest of us.
On the day of Jacky’s birthday she had a haircut and then found a lovely cake to take to the taverna – Catamaran where we were eating later. A big surprise in the late afternoon came when other old friends from our Chichester racing days arrived in time to join the celebrations Jackie and Roger Morris on their boat Anna Louise V1! Everyone came for champagne and nibbles on board Arwen before we all went to a local restaurant recommended by Brian and Gerry for our party meal. Check out the photographs on facebook!
It was back to more mundane things the following day – laundry at the small service facility just north of the hotel on the main road, where a wash and dry costs 10 Euros. The hotel also has machines that can be used for 4 Euros to do a self-service wash.
There are some good small supermarkets in Nidri and a couple of fresh fruit and vegetable shops and several butchers all on the main road which runs parallel to the harbour. The nearest bread shop is behind the hotel and turn left but the service and choice of bread is pretty grim – it is worth walking along towards the main area of shops to get a better selection and a smile from the shop staff! We took a bus to Lidl one morning – but it is actually almost in Lefkas town so we should have waited until we went back there! However we were able to see the coast line from the road and passed several hotel complexes and two small harbours where we noted a few yachts berthed alongside – possibly places to check out next season.
On Friday we left for Port Atheni on Meganissi.