Kefalonia in the Ionian
The Adventures Continue

After our adventure in Halki the next Greek Island destination for the Steam Bears was Kefalonia in 1993.

When I first wrote this page I had a major problem in that there was a great lack of photos from our trip and I hoped that a good rummage around in the loft would come up with the goods.

Success ...

after several attempts and months later they appeared. At last!

So now that I have some real pictures I'll not only leave you with the previous sketches from the diary and library pictures as before but you can also see us in Kefalonia for real.

So ...

as you were:

Off We Go

Kefalonia - Land Rover Series IIIMoley - Our Old Series III Land Rover

As usual the adventure starts early in the morning at the Bears house. We had to get up at 3:00 am Sunday morning to make sure we were ready to drive to Birmingham airport, but as ever the early start only seems to add to the excitement.

For added interest, Daughter had been a bridesmaid for a friend the day before and we didn't get home till late on Saturday night. I don't know why we bothered to go to bed!!

It was a particularly slow noisy drive to the airport, as at the time we had an ancient Land Rover which struggled to get any speed at all on the motorways and we had to allow extra time in case of the need for running repairs. But the trusty LR got there with no problems.

Kefalonia - Air 2000 Air 2000

There was a delay at take-off as the captain had to plot a new flight route in order to avoid Italian air space (air controllers were on strike) and ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnian war).

... No volcano problems though

Kefalonia - Air 2000 Menu Air 2000 Menu

However once airborne the flight to Kefalonia with Air 2000 was uneventful. The only thing of note was that the catering wasn't at all bad.

We had booked a 'pot luck' holiday so we didn't know where we were staying until we landed at Kefalonia. The usual blast of hot Greek air welcomed us as we got off the plane, as did the local holiday rep who directed us to our transfer coach.

Our accommodation in Kefalonia turned out to be a self catering apartment attached to the Lorenzo hotel in Lassi. It had great views over the sea and being on the west coast we could watch the sunset. We were very happy.

The first task on arrival was to get the swimmies on and have a dip in the sea. Then an early supper of pizza (what no Greek food?) and then an early night as the excitement was very exhausting.

Lazy Days

The days soon fell into the routine of breakfast on the balcony with orange juice, 7-day croissants and soapy coffee (I must tell you about how we make filter coffee on our travels and how it invariably takes a bit like soap), followed by a lazy time on the beach, maybe stroll around Lassi and then showers and supper at a local taverna.

What more could you ask for ?

Lassi was a fairly low key little town not far from the main Kefalonia town of Argostoli. There are two good beaches, Makrys and Platys Gialos with fine sand and lovely clean blue sea.

It has since become more popular due to the proximity of the Captain Corelli Mandolin film location. The book itself was not even written until the year after we went,and the film not made until 2000.

Kefalonia - Crocodile Daughter on Crocodile

Daughter had taken her inflatable crocodile in addition to lilos, inflatable rings, beach balls etc., it was a wonder there was any room for clothes in our luggage. Mind you all you really need are a few swimmies, t-shirts and shorts, oh! and perhaps some smart kit for the evening. Anyway we had a great time in the waves with all these toys. The sea near us was not totally flat as we were on the west side of the island so more time was spent falling off the things rather than floating on them.

On a couple of evenings at dusk, we took some drinks down to the beach and had a little picnic. Sparklers in the sand and drinks cooled in the sea made for a great atmosphere.

One of our favourite tavernas was the Oil Press for a local speciality of Kefalonia meat pie. Another was The Oil Lamp (a bit of an oil theme here methinks) where Daughter was admiring the jasmine and, in true Greek style, the taverna lady picked some and give it to her.

Inevitably there were troops of cats and kittens around the tavernas. Daughter was very grateful for them, as once she chose a prawn salad which was perhaps not totally to her liking and the felines helped her finish it off.

Kefalonia - Mrs. S. Water SkiingMrs. S. at full Speed

There were water sports on Lassi beach and, although we are not generally sporty types, Mrs. S thought that she would have a go at water skiing. She had done it years before when she was Miss S (same letter, different name) and was apparently quite good at it.

Unfortunately ...

This time she was not successful and never really got going. We put it down to the less than perfect tuition from the guys in the tow boat

Mind you, on a positive note, she had great success more recently on a local lake in the chilly autumn weather back home.

Tours

In between eating, drinking, sunning and swimming, we managed to tour round most of Kefalonia. We had a couple of coach trips, a boat trip and hired a car to fill in the gaps.

The first coach trip took us around all the main tourist attractions of the sea mills (katavothres - καταβοθρες), the Drongarati and the underground lake at Melissani between Sami and Agia Evfimia.

The boat trip was a little more active with visits to Rabbit Island, barbeque on the beach and champagne bottle diving. All provided by Captain Makis and his crew

When we hired the car we retraced a bit of the coach tour to have a closer look at the Cyclopean Wall and then ventured further afield to take in Fiskardo, Asos, Myrtos beach, Lixouri and a couple of Venetian Fortresses

The other coach trip was only to Argostoli but it was a real tourist special as it was to a Greek Evening with food, wine and dancing

On all of our trips we used to take a couple of bottles of water that we had frozen overnight. It is a great way to have cool water most of the day. We reckon that we invented the idea which has obviously caught on as now you can buy them anywhere.

See our tours page to read a bit more about where we went.

Odds and Ends

Earthquakes are still common in Kefalonia . We awoke to one. It was a very strange feeling with the bed and furniture wobbling. It started a big family discussion about whether it was better to stand under the concrete door lintel or run like mad down the stairs in case the building collapsed. However all buildings are supposed to withstand earth tremors so it was a bit academic.

So that was it! Off home. The final trip back from the airport to home was a bit scary as I had managed to overdo the sun bathing and caught sunstroke. As I was not really able to drive, Mrs S had to do it but she had enjoyed the hospitality on the plane so she was not a lot better. Anyway we made it.

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