Day 14 - Monday 7th September

Most of the time, we shared a table for meals with the Austrian man (Leo) and the Columbian family (Joaquin, Rocio and Carolina). It was the same again this morning.

Suzy and I had put our names down for the guided tour of the island today but there were only three of us on the list whereas they need a minimum of twelve for the tour to run. Someone told us that the Germans had organised to hire cars so they could drive around the island themselves instead of going on the organised tour.

We asked Thanos to tell us how we could do the same thing but he told us that he had already told the Germans and so wasn’t going to tell us. As you might expect, we were surprised by this answer. Thanos has a strange sense of humour and so we were not sure if he was joking or not.

Even if it was a joke, he made no effort to help us. So I left the boat to find the tourist information office. This turned out to be easier than I thought because it was in the first building – right next door to the maritime authority’s office – about 25m from the boat. I collected maps of the town and the island as well as glossy brochures describing the sites. I also got the phone numbers for various car hire companies.

Back on the boat, Thanos showed us his map of the island. He wouldn’t let us keep it and he wouldn’t let us write on it. He didn’t have any other copies to give us. He seemed to be surprised and impressed that I had managed to get maps and brochures. He put crosses on my map to indicate sites that were worth visiting.

We managed to convince him to ring the car hire companies for us. I asked him to make sure that it had automatic transmission. He eventually found a people-mover that was big enough for the six of us (Suzy, me, the Austrian man and the Columbian family).

The car that arrived 20 minutes later was a nice little Fiat Scudo that could have seated 8 or 9 people at a pinch. Unfortunately it wasn’t automatic as I had requested.

The others in our group hadn’t brought their drivers licences with them on the holiday and so Suzy and I were the only ones who could drive it. I ended up doing the driving and Suzy did the navigating with the help of our TomTom, our maps and our travelling companions in the back two rows of seats.

We eventually got away at 10:45am – more than an hour and a half later than the organised tour was supposed to leave. It seems to me that Thanos, our cruise director on the boat, could have been more helpful and proactive.

The first place we stopped was at Lassi, a small town south of Argostoli. Leo, the Austrian man, didn’t have a camera but Carolina and Joaquin each had a camera and both took lots of photos throughout the day - as did I.

Next we drove towards Skala which is on the south-east corner of the island. I drove slowly and carefully because of the narrow winding roads and the extra responsibility of having six people on board. The manual transmission made it harder. It became more difficult when we drove through a thunderstorm with heavy rain. I’m starting to get used to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

At Skala we parked the car next to the beach. By this time, the rain had decreased to showers and then the sun came out at just the right time as we took photos on the beach.

It was only a short drive to the next town, Poros, where we stopped for lunch in a café overlooking the beach. Along the way we enjoyed the views of the rugged coastline and the Ardriatic Sea that was now a beautiful blue colour in the sunshine.

The German group was in the same café having lunch when we arrived. In our group, Leo and Jodquin both enjoyed a bottle of Mythos, an excellent local beer. I decided not to have any alcohol because I needed to be alert for the drive.

Our next destination was Sami which is a town about midway along the eastern coast of the island. We went to a beach called Antisami which is a few kilometres east of the town. They haven’t invented adjectives yet that could adequately describe the beauty of this location. The sea is warm and crystal clear. On three sides, there are tree-lined hills. In the distance you can see other islands. It is picture postcard perfect.

The only negative aspect of the beach is that it has pebbles rather than sand and so it is hard on the feet. Most of the locals wear rubber thongs or wrap-around plastic shoes when they walk on the beach and when they walk into the water.

On the other side of Sami we stopped at Melasani lake which is an underground lake filled with water that has travelled through the nearby hills. After paying the entrance fee, you enter through a man-made tunnel down to the cavern where a gondolier-type boat takes you across the lake. The first part of the lake is open to the sky. He then guides the boat into an underground cavern with stalactites and stalagmites.

Next we drove across the island towards the west. Along the way, we came across a small heard of goats on the side of the road - another photo opportunity. During the day we saw other mountain goats on the cliffs on the side of the road.

Our destination was a town called Assos. Until this part of the trip, we had thought the road was narrow and windy but as we approached Assos it became very challenging. The road is built into a steep cliff with a sheer drop of 200m to the sea below with numerous hairpin bends. On the side of the road there are signs warning you of falling rocks from the cliffs above and we saw plenty of evidence that they weren’t kidding.

Although Greek villages have a reputation of being charming and pretty, Assos is a particularly pretty town. We would have liked to have spent more time there but we had to get back to the boat by 8pm for dinner. The girls in the back seat were nervous about driving back along the cliff-side road out of Assos and begged me to continue driving very slowly.

We successfully reached the port at 7:45pm after filling up with petrol just beforehand. As we parked the car, the others thanked me for doing the driving and getting them home safely over all the difficult roads. They even gave me a round of applause.

The car hire company said to leave the car in the carpark and to put the key in the pocket inside the driver’s door and they would come and pick it up about an hour later. They seem to be very trusting.

I needed a stiff drink with dinner. In fact we all needed quite a few. However, the day had been an exciting adventure that we will never forget.

At dinner, the captain made a brief announcement that they were still having problems with the boat’s propeller and they were waiting for assistance to arrive from Athens. He said he would make another announcement at breakfast.

After dinner, we went for a stroll through the town as we did last night. We noticed that the hire car was gone and we hoped that it was picked up by the hire car company rather than by someone else.