What to do? We knew it was a short walk today. Do we get up early like normal even though the distance is short, of do we sleep in a bit? Sleeping in sounds great and we don’t need the added time getting up early gives us, but . . . and this is a big but, it starts getting hotter with the sun beating down from above. Better to get up early and get the miles done before the sun turns up the volume.
We picked our place to stay because it was on the water, well rated and in a beautiful setting. What seemed unfortunate at the time we booked was its location-about 2 miles off the Corfu Trail.
Studying the maps and Google Earth it looked like there was a shortcut to get us back on route, but it entailed an 800 foot climb through cliffs. Was there really a trail there? The map showed one, but was it maintained?
Last night, we walked down on to the docks at the marina and talked to a number of people until we found someone that knew of the trail. “Oh yes! The trail to Lacones! Beautiful trail. Take a right, then a left and then look for the sign.” My fear was we climb 500’ and then find the trail impassible and have to descend and climb another route, but with this emphatic assurance, we set out to climb to Lacones and rejoin the Corfu Trail.
We were a little lazier than usual and rose at 5:30am. KT tape on Sally’s feet, breakfast and packing and we were hiking at 6:30am. A cool 64ยบ. Following mostly the GPS, but with the verbal instructions from the night before rattling in my head, we made a right, then a left and began our climb.
It was road for the first 300 vertical feet, but the steepest road I have every been on. The road turned to trail. With rock walls directly above, the trail could not go straight up.
From below the wall looked like a solid front, but as we climbed we could see it was two walls, one in front of the other. Between them was a slot, maybe 100’ wide. It sloped steeply up, but not vertical and the trail switch backed up this slot, all the way to the top. Very cool! I don’t know how long ago this trail was established, but it was stone paved and terraced with rock walls. It took us less than an hour to reach the top and road there that is the Corfu Trail. We turned left and continued on.
The town of Lacones sits at the top of the trail and we walked through its streets. As we did we heard a load speaker bellowing something in Greek. It reminded me of the Nazi occupation I’ve seen in films where a car runs up and down through the town announcing the new laws imposed by the Third Reich. As the van approach the din was deafening. As it passed I saw it was a family selling potatoes, watermelon, onions and peppers. It was 7:50am on a Sunday morning. I suspect the announcement was “Potatoes, watermelon, onions.” It struck us as rude. I would think people would be annoyed rather than welcoming.
This road is perched high up and runs level along the top of the cliffs. It is a continuous restaurant, ice cream shop on the cliff side, each bragging about their views out over the Ionian Sea. Of course, on an early Sunday morning everything was closed, but we did enjoy the views as we walked along. We were thankful for the lack of traffic because the road was less than two lanes wide in places and would have put us in jeopardy if any cars were on it. We saw none.
The road turned inland and widened. We soon came to a town, found an early opening Taverna and Sally got a Coke.
The mornings are so nice! Quiet. No one around. No cars. The air is cool. The birds are chirping. Wonderful.
When I lived in Seattle with my parents, back in the day, I would rise at first light on Saturday and Sunday mornings and ride my bike across Seattle to the zoo. I had the city to myself. No traffic. Quiet. Wonderful. I am glad my natural inclination is to rise early. It is the best part of the day.
The trail started down, through olive groves and open fields. The butterflies were thick. We stopped to video them drinking nectar from the flowers.
The trail went through a slot in the rocks and emerged onto a cliff face, then ran diagonally down the cliff face, wide and with a wall on the outside.
We passed a group of four rock climbers on the cliff face. All of Agios Georgios was visible across the wide bay about 3 miles away. If we had known which seaside hotel was ours, we could have picked it out from our vantage point.
The trail descended into the olive groves and wound down to the shore, then followed it into town. Again, we picked a room about as far from the trail as could be attained. We walked the extra 3/4 of a mile along the road and then onto the beach until we found Houmis Apartments and Studios. We were greeted by the owner, Alex and were shown our room after a few minutes. Excellent. Ground floor. Nice walled patio.
We had lunch in their outdoor restaurant, I had Greek salad, Sally a club sandwich. All the tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers and olive oil come from Alex and Monica’s gardens.
We had a problem that needed solving. Tomorrow’s hike is about 12 miles and 3400’ of elevation gain and 2400’ of elevation loss. This is more than we want to tackle in a day. We worked out this solution. We will lay around the beach all afternoon, go swimming, relax, sun bath. Then at 5:00pm, when it is starting to cool, we will take a taxi up to where the Corfu Trail crosses a road, be dropped off there and hike back. A little research shows we can hike 3.5 miles of the 12 tonight and knock off about 1200’ of the climbing. Alex and Monica arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 5:00pm. We executed our plan.
The driver dropped us at our requested place on the road. We quickly found the “trail” and started back to town. We were slack packing. Sally had nothing on her back, me a small day pack. At a mile and a half from town, just as we were climbing up into a small. hillside town we were hailed by a tall, thin man in his 60’s, in English.
We spent the next hour with Malcolm, a retired dentist from England that bought about a city block in this small town 8 years ago and has been living here since. He discover he liked to sing and now sings in choirs and does opera. He showed us his home he is remodeling, his gardens, his friend’s remodeled homes with spectacular views. He was engaging, animated and really a joy to spend an hour with. An unexpected encounter, but the kind that makes traveling so fun. It was now 8:00pm, but with only a mile and a half to go and plenty of time before the sun set we headed for home.
The trail was steep going down to St. George, but we were back by 9:00pm, satisfied with our scheme to reduce the next stage’s distances and elevations. We arranged for the taxi driver to pick us up at 6:00am Tuesday morning and deliver us to the same spot as today, only this time we will hike away from St. George, not back to it.
Beautiful scenery today. Magnificent landforms and topography. Our hosts, Alex and Monica are absolute sweethearts. Kind, helpful, sincere. They work the restaurant and apartments all day, everyday, yet have big smiles and such warmth. They have about 1000 olive trees that they harvest the olives from in late October and November, after the tourist season, then cold press the oil to sell. They have two kids that help in the businesses. Monica is from Hungary originally. It will be hard to leave this place on Tuesday
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