Facing 3400’ of elevation gain and 12+ miles for the 8th stage of our Corfu Trail hike, we knew we needed to somehow make it less distance and less elevation gain. As told in yesterday’s blog, we had a taxi drive us up the road a couple miles to where the Corfu Trail crossed the road, drop us off and we hiked the 3.5 miles back. That meant that this morning our first steps were to the taxi again, to be driven to the same location, only this time we walk away from Agios Georgios North and toward Sokraki.
The taxi was prompt, arriving exactly at 6:00am. We loaded up and rode the ten minutes to the same spot, unloaded and were on our way.
Another wonderful morning of walking. Not too much up today until the last 3/4 mile. Another beautiful morning of walking through miles of olive groves, small towns and along country roads, with a mile or so of actual trail thrown in.
The temperature started at 50º and slowly rose throughout the morning, topping off at about 78º. At one point we came upon a major road and saw a olive wood gallery, displaying items made from olive trees. Sally wants a large cutting board made from a round so we walked to the store to check it out. They had lots of cutting boards, but none big enough (thankfully, or I would be carrying it for the next 3 days).
We actually crossed a creek today, balancing on rocks to get across. That is the first time on this hike. Also, water was running on the trail surface for 100’ or so. We tried to skirt it, but both ended up with damp feet and shoes.
Sally was wondering at the flowers and bushes we had been seeing. This triggered a memory. I had downloaded to my phone an app called “Picture This”, a plant identification app. Supposedly, you simply point your iPhone camera at a flower, or foliage, snap the shutter and the app identity’s the plant. Right. I have played with programs like this before and they are wildly inaccurate. I had a 7 day free trial and had been saving it for the hike. With Sally’s prompting I started the trial period to see how it worked, fully intent on cancelling the trial before the 7 days were up, especially when I discovered how bad it was. We saw a flower we had been seeing for days, I launched the app, pointed the camera at it, clicked the shutter and BOOM!, it identified it perfectly! Really? Here is another flower we don’t know. Click. BOOM! Perfect identification. What? Over the next half an hour our pace slowed to a crawl as we identified over 50 species along the trail. It compares your photo to one it has on record so you can check the validity, and it was right every. single. time. Amazing.
We sat down about 10:30 for first lunch, breaking out the bread we had bought and the jar of orange marmalade Monika had given to us and an apple.
As we sat enjoying our lunch we heard voices and soon we saw a group of 15 Germans come hiking over the brow of the hill. They stopped and chatted with us for about 10 minutes, discussions ranging from home towns to Yosemite to climate change before they journeyed on.
We climbed the last hill into the town of Sokraki around noon, turned right at the T and found a delightful little town square with a brightly colored cafe. In front of the cafe was a pickup loaded with vegetables and fruit.
We quickly stepped up and purchased plums, bananas, apples, potatoes, an onion and a carrot. Seated off to the side was our group of Germans eating a lunch. Sally went over, took pictures of the group, talked with a few and generally acted like herself
while I gathered our produce and paid for it.
We sat down, had a coke and shared a piece of amazing walnut cake. The woman running the store, bubbly, kind, about 45 was friendly and fun to interact with. We asked if there was a grocery store in town.
She said no, everyone here grew all their own food and the few things they needed they got from the guy in the pickup truck when he came to town.
This put us in a bind, because we enjoy a couple eggs each morning, or anything for that matter as except for the produce we bought and a loaf of bread we had purchase from a bread truck earlier this morning, we were out of food. We asked her if she could sell us a four eggs. She said she would be happy to give us 4, returned into her store and we could hear her bundling up eggs for us. She returned with them in an aluminum tray covered with foil. We bought water and Cokes from her as well, then headed down the road about 300m to our villa for the night.
We had picked this place off Booking.com. It looked great. Had a pool and sounded wonderful.
This morning I got an email from the man who owns the property (it sits on about 10 acres) saying he was sorry he wouldn’t be there when we arrived but that he had upgraded us to the 4 person villa for free to make up for his absence.
The key was in the door and to move in and help ourselves.
He was good to his word. We found the key in the door and opened it to find a living room, dining room and kitchen on the main floor with two bedrooms and a bath upstairs.
All tile and wood. Beautiful. We dropped our packs, put on our suits and headed to the pool. We spent the next hour swimming and sunbathing before we determined that was enough sun and moved into the shaded veranda. However, there was stiff wind blowing and it was (believe it or not) cold. We moved inside and turned on the head. We were both freezing. We cooked dinner, wrote and read when Nicko, the owner showed up.
Nicko was kind, gracious, apologetic and wanted to show us the place. He is the third generation to live here and each generation has added their improvements, including massive retaining walls faced in stone to create terraces on this sloping hillside location, a swimming pool and extensive gardens and orchards. He led us to his cherry tree when we picked a bowl for our enjoyment. Truly, we are living way above our station while staying here.
We crawled into bed about 9:30pm, anxious to get under the covers to get warm. What an amazing day!!
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