Is this our last early morning? I hope so. I hope not. Yes, it is tough getting up before it is light out, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, trying to get your body and brain to come back to full time employment. But, the cool air, the quiet of the world, the early morning light, the sunrise, the sense of getting the world off to a great start. Those can’t be gotten any other way. I love the early mornings, and luckily, when on adventures such as this, so does Sally.
Our alarm was set for 5:00am, but as usual, I was awake half an hour before. We got up and packed, our morning routine. Each of us double checked the room for left items, under the bed, in the bathroom, in the cabinets, out on the deck. At Paramonas a week earlier we had left our guide book in the room. We chastised ourselves for days, trying to figure out how we could have left it. I had a vague memory of haphazardly putting it in my pack, watching it slide out onto the floor and thinking, I’ll get that in a minute when I come out of the bathroom.” I must have forgotten. Five days later, Sally found it in the side pocket of her travel bag. We hadn’t left it at all, but its supposed loss made us extra vigilant about checking the room to be certain we had not left anything.
The taxi pulled up about 5:50am and we headed out the door. It was a younger kid driving, about 23-25 years old. The ride was only about 5 miles, but in walking terms, that is better than two hours. It took us about 10 minutes in the car.
We were a little squeezed for time this morning. Having the taxi drop us off at the end of the trail, we were at the farthest distance from the bus stops. Hiking it backwards, we were hiking towards the bus stop. I had measured about 4.4 miles back to the first bus stop from the end. We started walking about 6:15am, giving us about three and a half hours to hike the trail and the road back to the bus route. Plenty of time, but we wanted to savor these last steps and enjoy the sunrise on this northern most point of land on Corfu.
We found the trail and followed it along the coast line. Here the coast is solid limestone, weathered by the waves into a million solid rock daggers pointing upwards.
Not a beach for sunbathing, but the trail is just above the wave high water mark and for the most part easy walking, except for long stretches where the bedrock sticks up through the dirt requiring careful foot placements to avoid twisting an ankle.
We started before the sun rise, and were presented with its arrival as we moved westward, giving us wonderful lighting with the early morning sun on our backs. We tried to draw out this portion of the hike as long as possible, stopping for photos and a snack and just to admire our position on the planet. Life is indeed good.
Too soon, we were back on roads and making our way to Acharavi. We tried hitchhiking again, but with only 1.5 miles to walk and feeling fresh after a night’s sleep, we weren’t too worried about success. One guy in a pickup slowed down and in very broken English asked how far we were going. When I said Acharavi, he said he was turning off before that and drove away.
We achieved the first bus stop, but it was only 8:45am and was outside of town. We decided to walk further until we were in town and could sit at a sidewalk cafe to wait for our bus. Another 20 minutes and we were there. We ordered a big sugar donut, a Coke and a water. Sally had some things she needed at the store, and there was a good sized one across the street. She spent the next 40 minutes making trips to stores finding what she wanted.
At 9:35am, she saw a Green Bus go by and got to worrying that it might have been early and we had missed it. We moved from cafe to bus stop and waited. At 10:05am our bus went past on the other side of the street, disappeared for abut 10 minutes, then reappeared coming our way. For 7.20 euro, we had a seat, our packs in the hold below and we were on our way to Corfu Town.
The bus dropped us in downtown Corfu, a place we had visited before on the day before we started our hike while waiting for the bus to Kavos. We navigated to our new home for 5 nights, an AirB&B overlooking the port where the cruise ships and ferries dock.
We found the building, it matching the photos the owner had emailed us, but couldn’t get in the door. I called to let her know we were outside the door. She answered, then yelled down from the third floor balcony of the apartment, directly over us.
I had texted her the day before we were planning to catch the 10:00am bus and should be there about noon. I texted her this morning saying we had caught the bus and should be there about noon. I was guessing at the length of the bus ride and the time it would take us to walk to the building from the bus stop. Checking the phone log on my iPhone as I write this, I see I called her at 11:57am. Pretty good guesswork and timing.
Litsa was wonderful. A 72 year old widow living outside Corfu, I am guessing this is the apartment her and her late husband shared. She has done a wonderful job of decorating and providing every little detail to her guest, soap, laundry soap, sugar, salt pepper, spices, beer and sodas, a tin of cookies, drying racks, and so much more. She was kind, helpful . . . simply-lovely.
Once Litsa left, we had a couple missions-wash all our clothes and then head to town to find Sally some shoes for the wedding and maybe a new dress. The washing machine is one of those annoying front loaders that takes over an hour to wash a load so we were stuck in the apartment for a couple hours. Once we got our clothes on the drying rack we headed to town. I went to put on my sandals and couldn’t find them. Now that I thought about it, I did not remember taking them out of my pack. Really? How could I have left them at our last place? We both double and triple checked everywhere before we left. Jeepers!! Oh well, we were headed to town to do some shopping, add new Teva’s for Chuck to the list of items. I put my hiking shoes back on, with wet socks that had not had time to dry after the washing and we were out the door.
On our way to the center of town, we passed a shoe shop specializing in active footwear. I found a nice pair of Teva Sandals for 50 euro. That was quick. We spent another couple hours shopping (actually, Sally was shopping, I was hanging outside the stores texting with Sara about where to meet for the bus ride to Lefkimmi in the morning for the prewedding boat cruise and checking bus schedules for routes to Achellion Palace, adjacent to the Ekaterina Villa where the bridal party was staying and where the wedding would take place).
I thought I had a bus route and time all picked out, but I wanted to stop by the bus ticket office and confirm. It was now 4:30pm. I assumed they would close at 5:00pm on a Friday and not open again until Monday. I interrupted Sally’s shopping to have us walk there. It was a good thing I did. The Saturday bus schedule is pared way down from the weekday schedule in normal times, and pared even more due to COVID. The websites and printed materials are not up to date with the changes. I had planned for us to ride bus route 10 at 7:30am to the Achellion Palace, arriving about 8:00am for the ride to the docks by shuttle bus at 8:45am with Sara, Andrew and the bridal party, parents and parent’s friends. At the bus station we found the first bus didn’t run until 10:00am. So much for riding a bus. A line of taxis was sitting across the street. I asked one of the drivers sitting in his car about a ride in the morning and the cost. He quoted 20 euro and said call the station about 10 minutes before you want a ride. Done.
I’ve left you hanging regarding Sally’s quest for wedding gear. She found a pair of shoes to match her dress, deciding not to get a new dress in the process. Still entertaining the thought, we tried a couple more stores and a couple more dresses, to no avail.
We walked back home, stopping at a fruit and vegetable stand for food, and the grocery just around the corner for a few more items to stock our shelves.
Fried sausage, potatoes, onions and scrambled eggs for dinner, writing and posting to Facebook and the day was done.
Other that a lost pair of Tevas, the day was a success. We spent a few minutes congratulating ourselves on the way in which all our lodgings, transportations and timings had worked out during the past 3 and a half weeks. With all the hotel changes, taxi rides, flights and bus trips during the apocalypse, we were happy that they had all worked as we had planned. We are now in the final phase of our trip, the wedding. That starts tomorrow with a boat trip with the wedding party. Onward!!
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