Day 22-Tuesday, June 15, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 11 - Agios Georgios North to Sokraki - 8.08 miles - The Plan Worked!!

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!!

Day 21-Monday, June 14, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 9 - Agios Georgios North Zero Day - 0 miles - Lazy

Sometimes it is nice to do nothing at all. Not very often, mind you, but today was that day. We slept a little later than usual, took our time getting moving in the morning and didn’t emerge to greet the world until about 11:00am. We asked Monika, the owner of the restaurant and rooms about where to rent a scooter. We had visions of touring around the north end of the island today. Monika called and said they would bring scooters to us, all we had to do was sit and wait. About 15 minutes later a SUV pulled up. The driver introduced himself and asked what type of Driver’s license I had. I showed him my Washington License. Oops. Not good enough. He insisted Greek Law required an International Drivers Permit. We almost got one before we came, but time got away from us. They rented us a car at the airport a couple weeks ago, but this guy said he couldn’t rent us a scooter. 

A little bummed, but not too bad. We spent the afternoon lion beach chairs sunning ourselves and reading and writing instead of zipping around on a scooter. 

The winds were forecast to be strong today and they were correct. Whitecaps appeared and occasional gusts whipped sea spray up into the air. 

I searched online and found a site that claims to offer International Drivers Permits in two hours. I filled out the online forms, but when it came time to give them my credit card number I stopped. Is this a scam?  I searched the web, but couldn’t get a decisive answer. I decided to walk to the closest scooter rental shop and ask the owner if the digital permit was valid. Sally decided to come. It was about a mile walk. On our way to the rental shop we passed a small rental lot on a corner and stopped in to ask. The employee called his boss. They claimed we didn’t need the international permit. We carried on to the rental shop, but they were closed. So I still don’t have a definitive answer. We want to rent a scooter in Corfu City for a few days to get around. Is the electronic permit valid?  Have to wait for Corfu City to find out. 

We shared a burger for dinner then had our picture taken with Alex and Monika. 

Packed and in bed by 10:30am. 

Lazy day. But a good one.

Day 20-Sunday, June 13, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 8 - Paleokastritsa to Agios Georgios North- 8 miles - A Beautiful Walk

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 64º. 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

Day 19-Saturday, June 12, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 7 - Pelekas to Paleokastritsa- 18.3 miles/taxi ride - Why Didn’t We Stay Here Two Days?

There are no English here. This island, Corfu, is a haven for the English looking to vacation in a warm, sunny climate, away from the rain and fog that is England’s weather. But, Greece is considered an “amber” country by Great Britain. This means that if you travel to Greece, when you return to your home you must quarantine yourself for 2 weeks upon arrival. If you vacation in Greece for 2 weeks, then you have to take a month of vacation, 2 weeks for Greece and 2 weeks for the inside of your home. Consequently, no one from England is coming here. We did meet one English couple, but they work from home anyway, so quarantine at home is not a hardship.

There are lots of Germans here on the northwest coast of Corfu. This is an area that is popular with Germans. There are no travel restrictions for these people, so there are a fair number of them here.

Today, Sally is taking a taxi so she can have a day of rest. I am hiking the 18 miles to our next beach. 

I was up at 5:30am this morning, packed and out the door at 6:00am. With 18 miles in front me, I was anxious to get an early start and to move quickly.

There are so many forks in this trail as it follows roads that afford views and vistas that one must keep a wary eye as to which way to go.Twice, in the first 3/4 mile I took wrong turns, one a 1/4 mile before I discovered it and retraced my steps. In trying to move fast I was making mistakes.

In its desire to be a scenic trail, it drops down to what is considered the most beautiful little beach on the island, one that Larry Durrell spoke of. The way the trail is routed, I could skip this part. It would save me about 2.5 miles and 1000’ of climbing. 

As I approached the fork in the trail, left down to the beach, right skip and onward, I debated which way to go. Somehow, I couldn’t skip this loop. Down I went.

It was worth the extra miles and vertical feet.

 “Larry’s Beach” was very picturesque, and this early in the morning, deserted. It is now a nudest beach, meaning I missed other aspects of the scenery by being early. I didn’t linger long, knowing the distance I had to travel and quickly passed by and began the 1000’ climb back up. I was hoping to be done hiking around noon or 1:00pm, about the time Sally would be delivered at Paleokastritsa. 

The trail climbed much higher than the point from which it descended. This made me descend a couple hundred feet down a very steep trail that was little more than a ditch caused by erosion. 

I followed the route along roads, through open fields and through a quaint town where I stopped for a Coke. An open air restaurant had about 6 gentlemen sitting outside enjoying morning coffee and conversation. It was 9:30am and I had 10 miles under my belt.

Four miles of olive orchards and coastline views and I dropped into the town of Liapades. It was now about 11:15. We had not been sure of the groceries situation in this town as we never know the size nor how many businesses will be open due to COVID and lack of tourist so I stopped at the first hole-in-the-wall grocery and bought food for the day. There was not much selection, but there was fresh bread that the woman that owned and ran the store indicated she baked. I called Sally to see what she needed at the store, then used Google Maps to find some other markets. This town is fairly good sized and there were two other “Super Markets” on my route through. I stopped at each of these picking up a few items, then off to the far side of town where we had rented a seaside room.

The Corfu Trail goes right onto the public beach in front of a swanky hotel. As I entered the beach I could feel eyes following me. It was noon, 78º, a couple dozen people lying on the beach sunbathing and here comes this old dude with a big pack on trudging across the this beautiful beach nestled between rock cliffs. On the far side I could see the familiar CT painted in yellow on the cliff wall indicating the trail climbed the rocks to leave the beach.

 I traversed the beach, climbed up the rocks and disappeared into the trees and brush. The trail went straight up, at one point needing a ladder to scale a vertical section of rock. Then down the other side and to the road that followed the beachside to our place. I was hoping my timing would allow me to see Sally and her taxi drive by, even snagging ride for the last 2 miles. Alas, I saw her taxi, but it was returning from dropping her off. It was 12:25pm.

Sally met me on the road to guide me to the room. We spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and sunning and in our fancy room relaxing. 

We were about two miles off the trail. It looked like we could scale the cliffs behind our hotel and catch the trail directly above us 800’. The map showed a trail, but we found a local who verified that yes, the trail did exist and we could avoid backtracking to catch it. Noodles with bullion and carrots with the woman’s great bread for dinner and our day was complete. The room we had rented was so wonderful, clean, comfortable, modern and right on the water. Why didn’t we stay here two nights?

Another fantastic day. Sally got the rest she needed and I got to stretch my legs for an 18 mile day. Swimming, sunning, relaxing. A good day.

Day 18-Friday, June 11, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 6 - Dafnata to Pelekas - 12.0 miles - A Long Day

People are interesting. 

Kostos, the owner and manager of our lodgings of last night and the restaurant below it is a case in point. When we walked up yesterday at about 1:00pm, he wondered how we got there so early. He said most people arrive at about 3:00pm. He spoke fairly good English, but even then it was hard to get a straight answer out of him. He turned almost every question and point of a conversation into a joke or turn of phrase. Sally bantered back with him, yet it felt like he didn’t like someone else joking around, as if that was his role and we were to be the straight men. He was fun, but it was hard to get a straight answer out of him. 

After he showed us to our room, we rested for a few hours. When we went down to eat, he was gone. We just sat and relaxed. After about 20 minutes he drove up. His demeanor had changed. He was not jovial, more impatient, almost exasperated. It was later in the day and he was tired. You could see it on his face and in his eyes. It was like a different man was running the afternoon shift. Same face, different man.

At the other end of the day, and our hike, we met an older woman in Pelekas. As we walked into town and the town square I was holding my iPhone in my hand like a water witching stick, hoping it would guide me to our AirB&B for night. I had messaged the owner an hour earlier and gotten no reply. If fact, I had received no correspondence whatsoever from her. I had the GPS coordinates marking the spot on my map, but no clue which of the three story stone buildings clustered around the square hide was our lodgings. 

Suddenly, to our right an older woman, mid 70’s perhaps (remember friends, some people are older before their time, so the number of years doesn’t equate to age. Outlook on life, health and attitude matter more than number of years.), dressed frumpily, says something in Greek and motions for us to come close to her. Both Sally and I think, “She saw us coming into town looking confused and searching. She is going to try to sell us something, beg for money or coerce us into staying in some room she can rent.” We try to ignore her and continue forward. She presses the issue and takes my arm, leading me forward, again muttering grumpily in Greek. I say, “We already have a room. No thank you.” She insists and keeps trying to lead us further into the square. Still grumpy. No smile. No kind words. A negative countenance to her face.

I bring up AirB&B on my phone and point to the picture of the woman who is renting us the room. She has long blond hair, looks to be in her early 40’s. I tell the old woman, using hand signals and jesters that she doesn’t match the photo on my phone. The old woman grabs my phone, stares at the photo for 10 seconds, then mutters grumpily, “my daughter in law”. Her first and only words of English. 

Sally and I decide to follow her, now that she has acknowledged some relationship between us, our B&B and herself.

Once she opens the door and we walk into the place, I look at the pictures on AirB&B and then the room, finding paintings and decorations match up. The grumpy woman gestures and mumbles directions in Greek which we semi understand, all with the attitude of “why do I have to do this? Stupid foreigners.” Then she leaves. What a funny demeanor to have when showing someone to their room for the night. I wish I could understand what she was saying. If the tone matched her words, it would have been a negative string of verbiage.

At midday we walked into the town of Sinirades, hungry for lunch and worried nothing would be open, like yesterday. The first restaurant in town (and the only one for all we knew) had tables out, but their door was closed. As we approached, a van drove up, parked in front blocking half the narrow street and a man and woman started unloading fresh produce from the back, carrying into the restaurant. We asked if they were open. Yes, he replied and we sat down. We were their only customer through our entire meal, not an uncommon occurrence on the this apocalypse vacation. 

The waiter, son of the owner and cook, stood on the steps into the restaurant’s front door and talked to us through the entire ordering, waiting for the food, eating and preparing to leave process, about 45-50 minutes. He reminded me of the stereotypical “used car salesman”. Every story, every topic always led to how he could help us, arrange something for us, find out something, etc. He spoke broken English, enough to get by, barely, and with the strong Greek accent it was kind of humorous, although it got tiring after a while. Part of his talk was meant to impress us, part to convince us of his abilities to help us. What he did convince us was we would not be eating here again.

People are interesting.

Today was brutal. It started out easy enough, 1 mile coming down off the ridge where Kostos’ lodgings are, walking on paved roads the whole way. Then a half a mile on undulating roads giving way to a trail that climbed up and descended down as it traversed the bottom slope of a mountain. The trail then turn abruptly upslope and steeply climbed the side of the mountain, to the top. When the trail is perpendicular to the contour lines you know you are in for some steep climbing. 

At times the “trail” was steep enough we used our hands to grab the trail surface as we climbed. We topped out a 1000 vertical feet later next to a small church in a clearing with a great view. We sat on the bench by this small cinder block construction to eat a bit.

 I climbed on the tile roof of the church to get an unobstructed view of the valley below, took a couple of photos, then climbed back down.

After our break, we started down the other side. Perpendicular trail and contour lines again. Very steep. Hard on the knees. Once down, the walking was nearly level as we covered the 2 1/2 miles to Sinirades and our lunch with the salesman. 

Once we left lunch, we walked through the town and realized it was bigger than we thought and everything was open.

The distance to Pelekas, are destination for the night was only 2.5 miles as the crow flys, but this is the Corfu Trail, and like the PCT, it is a scenic trail. This means it doesn’t take the shortest route, it takes whatever route takes you to points of interest or good views. We already had 8 miles down, now we had 4 left. The trail wound out to the coast, doubled back and then began its ascent to this hillside old town.

Leaving Sinirades, Sally was really fatigued. In hindsight we should have ignored the route of the trail and headed straight for Pelekas, but we didn’t, we followed the route of the trail as it twisted around and went up and down in its attempt to show off the beauty of the island and avoid busy roads. 

At one point we could see the town up on the hill about 1.5 miles away, but we had to look over our shoulders to see it because the trail was taking us away from it. The last 3/4 of a mile to the town was exhausting for Sally, but she toughed it out and made it to our encounter with the grumpy woman in the town square. Just before entering the town we could look back and see the big mountain we had climbed and descended. Whoa, what a day!

Once in the B&B, I found the WiFi didn’t work. After my encounter with the grumpy woman I was beginning to get a bit grumpy myself.  I had looked at the bottom of the WiFi router to get the password. When I lifted it I noticed the DSL line connecting it to the Internet had been ripped from the wall.  No wonder the WiFi didn’t work.  I called the owner. She at first tried to brush me off, telling me to talk to her mother-in-law. With no verbal communication and a grumpy demeanor, that wasn’t going to work.  Then she said her husband would come take a look. 

Another half an hour and the problem was resolved, 

We relaxed for an hour, then had Gyros on the corner a block from our place. Sally really needed a rest day tomorrow, yet it was our longest hike of the trip, about 18 miles. Earlier in the day, we had concluded that she would take a taxi to our next location and I would hike it. The husband had given us a taxi driver’s phone number. I called and arranged a noon pickup for Sally.

With logistics chores completed the day was complete. A tiring but satisfying day. Tomorrow, Sally will get a rest and I will get a chance to see another section of the island. All is good

Day 17-Thursday, June 10, 2021 - Hiking the Corfu Trail - Day 5 - Paramonas to Dafnata - 10.3 miles - Ups and Downs

Yesterday, as we hiked into Paramonas we coudn’t help but notice the huge mountain looming above the town and sloping all the way to the shore. Paramonas exists on this slope. We knew that today’ hike would take us up over that mountain, down the other side, then up another mountain on the other side of the island. Yep, that’s right, we are traversing the island again, this time from west coast to east coast.

Up and out the door by 6:15am, boiled eggs in our bellies. For a short period we walked on roads cut into the slope, but soon the yellow CT marks turned right and started abruptly up the hill. I had noticed when studying the map last night that the trail was perpendicular to the contour lines. Never a good sign. Reality and the map were in sync. The trail was very steep, leading up through terraced olive trees. After a bit, Sally’s exercised induced asthma caught up with her. She used her inhaler to clear up the lungs and I slung her pack on top of mine so lower her aerobic demand. Up we continued. The brush parted now and then to give us a view back down to the water. 

The trail began to traverse upward, lessening its attack on the hill. Eventually, the trail turned to road and we were walking up pavement for the last 15-20 minutes of the climb. We crested the top at about 7:30am. We sat for a drink of water and FaceTimed Andy. Our 7:30am is his 9:30pm, so the timing worked. 

The trail started abruptly down, first as a road, then we stepped off it and onto a steeply sloping trail. We walked through a hillside town in about 20 minutes and got a soda, cookies chips for the trail from a small grocery owned and operated by a 67 year old man that has lived in this town his whole life. Very helpful and kind.

The trail continued down steeply, kind of cutting the switchbacks of the road. For a time the trail was actually a trail. Sally and I were both in good spirits as we wove our way between houses and orchards on this trail.

Eventually, it hit the bottom and began its ESE traverse of the interior of the island. The route oscillated up and down as it wove through Olive Orchards. 

At one point the route made a big loop to the north-what looked like pointless distance to me. I found a road that cut off the bottom of the loop, reducing our distance by about a mile. We sat down for lunch at the beginning of the loop. While Sally ate, I walked my shortcut to be sure the roads I saw on the map were there and unobstructed. It took me 20 minutes to walk out and back to report the route was clear. We picked up and took the shortcut, back on the route in 15 minutes.

The route took us to another town down here on the interior, flat part of the island, Stroggili. A taverna was right on the corner as we entered town. Sally had a beer, I had a Coke and we both had a piece of honey drenched pastry desert.

Three miles and 800 vertical feet lay before us. At the end and top lay our destination, Dafnata and Kostos’ Walkers Inn.

We left the bottom at 11:20am and reached the top at 1:15pm. Along the way we were entertained by butterflies, beautiful views, makeshift goat pens and olive trees.It was getting warm as we reached the top and started weaving between houses on the concrete paths. 

As we approached one house a man in the yard said “Water, Water?” I said I had some, but he insisted, ran into his house and came out with a 1.5 liter bottle of very cold water and handed it to us. We thanked him as Sally held the cold bottle to her warm, red face to cool off.

Another 100 yards and we were at Kostos’ place, perched high on the ridge overlooking Corfu Town. 

We sat at his restaurant and bantered back and forth with this jovial and joking man. He said we were 2 hours early. Most people coming from Paramonas are don’t arrive until 3:00pm. Our room was not ready. 

His house sits right on the ridge line with a magnificent, unobstructed view down to the city. He told us to take our drinks and go sit on his deck and enjoy the view until our room was ready. That’s what we did, for about an hour.

Our room was ready about 2:30pm. He lead us up the outside stairs to the second floor deck and to the apartment he had constructed there. It too, had a great view of Corfu Town, although some poles and wires obstructed it a bit.

The room was gorgeous. Kitchen, tub and shower, couch, bed and a loft with two twin beds. Everything was new and clean. Beautifully done.

We relaxed on the bed, wrote, read, planned and went down to eat dinner about 4:45pm. He had closed up the restaurant and was not to be found. Up here on the ridge there is not another restaurant, or store for that matter for miles. We sat down at one of the tables to wait. About half an hour later he drove up. We asked what he was cooking for dinner and he just stared at us, dumbfounded, “Dinner? Now? Impossible! Way to early!” We were both very hungry as we had not bought groceries for two days and my pack had only a quarter loaf of bread and two slices of cheese we were saving for tomorrow’s lunch. This is one of the problems in traveling during the apocalypse, most store and Taverna’s are closed, making it hard to restock for each day’s hike. He made us bowls of ice cream to tide us over until dinner. We went back up to our room so as not to seem breathing down his neck

About 6:30pm we returned, sat at a table, had just gotten the verbal menu when three retirees entered the outdoor courtyard and struck up a conversation with Kostos showing great familiarity. We deduced that they were regulars. We soon got into the conversation, discussing our mutual disgust of our former president when we learned they were from Holland, Karl, Barbara and a friend. They invited us to sit at the their table which we gladly accepted and spent the better part of an hour comparing lives.

Kostos brought out our food. We moved to another table to eat and Karl and company were just having drinks. In the course of our conversation the topic of finding food while hiking came up. We were a bit low on groceries for tomorrow (a tough hiking day) and there was no place to buy anything. Barbara said she would walk home, grab some bananas and apples and bring them back up while Karl cooked dinner. The Dutch just re-earned their title of nicest people!

We bought 3 1.5 liter bottles of water from Kostos, as well as three eggs as we settled the bill.

Upstairs again, we boiled our eggs for breakfast, put our packs together, wrote and were asleep by 9:30pm. Five in the morning comes too early!

Oh!  In yesterday’s installment I forgot to highlight the feral cat population on Corfu. Wild cats are everywhere. We see dozens a day. Scrawny, hungry, living by stealing food or killing birds and mice. We have yet to see a rodent.