16th June 2012

Steve: Hoorahhh.. We arrived at Igamanitsou in Greece at 5am (an hour early) so we were off the ferry and had bike reloaded to be on our way to the little island of Lefkada about 2.5 hrs away, and by 6am it was already 23 degrees so we knew we were in for a warm day.


The Island of Lefkada is south of Corfu and Kefelonia (the island of Captain Corelli and his merry mandolin) and is reached by a small bailey bridge.
We wound our way along the east coast passing some very pretty little coves until we reached the cove of Poros, which is about half a mile long with a dozen or so small blocks of apartments and several fish tavernas (to whom we later made frequent visits). Could this get any better?

Our view of of the window at Captain Nick

Arriving at ‘Captain Nick’ we were greeted by the elderly owners and shown our room and balcony, overlooking a tiny picturesque bay with a little stretch of beach at the bottom of the garden.

Ooh that's so nice!

Our motor bike gear was immediately tossed aside in preference for our swimmies and off we went for a dip and a morning of relaxing on the deserted beach, and it was still only 9.30am
The little beach was dotted with rock pools, and we played around like  kids for ages watching the water sloshing around and bringing shoals of tiny fish into the pool for our amusement. We found ourselves in deep concentration for ages finding the various sea life, from what Debs called ‘spiny Norman’ (a slowly creeping sea urchin) to a superbly camouflaged baby rockfish and lots of infant fish in all types and colours.

By 1 pm we were feeling a bit peckish so headed for the restaurant opposite, where two beers, a plate of small fish and a huge Greek salad was found to be just what we needed, but within two hours our sleepless night began to catch up on us so we sloped off to bed ‘for half hour’.  Two and a half hours later we woke to find the sun still hot and the place jumping….well, two fishermen had returned from their morning fishing, two yachts had arrived and dropped anchor and about a dozen butterflies were busy about their business.

San Nicolas Resort Hotel

Time for a little drink on the veranda where I spotted the top of a sun brolly along the rocks past the harbour so we dressed and went for a walk to investigate. Wow.. what a find, a wonderful hotel called the San Nicholas, which I had looked at when booking but decided £100 a night was too much. They had a lovely café bar with decking for sun loungers and brollies along the bottom of some steps which dropped onto a secluded little bit of beach. We were informed that non-residents were welcome and there was no charge as they hoped we would use the café. There was also a virtual pool and bar above which we were also welcome to use, so plans were laid for the following day.,

All that exercise meant we were ready for dinner, so returned to ’our’ restaurant for more small fish, some chunky bread and a carafe of chilled local white wine.. Absolutely delicious!