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Last night was very warm. We had a lovely meal of squid and prawns at a restaurant on the beach at the north end of town.

After breakfast this morning we caught the bus southwards. We are going to a village called Sivota, but the bus doesn’t go there. It drops us off on the main road and we walk a couple of miles down to the bay.

Sivota wouldn’t exist without the yacht business. It’s a bit like a purpose-built ski resort – there was very little here before the mid-seventies when a few small British firms started operating flotilla holidays. These days the quay is busy with yachts, and there are a dozen or so restaurants serving expensive fish dishes.

As you can see from the chart plotter, the bay is almost landlocked, making it a perfect haven in almost any weather.

Despite the fact that it’s a bit of a fraud it’s hard not to like Sivota. It has safe berthing, lots of showers and laundry facilities, good restaurants and some great bars. There’s still an olive press here – now converted into a bar, but if you look closely you can still see a bit of traditional Greece.

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Up early today, we’re off to Vasiliki and there are only 2 busses a day on Sundays. Vasiliki is a port on the south coast of the island. We’ve moored there a few times in the past – it’s a lively village with good restaurants and shopping.

Breakfast by the harbour when we arrive.

Off for a walk around the coast. There’s a lot of work going on to improve the port facilities.

For lunch we have Pitta Gyros. This is basically a meal in a pitta. You get some chicken, chips, tomato, onions and tzatziki. It’s delicious and best of all it costs 2 euros. Here’s what it looks like.

While we eat, a yacht comes in and reverses to the quay for our entertainment. Mooring is always tricky here as the harbour is shallow and you risk going aground at any moment. If that’s not bad enough, it’s always windy which means your boat goes anywhere apart from the direction you want. This guy moored ok after a few last-minute adjustments. You have no idea how stressful this is (in front of an audience) until you’ve tried it!

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Last night we got a bus to Lefkada. Why? We wanted to see the sunset. Here in Nidri there are mountains immediately to our west, so the sun goes over the mountain in the evening and it’s like turning a light off. Lefkada has a north-westerly aspect so there should be a good sunset. Either way, Lefkada is worth a visit.

We wait and wait for the sun to set over the lagoon to the north of the town. There’s a theatre with a sort of mini Acropolis outside which adds to the effect.

This morning we had a walk up into the hills behind Nidri (the same ones that deny us a sunset). The views over the village and the Prinkiponissia (the Prince Isles) are absolutely stunning. There are half a dozen islands: Sparti, Heloni, Madouri, Skorpidi, Skorpios and Meganisi, plus a few islets. Almost all the trees in the picture are olives, but on the way up we also pass oranges, lemons and figs.

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There’s often a fine line between myth and legend here in Greece. As we pass the fort at Aktion I recall the schoolboy tale of Antony & Cleopatra, and wonder for a moment whether the story is true. Of course it is. Octavian beat them and sent them scuttling back to Egypt in 31BC.

Homer is a different story, if you’ll pardon the pun. References to ‘The Odyssey’ are everywhere, but of course it’s easy to forget that this was just a story! One guy who certainly forgot was a certain William Dorpfeld. He had a theory that the home of Homer’s Odysseus was in fact Lefkada, and not Ithaca as is generally believed. He set out to prove it.

Dorpfeld was a wealthy man, and he commissioned excavations around Nidri. Of course the locals thought he was nuts, but they went along with the scheme as it brought lucrative employment. The surprising thing is that Dorpfeld did succeed in finding Mycean remains here, which of course he regarded as evidence in support of his crazy Homeric theory.

The good people of Nidri were, of course, happy to endorse Dorpfeld’s conclusions, as they put Nidri ‘on the map’ – all publicity is good publicity and all that. Dorpfeld died here in 1940, and he is remembered by a statue on the seafront.

Here’s some of the stuff he found. The locals still value this – a groundsman was tidying up when we walked past today.

And here’s the man himself.

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Last night we had a super mixed grill in an Italian restaurant on the town quay.

Superyacht ‘Africa’ is in town. I am licenced to skipper most floaty things, but not this.

Got the bus to Lefakda this morning. It is the capital of the island and a proper bustling town. Nice lunch of gyros (€2 each) and ice cream in the afternoon. The new marina is huge – we saw a lot of the boats that we’ve chartered from Sunsail over the past few years.

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One of our favourite places in the Ionian is Meganisi. It’s a little island east of Lefkada, and you can get there on a ferry.
Nidri from the ferry.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to Little Vathi, where we have a stroll around before having lunch.

Little Vathi is absolutely idyllic. After lunch we walk around the coast to the next village which is called Spartakhori. It’s an old hill village with wonderful views.

The ferry arrives to take us back to Nidri.

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Last night we went to a ‘Gyros’ restaurant. This is basically the Greek equivalent of a British fish & chip shop. The big difference is that they sell meat, as fish is expensive here. We’d call a Gyros restaurant a kebab shop. You can get pretty much anything you want, but we had a platter for 2 with a bit of everything.

It’s a friendly place, with locals popping in for takeaways. They’ll deliver to your boat if you want. Gyros is a cheap meal – basic stuff is just 2 euros. Our bill including drinks was about £13.

It was still windy this morning, so we caught a bus to a village called Vlicho where we’ve been in the past. Vlicho is a small village on the edge of a huge lagoon. It’s almost landlocked, so it’s usually busy with boats during a breezy spell.

View of the bay.

Back in Nidri a cruise ship is anchored a mile offshore. Passengers are shuttled ashore in the lifeboats. Nidri was a bit livelier this afternoon, but the ship won’t stay long – they’re off to Corfu this evening.

Lovely little catamaran flying the Welsh dragon in the bay.

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