Zakynthos by Car

We woke up at a reasonable time, despite the 2 hour time difference. The weather was pretty dire, strong winds and cloudy. Waves were crashing over the sea wall behind the boat with salt and seaweed getting layered all over the boat. In preparation for this Marco had booked a hire car for 9am, delivered pretty much straight to the boat. We set off driving with no particular plan in mind. First we had to get petrol and then we set off to Turtle Bay/Beach. This is supposed to be protected but there was about a mile of horrible pubs, clubs, seedy hotels and trashy shops all the way to the beach. We weren’t too impressed.. as you can probably tell.

So we set off wiggling along the coast and went to a quite a strange place called “Cameo Island”. Nice walkway across the bay to the island/rock and then had to pay 5€ each to go on it. However, we did get a free photo and a key ring where I am standing with some very small people. Well worth the money.

We got back in the car and eventually found a cafe for a bit of brunch and then set off for Shipwreck bay about 40 minutes drive away. After a few kilometres we were waived down by a young Polish couple whose quad bike had run out of petrol (faulty fuel gauge). After a bit of deliberation and looking for a petrol station, Sue and I stayed with the girl and the bike and Marco and Theresa went with the lad to get some petrol. We had a lovely chat with the girl and eventually they arrived back with a few litres of petrol in a dodgy looking water carrier. They managed to get it (mostly) in the tank and got it started.. way hay.

We got to the road that the led down to Shipwreck bay. Traffic chaos ensued so we ditched the car and walked down this massive hill about a mile to the bay….. would it be worth it? When we got there there was a very slow moving queue to a tiny viewing platform to get a view of it. So we took a photo of azure blue seas dibbled about a bit and then left to clamber back up the huge hill to the car. This picture is someone else’s taken on a blue sky day. Much better.

We continued around the island to a bay in the North East which (if the winds had been behaving) could have been a nice stop off point in the boat. Marco had some soup in a lovely cafe ( he is a bottomless pit) and we (Sue and I) had little beers. As we sat there the weather deteriorated and the waves got even choppier. We then drove back to the boat and went out for dinner. A kilo of pork later with a doggy bag we returned to the boat. The night was a bit quieter, probably because of the weather.