Zakfari Trip

The Zakfari trip was fantastic and worth every penny. Thanks to Paul and Debbie (our driver) for the day, I'll never say a bad word against women drivers ever again, what a gal, boy can she handle a Land rover. The trip was fast paced speed wise and very exhilarating with the very bumpy, dusty small roads and tracks we were sat right at the back of the Landover and felt every bump and slide great stuff, better than any white knuckle ride, Paul is a really funny guy we never stopped laughing all day he had some great stories to tell and is very knowledgeable about Zante and it's past history. Well where did we go, Debbie picked Julie and myself up from our hotel in Alykanas, firstly we had a muster point at the oldest mansion house left standing on the island, (started growing my beard Paul) there we met up with the other two land rovers and the rest of the party, we went all over the island to places you wouldn't know existed including the highest point of the island with brilliant views of all Zante north, south east and west, we called at another headland were we heard a story of daring Dennis, famous Zante robber and outlaw, we also visited an artists studio and museum in Agalas The bell tower picy is the view from the studio door of local artist Dionysis Giatras were we bought an original painting, unfortunately we didn't meet the artist himself as he had a bad back and was seeing the doctor miles and miles away, he's also a builder renovating lots of houses in the village, as he did his own studio which I believe was the old school house (hence the bad back) although we did meet his parents who were very nice. We went to smugglers cove and to see the Zante bald penguins he-he! We didn't stand on the viewing platform as it recommended that only two or three people are on it at the same time and crazily there was about six or seven Paul took us on a short five or six mins walk fairly easy going from where you can view the shipwreck it's the same view you see on many of the coves pictures. We visited a taverna for dinner where we had a good hearty meal ready for the afternoon, At this point two of the lads in our jeep had to leave it was a bit to much for them as they had been drinking heavily the night before, (not recommended) all that bumping around. We went for a swim; also we went to the sulphur water with a chance to swim in the sulphur sea, and swim out to the throat cave, its great for your skin it makes it really soft. Were Paul told us yet another hilarious story. We went to the twelve wells, all I'll say is Ha- Ha, ouzo well, tall guys and pasties, we went to a wine, honey, raisin, tasting roadside shop where they had lots of beautiful lace and rugs too, we bought a bottle of white wine with no additives which was very smooth and fruity (We had a Greek night of our own when we came home) not to say strong alcohol as well, not like those horrid acid locally produced wines you see, we bought some extra virgin olive oil (expensive in U.K) cheap just 2000drgm ?3- 50 ish for a wine bottle size, the wine was 800drgm red or white, the honey and raisins where nice too. We visited a monastery in a cave, which was interesting with icons, an alter and other religious items and a very small sleeping area. That concluded our brilliant day out with great company; back at the hotel we had a much-needed drink, if nothing else don't MISS this trip! It's a must do.

Greek Night

We booked in Alykanas to go to the Sunset and Greek night in Kampi. We were really looking forward to it, good food, dancing, fire dancing, smashing plates. After travelling for 1? hrs on the coach picking other people up which you don't mind the more the merrier, but to miss the sunset was a big let down not to be deterred we thought we were still in for a good night. Four course meal sounds good, the feta cheese salad was very nice not hard to get wrong, the next and final course (don't know what happened to the other two courses) we though we would be having some sort of Greek dish or some local specialty nothing of the sort, luke warm fried chicken and chips yuk. I didn't even try it after all we were going home next day and didn't fancy flying home in the loo, the local wine was absolutely horrid no wonder they say you can drink as much wine as you like after one sip we went to the bar. The Locals fire dancing was ok. Saying all that we did have a good time, as we met a lots of nice people, Julie and I really enjoyed the dancing we met a guy called John and his wife Kath. Poor John my wife had him up dancing to every dance that I didn't' have a go at, he was absolutely exhausted by the end of the night. I bet his legs were sore in the morning mind you, look above at the picy he-he! The picy With Tony is later that night 4 am. Well it was late. So it's all what you make of it. We still had good fun. There were no smashing plates either pity we could have thrown them at the chef ha-ha! In all I would say give this night out a miss and go to a local night like the one at the Mill bar Alykanas or keri for the sunset.

Boat Trip
Great day out the picy of Zante harbour was taken early morning before we set off. We saw some beautiful views of Zante coastline on the boat, blue grotto caves to the north and, Keri caves in the south, turtle island. I think the best place to be when going into the caves is at the front on the lower deck as this is the part of the boat that enters the cave and you can see right though the holes in the rocks. We had a few swim stops and landed on smugglers cove beach it's real hot there. We had a swim then a picnic on the beach yum yum then more sun bathing. Also on the trip we saw a dolphin and lots of fish but no turtles