The (miss) Adventures continue..

The Reugg's gone, Sal back to bed and the Argostli day got underway.

The acres of open wharf became crowded with small fishing boats arriving with their overnight catch.

All manner of fish, nothing substantial in size. In fact it is surprising the size of fish that is allowed to be harvested here, most would be smaller than your hand.

Walking along the wharf I heard a loud splash right below where I had stopped. A large Leather Back Turtle was biting great chunks of seaweed off the wall and as it chewed so the now empty shells of resident shellfish spewed from the sides of its mouth.

Fish of all descriptions circling for the crumbs.

As I continued I was surprised to see many of these huge animals and I hoped they'd hang around for the kids to see... They did.

We received a visit from the Port Police. Butch and mean and clearly very proud of her uniform, telling us that we were to anchor stern to the wall and report to the station when we had done so. Once the kids were up, the laundry had been delivered to the laundromat and various other tasks had been completed, we duly moved the boat and Sally went off to see her new friend at the Port Authority Office. 23 Euro later, a 30% surcharge for the catamaran and an intimidating experience for Sally, we were left wondering what that was all about? We have not met any of the other boat owners who have even seen these uniformed proponents for the Greek tourist industry....

So, the plan? The winds was about to turn mean from the North. If we were to go sailing there are no safe anchorages on this side of Kefalonia, Jack would be flying into here on the 2nd July, so sailing to anther island wasn't practical and there was a whole lot of this island to be explored and it would be better done by car.

On the first day, being Thursday the 26th we tried all avenues to hire a car. None available? The Stoli's hotel manager, desperate to have us eat at his restaurant that evening directed us to a 'beautiful' beach, miles away that had no taverna. Thanks to Google we found one a 6Euro taxi ride away which looked to be suitable for what was left of the day. It was now 3:00pm and we were starving.

Gina, being a fluent Greek speaker directed the cab driver who explained that the beach we had chosen was not good with nowhere to eat. "Let me take you to one of the island's finest beaches with a Taverna and only 20Euros to get there. He was very convincing, but thankfully we were travelling in two taxis, there was no way of communicating the change of venue to those in the taxi ahead of us and so we plumped for Plan A.

Platis Gialos. Plan A. Note the 'nowhere to eat' Taverna....

Does this mean that between the hotel manager and the taxi driver the season has kicked in and the integrity of the locals has taken a dive... we really hope not. none-the-less the guard has now to go up and nothing can be taken at face value any longer..... Such a pity, or maybe it all starts with the Port Police and slides from there??

Platis Gialos was just perfect. The kids were out of their skin and out of our hair. We pigged out, found a spot under one of those thatched umbrellas close to the water, made friends with the waiter such that we didn't have to move and got to know those camped around us.

"Hi, I'm Irene and this is my son Paul, we're from Vegas" came from an attractive bubbly blond Greek native with a Vegas accent who comes here every year, and we got chatting.

Ron emerged from the water and joined us and the conversation. After a brief rundown of what we knew Ron said "I met a Greek chick when I was in Vegas years ago, her name was..ahhhh..... her name was...... Irene!"

I kid you not. On this crowded little stretch of beach that we very nearly didn't get to, this was the Irene.

Whilst they didn't recognise each other, Ron had been to Irene's house in Vegas, met her family and between them the memories came flooding back...

I was left wondering how often this nearly happens.





The 27th and a new plan. Thanks to Irene's connections, we managed to score a couple of hire cars. Ron and Gina decided to move to a hotel recommended by Irene which was 'very nice' and had a swimming pool.
We had decided, once again on Irene's recommendation, to go to Antisamos, a beach around the corner from Sami on the far side of the island, protected from the wind and one which we had sailed passed on our way to Poros.
They checked out of their hotel, loaded up the car and made for their new hotel while we headed off to Antisamos and would meet them there once they were sorted.
Not long into our journey we get a call. "The hotel is an absolute dump, the place we were staying is now full, can we stay on the boat for the night?" "You can stay on the boat as long as you like!"


To save time they didn't bother unloading their gear onto the boat, but made straight for Antisamos.

Whilst not so with the hotel, Irene was spot on about this place. It is an absolute must.

Taken from the road on the way in, (except we were now on the way out at 8:30pm...) it would be hard to imagine a better place to spend a day.

Here are some shots whet your appetite.

The Taverna Bar

Free sunbeds

Crystal clear water