Cephalonia: a Greek Island lies in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy. It is the largest and most mountainous of seven Greek islands which all have a blend of Hellenic (Greek),and Italic (Italian) elements in their culture and way of life. The entire history of Cephalonia, Corfu and rest of the Ionian group is quite distinct from the rest of Greece.
That's why we were so excited to visit both Cephalonia and Corfu over a two day period. We go to Corfu tomorrow. Most of the ancient empires left their footprints here, but frequent earthquakes have erased the most obvious remnants. Earthquakes have been an unpleasant part of life in the Ionian Islands over many centuries. The 1953 earthquake devastated and destroyed most of the historic structures in Cephalonia. Many towns have been rebuilt along modern lines, without the attractive Greco-Venetian buildings of the past. All the Ionian islands have a Mediterrean climate: hot dry summers, mild wetter winters.
We docked at Argostoli, the capital city of Cephalonia at 11am which was much later than other dockings but originally we were meant to anchor off the port and use tenders (small people mover craft) to get ashore, as their is only one docking area for cruise ships and another cruise liner was expected to dock 1 hour before we arrived. However, the seas were high when that ship tried to dock and the captain was not confident that he could safely dock so his ship "skipped" seeing Cephalonia and when we arrived an hour later the not only was the dock free but the seas had calmed and our captain did such a great docking that everyone clapped and cheered his fine effort. For us it was an answer to prayer for during the church service that morning I had prayed that if it was God's will for us to visit the island that he would calm the seas as Jesus did on the Sea of Galilee, so long ago. As we docked I thanked God for providing for our safe docking. We had not booked a tour because the town of Argostoli where we docked was within walking distance from the ship so we decided to stroll through town and enjoy the sights. We wandered along the seaside esplanade, looking at many tourist stalls, fishing boats and we were inundated by people offerring all kinds of excursions across the island.
We took handfuls of pamphlets to ponder before deciding what trips to do. Cephalonia has a rocky sea coast punctuated by bays, where fishermen and yachtsmen gather and many small beaches can be easily reached along the shoreline. In contrast, high rocky mountains tower over the narrow coastal towns and villages where tourism, fishing and port activities are the main industry. The inland villages are built on arid mountainous areas where olive trees and vineyards abound so we chose an inland trip which meant we would get a bird's- eye view of parts of the coast and also experience seeing the olive groves and vineyards in the interior valleys. The other attraction was the fact that the limestone mountains also have caves. Ken's hobby has been caving so the choice was easily made. We booked the tour for 2.30pm and then set off to explore more of the coastal port of Argostoli.
We continued through the town with its many market stalls, restaurants, shops and a great display of yachts belonging to the Jet Set and International yachting community, Some were very lavish, with the latest GPS navigation. We found a supermarket and had fun locating toothpaste, cough lollies ( in case we get a cold- other passengers are suffering from a coughing virus) and we needed a chemist, so we were given directions to a chemist shop some distance away. The Greek shopkeeper was very helpful and even rang to check that the Chemist was open as it was a Sunday. We had fun locating it but we were successful and on the way back to the tour office we stopped to buy a scarf-hat as the sun was very hot and I had not packed my hat. I looked a bit like a Greek gypsy- but then we are on a Greek island and we're travelling the world so I guess we're 21sr century gypsies.
Our tour turn out even better than we thought for when we arrived at 2pm an earlier tour of 45 coached tourists left for the same tour. At 2.30pm when our tour began Ken and I an a Scottish tourist from our ship were the only takers so we were used a mini bus for our trip and had a great time learning about the history, geography and daily life on this pleasant island. The weather was warm, the sky a deep clear azure blue with a few pillowy-type clouds and there was air a slight breeze which added to the kind of perfect summers day that I recall from my childhood. We headed high up over the mountain range from where we looked down on the port foreshore, our ship, the sprawling sleepy town, sandy beaches and ménage of shimmering yachts in the marina.
We passed olive groves, vineyards, village homes and churches on our way to visit two cave sites. The first cave area was a self guided tour with " questionable" safety standards as the steps were " tricky" with varying levels, tread depths , dampness and poor lighting but we walked cautiously down the staircases and through the cave which has been damaged due to earthquakes in the past. There were some " pretty" stalictites and stalicmites but nothing like jealous caves or the caves in Bungonia but we enjoyed the coolness of the underground caverns and a cherry ice cream when we exited the "tricky staircase".
We then drove to another area to visit a cave where the roof has fallen in due to an earthquake several years ago and the cave is visited by small rowing boats. It is a tourist mecca site so we expected crowds and joined a long line of tourists waiting to embark on their rowing boat "Venice-like" cave tour. The water in the cave is a constant 18C and is was crystal clear. The reflection of the several boats was beautiful and the refraction of sunlight was magic to see on the water as we floated into the cave where many birds were nesting on a small island mound within the cave. It was a romantic interlude and our boatman talked melodically as we toured around the cave which did not have many undamaged formations but the experience was relaxing, enjoyable and novel.
Our tour took us back a different route where we saw several villages, island inlets and jagged cliffs on the opposite side of the island from our docking port and we ended up back at Argostoli where we spent the rest of the early evening exploring all the little alley-type laneways and quaint market stalls. Of this pretty port town. We found modern plazas with upmarket boutique shoe, leather and dress shops alongside a pizzeria or barbers or fishmongers shop. We smiled when we saw the Ozzie shop with a red Vesper outside.
As we wandered back to the ship we agreed that it had been a relaxing and interesting day that we'd spent on the Greek island of Cephalonia and again we were thankful that we had been able to dock here and learn and experience a little of life on this here.
