The Island of Ithaca - Part 1

I am fortunate to be in a relationship where we both share an extreme passion for travel, seeing new places and trying new things. I also consider myself fortunate that we both execute the ideas that we conjour up and so after months of planning, it was on this trip in October, we found ourselves ferrying ourselves over to the island of Ithaca. Ilias had never been, and I had only experienced a whistle stop tour, but it was enough to make me want to return to this mystical island steeped in history. Ithaca is thought to be home of Odysseus, of which Homer writes in his epic ' The Odyessy'. Now, I do love a good Greek legend, of which there are many, and this legendary King Of Ithaca, - unless you speak to a Kefalonian arguing that they claim this title there - joined in the Greek retribution against Troy. His is a great story and I have the book in my reading list as a must read. I will try and give you some understanding of it in my version of events here!

We woke early at around 5am for the 30km trip across the countryside and surrounding sleepy villages to Sami, a port town on Kefalonia's south eastern coast, where we would catch the ferry to Ithaca. I was happily packing for my trip when Ilias reliably informs me that 'we' (I love how I was included in this fiasco) had forgot to put petrol in the car for the trip. As with most cars in Greece, the petrol light had been on for several days and I had a panic. However, his relaxed mediterranean attitude kicks in with a ' we will be fine' shrug, so we put our overnight bag in the car and set off for the 30km trip to Sami with only around 20km of petrol in the car, but hey ho, this is Greece, and this is how we roll.



Early Alarm Call for our Trip to Ithaca - Need Coffee!!

We set off for our overnight trip, and we planned to fill up the car at Poros gas station which was around 12km away, and the next main town after Skala. I guess luck was not on our side that day as when we arrived, it was was all closed up, despite this is the 2nd or maybe 3rd biggest port town on the island. I am starting to panic more now. Relax he tells me, and informs me that as long as we make it up the mountain this side of Sami we will be fine. I held my breath and felt sick with nerves. Many of you will know that the roads in Greece are not great at the best of times with drivers overtaking on hairpin bends and not really caring for what is in the way. But, with our hotel in Ithaca booked and paid for and with our Saggittarian sense of adventure, off we set again. We put the petrol tank reader on, and I could hardly bring myself to look at it again as we began the climb up the hill to Sami. I think I was close to passing out from clenching and not daring to breathe. Every twist and turn of this narrow and windy road felt like hours were passing, I just wanted to reach the top, so we could cost down the other side to Sami where hopefully a gas station would be open to enable us to carry out our travel plans. Up and up we climbed as we both willed the car to make it to the top of the hill. Then of course, the inevitible happened. The car spluttered, wheezed and cut out. I could not believe it. As we turned to look at each other I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Ever the optimist, he began to try the engine again and again (in between arguing about whose fault it was to put the petrol in). From experience of this happening to me once or twice at home, I told him not to do that, but, he did and I was amazed when the car kicked into life once more, and we began to climb the last part of the hill. I dont know how or who was looking over us that day, but we made it to the top of that hill and he put it into neutral where possible to conserve gas. The first petrol station we came to we pulled in - but at 7.30am there was not a soul in sight. With heavy hearts, we climbed back into the car and both realised that there was know no way we would make it now to Sami in time for the ferry, and even if we did, we had no idea where the nearest fuel station was on Ithaca. We pulled out of the garage and coasted further down the hill, there was another sign for a petrol station. Again we pulled in to see if there was any sign of life. To our complete amazement, it was open and the old greek lady ambled over to greet us and filled our car with fuel as Ilias told her of the events that had unfolded for us already that morning. With big smiles on our faces, we made it to the port of Sami in good time to experience my worst coffee ever and catch the early ferry over to Ithaca and explore this amazing isle.



Port of Sami as seen from the Ferry to Ithaca

The crossing takes around 50 minutes, and on that day we had smooth, calm water, so we spent most of the journey outside admiring the view of Ithaca in front of us and Kefalonia behind us. I can thoroughly recommend anyone to take a day out of their holiday to come and see this noncommercialised gem of an island, with celebrities like Madonna, Pierce Brosnan and Tom Cruise holidaying here, it really is top class with a huge air of understatement.

We disembarked the itsy bitsy concrete platform that constitutes as a port and began the ascent to the main road on the island. I will warn you now that most of the island is covered by aerial roads with steep drops, but from one acrophobia sufferer to another, its well worth it. I even had a go of driving over here, and the roads are pretty good, if a little high and steep in places. I actually preferred driving here to Kefalonia, as you do not have the volume of traffic. We trundled around the curved roads and past some colourful tiny houses on the island and made our first stop off at Aghios Ionnios.

This place is out of this world and would be ideal on a hot sunny day. If you stop off on the aerial road at the first bench you see, you can look down and see this beach with views over to Kefalonia. Around 1000m past here there is a steep road down to the beach but you have to walk the last 400m or so down some steps. There is a windy path with crazy paving, if you follow this you will pass a derelict windmill and will lead you down to a pebble beach with sunbeds. The sea here is crystal clear and would make a perfect escape for you sun worshippers. I fell in love with the place on sight.

The view from above Aghios Ionnios

Rocky Outcrop at Aghios Ionnios with Crystal Clear Waters

Early Morning Sunrise at Aghios Ionnios

Stunning Beach at Aghios Ionnios, Ithaca

When I found myself finally being able to tear myself away from this drop dead gorgeous location, we set back up the path to look at the now derelict windmill. Once upon a time, these windmills thrived on the island, and there were around 31 of these back in the day. The island was destroyed by the earthquake of 1953 and post earthquake many of the buildings and structures went into disrepair and eventually ruins.

The View Looking Back from the Beach at Aghios Ionnios, Ithaca

The Path to the Beach at Aghios Ionnios

The Derelict Windmill at Aghios Ionnios

It was around 9.50am at this point, so we got back in the car and headed for the town of Stavros. Here you will find a small community that looks like it thrives on locals and the small amount of tourism that Ithaca gets from the island tours. It is a friendly little village that you need to stay in for more than a few minutes to uncover its secrets. Past the church in the middle of the village on the right hand side, there is a small street to walk up. Around 350m will take you to the village bakery or fournos. Every morning you can walk in there (go through the door that looks like its the back door) and you can pick up a selection of freshly baked bread and biscuits. Nostimo! or delicious as we say in England. We bought some biscuits and these fitted the bill perfectly for breakfast, washed down with some coffee we bought from one of the local tavernas. The woman in the bakery was very helpful and gave us some pointers we should see on the island while we were here. So off we set again, but not before taking in what Stavros had to offer. So we started on the road down to the small port/beach, known as Polis Bay. Here there were a range of fishing craft, and a large oversized yacht was sailing in on the horizon. It is a pretty place, but could do with a nice tavern here, instead of a scruffy looking mobile van selling coffee. There are some wonderful houses here and we idly dreamed of plans to renovate if we owned the property ourselves.

Stavros has a population of around 250 people. It is centred around a large and ornate orthodox church, Sotiris (Saviour). In its traditional blue and white colouring, you are welcomed in to take pictures and light a candle. There are pretty gardens in the centre, with a bust of Odyseuss, and a model of Ithaka and Stavros Village - this is somewhat spoiled by what can only be described as a large papier mache map of the island, but each to their own. Some of the houses in Stavros escaped the earthquake of 1953 but many of them are new buildings, but have been kept low key on the island thanks to its local authority. We wondered around some of the streets before returning to the car to visit the next mountain village of Exoghi. This is where I will leave you and more of our adventures of Ithaca will be uncovered in my next blog.