We seem to have grown roots! We are not moving!! Pam's gone on
strike!! Pam worked out that we have stopped at 45 different places
this year on the trip over from Portugal which is 3 more than last
year so is refusing to budge. Spartahori is a nice place. We have
ended up in the north west corner of the bay which actually is the
"town quay" - just where the ferry comes in - rather than on the
Taverna's private pontoons. However Babis who runs the Taverna treats
the town quay as his place for his friends (after all he has laid all
the lazy lines and looks after the place). He must have took pity on
us the day we came in (or remembered we had been in a few weeks
earlier). Anyway - what a wonderfull place. Babis's "screening" of
guests means no charter boats and mainly a succession of British
couples with the odd German couple. Tucked up in this corner is very
sheltered with none of the bouncing that the boats get on the floating
pontoons.
We have been here since sometime last week. I have lost total track of
time. We are eating in the Taverna each night - well you have to don't
you? .....and generally chilling out. The food is great. The bill is
usually arrived at very arbitarily and usually ends up at 30 Euros
including all the bottles of frozen water, milk, or lecky tokens we
have acquired.
The best bit though is the diving. Tony (a Welsh guy with a boat on
the quay ....and a big Harley Davidson lookalike bike - a Kawasaki
actually ... and he looks like your typical 60 years old hells angel
...what a character!) ...where was I? Oh yes, ...come on keep up .....
is partly employed by the Taverna to look after the moorings and has
his own little dive room with compressor and spare kit. He took me for
a dive on Saturday around the moorings and it was brilliant. We did
around 35 minutes going down to 23 metres!!!! at one stage. He did
such a good job of looking after me and showing me what to do - it
felt far better than when I did the Padi course. Tony provided the
bottle as he wanted to use bigger bottles than I had but he also
filled my part empty bottle. The cost for all of this ........free!!
That dive most places would have cost 50 Euros but Tony provides it as
part of the Taverna service. The visability in the water was superb.
Only snag was that I was starting to get another summer cold after
being clear of them for a couple of months and it meant I couldnt
equalize my ears easily. The cold has now got worse so I need to shake
that off before I go down again. Ideally I could be diving every
day!!! There is an old (ie 2000 years old) wreck in 25m of water that
Tony will take me down to after another dive in the harbour.
Everyone is very socialable and we have entertained (and been
entertained by) Barry and Jean from Orinoco, a boat that we had seen
earlier last week in Kalamos. They have filled us in on a lot of local
detail having spent the last 20 years sailing round here.
The weather took a turn for the better yesterday with a lot of cloud,
a drop in temperature of 5 degrees and a bit of wind. Yes, that is a
lot better. There was a storm forecast but it never appeared -
although there was a thunderstorm on the mainland that gave a great
display of lighting last night. The wind has been stronger from the
north east today (15-20knts) but we are safely tucked up behind the
ferry jetty.
We went across on the Ferry to Nidri again today to do a bit of
shopping and had a full English breakfast for only 6 Euros. The
supermarkets are a bit naff in Nidri so it's a good job we stocked up
well before we left Messolonghi.
So the forward plan is to stop for a while longer and if I can shake
this cold will go diving at least a couple of times more. Tony and
Margaret on China Blue will be heading down this way and we are likely
to meet up with them around Tuesday next week. We may just stay put
here until then! Alternatively, we may go over to Sivota (which I have
been told is worth seeing) and then come back here for a dive next
week. It is an awfully hard life here!!
Comments