Aitoloakarnania

From Preveza we headed down through the Lefkas canal, the entrance of which is restricted by the "Ag Maura Ferry Boat". Despite the name, this is actually a bridge that lifts and rotates on the hour to allow boats through (but apparently bridges are taxed more than ferries hence the name)! Once through we joined a queue of other boats heading down to an area known as the Inland Sea. We decided to anchor near the town of Nidri and to treat ourselves to dinner in a taverna. We settled on Dimitris and were delighted by the on-site dinghy parking! Ideal!

The next day we decided to explore the main town and spotted signs to some waterfalls. Slightly regretting our choice of footwear, we set off in our flip-flops but it was so worth the walk and we eventually made it, very much ready for a dip in the refreshingly cool water! That day we also finally managed to remove a defunct piece of metalwork (that we had affectionately named "the spine-breaker" due to its dubious position when we have the hammock up) from the deck. Definitely worth celebrating!

Our plan for a nice cosy night in watching a film was disrupted by Steven, whose boat we had already watched drag past us and almost hit another, whilst he was ashore evidently enjoying the local ouzo at a taverna. Having returned to find his boat parked somewhere new but without checking if it was now holding (which it was), Steven, pissed as a fart as he was, decided to lift anchor and reset. Unfortunately, either Steven is a terrible sailor or the ouzo had more effect than he anticipated. We watched as despite his wife's shouts of "STEVEN, SLOW DOWN! STEEVEN TURN TO STARBOARD! STEEEVEN YOU'RE GOING TO HIT THIS BOAT! STEEEEVEN!!!!", he continued to motor directly towards another boat at speed before ramming his boat into full reverse at the last second. His long-suffering wife then received an earful for "daring" to shout at him. Having lifted their anchor they went in search of a new spot to drop it and despite our best attempts to make ourselves as visible as possible with headtorches they dropped within 50ft directly upwind of us. With the wind howling towards us (preventing us from being about to shout for them to go far far away!) and them slowly creeping closer we were relieved to finally hear his wife and two friends, who had dropped them off in their dinghy, spot us and convince Steven that he probably couldn't put out the required amount of chain and that it would be best if he lift the anchor and try again! We then watched as they drove off and repeated the entire process of nearly crashing, lots of shouting and then anchoring almost on top of another boat. Finally on their third attempt they managed to actually find a relatively open stretch of water and were suitably far away for us to actually get some sleep! Mamma Mia will have to wait for another night when we have less gripping live entertainment.

The weather became a little more variable with some torrential downpours but it gave us a chance to catch up on some wedding admin jobs and ended with the most beautiful double rainbow with two boats as the pots of gold at either end! Having spent four nights in Nidri we decided it was time to finally move on and set off to the neighbouring island of Meganissi where we found a lovely bay to test out taking lines to shore (a technique we'd not had to attempt yet, but that is very useful in smaller bays without room to swing round without hitting rocks). Thankfully it went rather smoothly and we had a great spot for the night!

From Meganissi we headed back over to the mainland to Mytikas, where we decided to take a walk along the beach after dinner. We swiftly started to regret it as we kept finding fairly sizeable, suspiciously human looking bones. Thankfully, my anatomy module at uni finally came in handy and after spotting a vertebrae with a long, distinctly inhuman spinous process I was reassured that we hadn't accidently discovered the remains of a mass murder! Now able to enjoy the walk, we came across a very cute dog who looked mortally offended at Sam for daring to kick a nearby tennis ball in his general direction and the noisiest frogs, who we could hear loud and clear back on the boat despite them being over 300 metres away!

Having now moved away from the more populated islands our neighbours became more and more exciting, with goats on Kastos (as well as a gorgeous bar in an old windmill) and pigs on Atokos! Having read that the pigs were pretty tame, and with Sam (who somehow manages to tell me almost weekly that he once worked on a pig farm!) on hand as my local pig expert we went ashore armed with some crackers which they loved! We had read that people give their food waste to the pigs but since ours was predominantly coffee grounds we thought that might end badly! Atokos is now my new favourite island, obviously having pigs is a massive plus, but it also has some of the most beautiful bays and geology as well as some rather gravity-defying trees!Read more