We have had a blissful couple of weeks, the sun has been shining, the beaches fab, the food delicious and the company lovely, so we booked a ferry and we are leaving today. R wants to go to a Christmas market in Germany and in spite of the fact that we came prepared for a Corfu winter we are heading for the Alps before we have to buy snow tyres.
We will miss this island and the little place we stayed, it didn’t have a cooker in the kitchen, the bath was exactly the right size for Sunny and the mattresses were made of bricks but we had some fun there. For example when the geese escaped and I bravely coaxed them back into their enclosure with bread and encouragement only to have George the farmer patiently explain that they were birds and as such they could fly, they were looking for their dinner because he was late. As soon as they realised I could give them bread they didn’t leave me alone and geese are very loud. Or the time R used the tap in the bath to help himself out and pulled it off the wall causing the mains water to cascade all over the bathroom and into and out of the walls. Try finding a plumber in Greece at 10 on a Sunday morning. We will miss being woken by the donkey, the cockerels and the shooting every morning.
Driving to the port today the weather changed, the rain came and with it the thunder and lightning, autumn was beginning to change the island from green to red and the trees, already burdened by olives and oranges were weighed down by the water until their branches almost reached the ground. The nets are out under the olive trees, unusually early apparently owing to the change in the climate, with the pink cyclamen pushing their heads up through the black of the nets and as we reached Corfu town sun emerged, the whole place was washed clean and at its most beautiful.
We filled up with petrol at our favourite petrol station, (the little lady from poltergeist is the attendant when the man that fancies my mother is not there) and while we were waiting people were arriving next door for a party. A particularly rotund woman in a totally inappropriate long purple dress and impossibly high heels almost lost her shoes down the grate in front of us and for a few minutes we held our breath waiting for her to fall over, much to the amusement of the poltergeist lady and her friend.
We are now in Igoumenista waiting for a ferry with that sinking feeling that you get when you were assured that you have purchased a cabin and there is no such notation on your ticket. It will be a long 19 hours sitting on deck with a dog if we haven’t and someone at the ferry shop in Corfu will be in trouble…
I still love Corfu and all it’s associated madness.