PARGA and PREVEZA

After leaving Corfu, we sailed to Parga and anchored in the Valtou Bay for the night. We love this spot as it's usually calm with a sandy bottom, excellent for anchoring. Surprisingly there was not one other boat in the bay as about 12 flotilla boats had berthed on the sandy shore. We felt a little lonely, but, as the weather was good we looked forward to a very pleasant night, gently rocking.
Next morning we headed off to Preveza some 27miles south. We motored most of the way as the breeze was slight and we need to be in port before dark. Still, a very pleasant trip.
Once into Preveza we berthed at the marina (never again alongside the main wharf after my tumble 2 yrs ago) and settled in for a couple of days.

We fell in love all over again with the city. It has all the charm of the small ports but also all the services of a large city. Lots of walking is necessary to discover all that it has to offer.

The main wharf (lined with bottlebrush)

The tavernas, supermarkets, hardware stores and even a sewing shop are just off the main road. As we had plenty of 'jobs' to do on the boat, we spent hours keeping very busy on and off the boat. As usual, however we love spending time enjoying the small cafes.

A typical coffee stop - total 4 Euro

The Ionian area is really quite small and sooner or later you come across someone you might have met days, weeks or even years ago.  We received an email from a couple, Tim and Georgina, who were berthed just two piers down from us. They've spent the last 4 years travelling around the Aegean and have only now entered the Ionian area.

We met them first at the mouth of the Rhone, enjoyed their company, shared a meal and kept in touch. We met up and shared another excellent meal in a small taverna. So good to make contact again!

Tim and Georgina

waiting for coffee

One of the things we have not done is explore the many ruins, so we hired a small car and headed of to see Nikopolos, the ancient city built by Octavius after his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Aktion. The city was once huge with palaces, aqueducts and temples spread across many kilometres. It is hard to imagine 180,000 men and 900 ships were fighting here. Eventually Anthony fled with Cleopatra to Egypt where they both committed suicide (someone should make a movie of it!!)

We ventured further on to Kamarina and then to the monastery on top of the mountain. From here we could see the monument to the women of Souli.



















The monument of the sculptor Zogolopoulos, which represents the "dance of Zalogos", is situated on the rock from where the women of Souli fell down with their children, chased by the men of the Turk Ali Pasha, who set aside his promise and persecuted the people of Souli in December of 1803. The Soulians, in order to avoid the Albanian fighters of Ali Pasha who were chasing them, were fortified in the monastery on the top, where they resisted for two days.  They stayed in the monastery and were captured, while 57 women ran away. When they arrived on a rock, at the top named Stefani, in order not to be captured by the Albanians, they threw their children in the precipice of Acherontas river and then they commited suicide falling themselves too. According to the tradition, they fell into the precipice dancing, one after the other.

The afternoon came quickly and so we headed back to the marina. As luck would have it, the only day it decided to pour buckets of rain we were heading home hoping we hadn't left the windows open and the boat wouldn't be drenched. It was, just a little bit!!

The sun appeared as quickly as the rain had come, so after some quick drying all was back to normal again.

The next morning we sailed of once again, this time to the inland sea and Meganisi