Walking the Corfu Trail

John Waller

Description

Three septuagenarians walk 180km of Corfu Trail in eight days, from Kavos on the southern tip to picturesque Agni in the northeast. 6 Freytag and Berndt maps guide the reader along the trail and 25 views illustrate the beauty of their journey. The three oldies photograph flowers identifying 150 (see www.corfuflowers.com), 48 of which are in the book, and sample Corfiot cuisine with recipes shown. Their guests talk about their island. They include Corfu Trail founder Hilary Paipeti; Greek way-marker Harry, who walks like a Sports Range Rover off-road; the author's life-long friend Fotis, just back from running round Mount Olympus; retired English teachers Bill and Barbara; Patricia Cookson, founder of CV Travel; and German rocket engineer Dierk, his French wife Christine and their Greek dog. The Daily Mail said: "No one feels the beat of Corfu's heart more keenly than John Waller. His latest book, Walking the Corfu Trail, captures the magic of this beautiful island in such a way that by the end of the journey you know the place so well that you can almost call it home." Ramblers World Wide Holidays said: "An enchanting book and great companion for the walker and lover of nature and flowers."

Sujets

• Walking

Informations

• Publié par: Yiannis Books
• Date de parution: 12 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781783016402
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

WALKING THE CORFU TRAIL
With Friends, Flowers and Food
John Waller
YIANNIS BOOKS
England
YIANNIS BOOKS
WALKING THE CORFU TRAIL
ebook Copyright 2015 by John Waller
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher except for quotation of brief passages for reviews.
Published in 2015 by YIANNIS BOOKS
eBook ISBN: 9781783016402
101 Strawberry Vale, Twickenham, TW1 4SJ UK
Layout and typesetting by Mike Cooper,
25 Orchard Rd, Sutton SM1 2QA
Walking the Corfu Trail
1966 Corfu - no roads; 2010 Corfu Trail - off road
The characters
The plan is taking shape
The team arrives
Day 1: from Kavos to Lefkimmi
Day 2: from Lefkimmi to St. George
Day 3: from St. George to Ano Pavliana
Day 4: from Ano Pavliana to Pelekas
Day 5: from Pelekas to Paleokastritsa
Day 6: from Paleokastritsa to Agros
Day 7: from Agros to Spartilas
Day 8: from Spartilas to Agni
Autumn: from Ano Pavliana to Stavros and Sinarades
Autumn: from Agni via Old Perithia to the Trail s end
The British legacy: orchids, cricket and Mon Repos
Corfu Trail maps
The characters
Corfu views
Photos of flowers
Flowers
Food
Conclusions
Bus times and walking organisers
Yiannis Books and play
To Hilary Whitton Paipeti who loves her island so much
Acknowledgements
I thank Hilary Whitton Paipeti, the co-founder of the Corfu Trail, who has been in the forefront of so many campaigns to keep Corfu the unspoilt treasure that so many love. Her essential guide to walking the Trail can be obtained from www.corfutrailguide.com .
To the cast of characters, I also give thanks. Without their support my walk would not have been possible. In particular, my team mate Sydney Fremantle has put in many hours identifying the flowers I photographed.
The maps showing the Corfu Trail are published by Freytag Berndt and are useful guides to the journey and to planning future walks.
My daughter has worked late hours in editing my manuscript. It is proof of her love for Corfu.
The numerous quotations from Edward Lear s letters have been taken from Edward Lear - the Corfu Years by Denise Harvey and Company of Athens and Dedham.
1966 Corfu - no roads 2009 Corfu Trail - off road
In 1966, my Danish wife Jannie and I visited Corfu and fell in love with this heaven on earth. We explored the island using the map on here . As can be seen, few of the roads had been asphalted.
The Corfu Trail, according to Hilary Paipeti s Companion Guide , was created to both avoid heavily developed areas and also, in passing through all the island s rural regions, to take in as many of its finest locations - obscure spots as well as familiar ones . It also avoids the roads shown on the 1966 map.
In fact the Trail follows many of the tracks that were built by the British from 1814 to 1864. Back in 1859, these roads were praised by the French traveller M. About in his Gr ce Contemporaine: La pays est travers en tous sens par des routes admirables .
Corfu has enchanted many visitors and authors in the past, perhaps the best known being Gerald and Lawrence Durrell. The lover of Corfu who will delight you on many occasions on our journey and from whom I quote is Edward Lear, who spent winters on the island from 1855 to 1864 and wrote many letters to his sister and his friends. He said: I think no place on Earth can be lovelier than this.
His description of the places we visit is delightful but also interesting as little has changed since his time once one gets off-road.
I wish you well in your walk and hope you will also fall in love with our island.
The characters
In order of appearance.
The team:
JANNIE WALLER, in charge of transport
JOHN WALLER, always last on the walk
CHARLES HENDERSON CB, ex Head of Energy Directorate, Department of Trade and Industry, ex Chairman of Total UK
SYDNEY FREMANTLE CBE, ex Head of International Energy Policy, Department of Trade and Industry
The friends and guest walkers:
NIKOS PAPAVLASSOPOULOS, Civil Engineer
HARRY VASSILAKIS, waymarker of Corfu Trail
DIMITRIS CHARITOS, President of Corfu Travel Agents
MITCH and DENISE CONYARD, Heating Engineer and Interior designer
BILL and BARBARA POPE, both retired teachers
FOTIS DOUKAKIS, co-owner of Theodoros Taverna, Ag. Gordis
HILARY WHITTON PAIPETI, co-founder of Corfu Trail and editor of the Corfiot
ROGER and PAT HUNSTONE, retired Travel Consultant
DIERK and CHRISTINE HOGE, retired European Space Agency and Eurobus respectively
PATRICIA COOKSON, founder of Corfu Villas, now CV Travel
KEITH MILLER, NBC News Senior Foreign Correspondent
JIM POTTS OBE, author and retired director British Council in Sweden etc
PETER and PAM JENKINS, retired photographers
JUDY MACKREL, involved in Corfu Tourism since 1970
FRIED AUMANN, co-founder of Corfu Trail
Photographs on here .
The plan is taking shape
Today is Easter Saturday 2009 - Orthodox Easter. I m sad. For the ten years since I retired, we have celebrated Easter with around one hundred thousand Greeks on the Esplanade of Corfu Town, the largest square in the Balkans and the cricket ground of the British for the 50 years of their rule in the 19th century. Today we will miss this unique experience and walk in the mountains.
At 11 this morning high up on Mt. Pantokrator, Corfu s highest point at 915 metres, I look towards the Town and imagine the scene. At the sound of a gun, enormous clay pots are pushed off the balconies of the beautiful six-storey buildings in the historic centre - now a World Heritage Site - and crash to the ground. This ancient custom is said to represent the betrayal of Judas. Jannie and I would then break through the crowd and jog around the magnificent Garitsa Bay to claim a table in Nautilus next to the windmill, share a small Poikilia Thalassinon , the local fruit de mer , drink a half-litre of chilled white wine and gaze across the bay to the Venetian Old Fort and, in the distance, Mt. Pantokrator.
The Old Fort s twin peaks, Koryphai in Greek, give us the name of the island. Legend has it they are the testicles of Uranus, petrified after he had been emasculated by his son Kronos!
Legend also tells us that Mt. Pantokrator was the final battleground of the ancient Corcyraeans. The oligarchic party entrenched itself half-way up the mountain. There, for two years, they defied the democrats of the town. Then they were wiped out in a terrible internecine massacre.
For lunch today we are sitting in the square of the last village before the summit of Mt. Pantokrator, beside the great elm tree which shelters the centre of Strinilas from the summer heat. Hilary Paipeti, co-founder of the Corfu Trail and organiser of the Saturday walks on the island, has just led us across the wild karst plateau below the peak of Mt. Pantokrator to a scramble down the almost sheer rock wall to Spartilas.
No plate of fried fish today, just eggs and chips - but what eggs! They are fresh and full of flavour from the chickens that run free behind Stamatis little taverna. This is simple country food to follow a glorious hike.
Standard fare it might be, but special: white taramasalata , not the usual red smoked roe paste of tourist tables; a plate of nouboulo , Corfu s unique pork filet or tenderloin, salted for a week and then smoked over scented wood in a traditional oven; dry and smoked local salamis; the ever present horiatiki , the Greek salad plus a extra plate of local feta . This is not the cheese found on supermarket shelves; it is kept under the counter for special customers. It is neither dry nor damp, but smooth and succulent; not sharp but sweet - a creamy treasure from Petalia, the village one passes before approaching the karst plateau.
I hear you are writing another book, John, someone says.
We are a few loyal walkers today; most of the usual crowd of Greeks, British, French, Germans and Dutch that, each Saturday, follow the goat tracks through the olive groves and mountain maquis are celebrating Easter with friends in their villages or in town. We dozen instead enjoy the tranquillity of the countryside.
Another book? What about?
The Corfu Trail.
Eyes turn to Hilary, the co-founder of Corfu s long-distance footpath. With a substantial EU grant, she and Fried Aumann set up the Trail in 2001 and have waymarked and maintained it ever since.
But it s Hilary s Trail.
Hilary laughs. It s everyone s. John s book will bring other walkers to the island and that will be good for Corfu.
You are going to walk it? questions someone in disbelief. My Danish wife Jannie and I are usually the rearguard in Hilary s expeditions. Jannie has problems going downhill - there are few hills in Denmark - and I have difficulty on the ascents.
I ve just bought a walking stick in Metsovo, I boast, as if this would make the difference. Beautiful Metsovo is high in the Pindus Mountains on the mainland and home to the Vlachs, the transhumant shepherds who once roamed with their enormous flocks throughout the south Balkans, from the valleys in the winter to the mountain pastures in the summer.
You ll get lost, chipped in another fellow.
On a recent walk, the rearguard had fallen so far behind that we had indeed got lost. Today, although the yellow waymarks had guided us through myrtle thickets that linked the small green fields of the rugged limestone karst plateau and down the tunnel of holm oak to the cliff above Spartillas, I would not have had full confidence of finding my way if Hilary and Fried had not been leading.
But the stick has a compass on it. I will look at my Freytag Berndt map, which shows the Trail and well - just map-read!
John will be fine. He ll follow my guide, encourages Hilary. Hilary s The Companion Guide to the Corfu Trail is in fact essential for serious walkers. Her instructions are precise and the maps are drawn from the most detailed available. If they get lost, they can phone me and I will drive to the rescue.
In the famous y