Kalami, Corfu

==KALAMI==


== CORFU==

Corfu is the second largest of the Ionian Islands and lies off the coast of Albania. The capital of Corfu is orfu Town (Kérkyra
in Greek) and it was to Kérkyra airport that we flew in to start a fantastic two week holiday in the beautiful little village of Kalami.


Corfu had ben somewhere I had wanted to visit since - at the age of thirteen ...
...by Gerald Durell. The book somehow left me with a haunting desire to visit the places Durrell wrote of, but it took me almost fourty years to make my first trip to that little gem of an island.

===Journey From the Airport===

Driving from the airport through the outskirts of Corfu Town I began to wonder if this island was going to be everthing that I had dreamed about. Shabby buildings and half built houses seemed to ... more

==KALAMI==

CORFU

Corfu is the second largest of the Ionian Islands and lies off the coast of Albania. The capital of Corfu is orfu Town (Kérkyra
in Greek) and it was to Kérkyra airport that we flew in to start a fantastic two week holiday in the beautiful little village of Kalami.

Corfu had ben somewhere I had wanted to visit since - at the age of thirteen - I had first read 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durell. The book somehow left me with a haunting desire to visit the places Durrell wrote of, but it took me almost fourty years to make my first trip to that little gem of an island.

Journey From the Airport

Driving from the airport through the outskirts of Corfu Town I began to wonder if this island was going to be everthing that I had dreamed about. Shabby buildings and half built houses seemed to be the only scenery in sight. The hour long journey to our destination soon left behind the urban outskirts and we found ourselves on a coastal road travelling to the North East of the island.Things suddenly looked very different!!

The sun shone down on to the incredible blue sea as we travelled along the main coastal road . We soon came to Dassia with its shops, café bars and long strip of pebbly beach .The road then left the coast and travelled high in to the mountains passing lots of little grottos where offerings were left along the way.

Now we were looking down to the incredible coastline below us, passing places like Barbatti and Nissaki. After some hair raising moments on the bends of the mountain road are coach came to a stop, and the passengers for Kalami had to descend.

Out of the coach we looked down the mountain to a beautiful horseshoe shaped bay, the sides of the mountain were lush with olive trees, a few villas of various pastel colours were scattered here and there on the way down, and there , at the bottom , nestled next to the incredible clear and blue waters of the Ionian Sea was our home for the next two weeks - the wonderful little fishing village of Kalami!!

Kalami means reed and the village was given the name because of the reeds that growon the beach in front of the little houses that are dotted there. Kalami's streets are so narrow that large coaches cannot get down to it - so we were transferred into a mini bus to make the journey down to our accomodation.

Our Accomodation

We had booked our holiday with Direct Greece but were staying in accomodation owned by the wondful Athinaios family. By an incredible coincidence our apartment was the Prospero apartment, part of the White House where Lawrence and Gerald Durrell had lived. The Prospero was so called because it was from here that Lawrence Durrell written his book 'Prospero's Cell.

To pull up outside the White House was a wonderful moment for me, after all the years of anticipation I was now stood by the house that was exactly as Durrell had described it -

"...set like a dice in a rock already venerable with the scars of wind and water. The hill runs clear up into the sky behind it so that the cypresses and olives overhang this room in which I sit and write. We are upon a bare promontory with its beautiful clean surface of metamorphic stone covered in olive and ilex."

Our apartment swas directly above the White House taverna and was originally part of the White House itself. It held four people and had incredible views over the sea from the veranda shaded with vines.

We had a double and twin bedroom, an authentic greek living/dining room, a bathroom and a kitchen with a fridge, freezer and oven. Our bedroom over looked the sea to Albania which is only 2 miles away. We were very happy with the apartment and touched to find that Tassos and Daria had left us a selection of foods and drink - wine, water, milk, tea, sugar, coffee, butter, honey, jam and lovely fresh bread.

The Village

Kalami is a village unspoilt by tourism, it contains three tavernas, three mini markets, 3 bars, 3 travel offices and 2 tourist shops where you can arrange car hire, boat hire, excursions etc and borrow a wide selection of books.

The majority of the accomodation in Kalami is in the form of villas and apartments. Most of these are traditional Greek houses but the Adonis & Asonitis Apartments ( nicknamed by the locals as The Pink Palace) is a modern appartment block that is built on the mountain down to the village. The two pools and bars at the complex were available to be used by anybody not just residents. Some of the food there was a little 'English' but when using the pool we would often buy our lunch there and opt for the Greek alternatives - we got lovely Greek Salads, pitta , taramassalta and hummpous that we washed down with local Retsina and it was all very reasonably priced.

Facilities

Kalami is not a destination for people looking for a bustling night life, it is for people who want to relax on the beach, wander through the olive groves, snorkle or swim in the crystal clear water, eat some incredible food, meet the friendly locals, fish, sail or take out a speed boat and visit some wonderful little coves.

The beach is not sandy on this side of the island but shingle. There are however sunbeds and umbrerllas available on the beach for only a few euros a day. There are also showers, toilets and changing areas available on or close to the beach. Kalami Beach is a very safe beach and has a clear, clean sea.

The little gift shop on the beach is an incredible place, the lady owner recognised us on our second visit a couple of years later and welcomed us with open arms. Everything we bought that was for a present wasgift wrapped - the lady even gave us little stickers to write the names of the recipiants on them. The shop also sold reasonably priced beach ware and inflatables that you could take back at any time during your holidays for reinflating.

As with all the local shops if you spent more than a few euros you were given little gifts - I was given two lovely little oil pictures painted on canvas from the gift shop owner.

My days at Kalami started as I walked down to a little shop along the main road ( a tiny little road surrounded by fig, lemon, and orange trees ) to buy lovely fresh bread. The toothless, friendly locals would be sitting by their doors with a willing smile - they spoke no English but we managed to communicate very well.

After a breakfast on our veranda or at the Taverna below us we would either go to the pool or the beach and eat lunch at one of the fantastic Tavernas.

The Taverna Kalami Beach was one of these, situated actually on the shingly beach, it is owned by the Georgotzis family - it was once their small house on the beach, that was used before the war for housing the Albania workers who came to gather the olives.In the 80's it was turned into th taverna it is today.

Another taverna that has been converted from afamily home on the beach is the wonderful Thomas's Place. There are tables on the beach and under vine vovered verandas and the greek and Cypriot food that is served there is incredible. My favourite being the courgette and aubergine fritters - absolutly delicious.

The third taverna was the one directly below our apartment - The White House Taverna. We used this a lot for breakfast and evening meals and got to know the staff really well.The fish there was incredible and caught fresh daily with their own fishing boat.

Activities and Visits

This may all sound like we just sat around and ate but believe me we did a lot more than that!!

We hired a speedboat for three days; of a morning we would walk down to the jetty alongside the tavrna and Tassos would bring us our boat that we wuld load with water, suncream and towels - one day a picnic. Then we set off for the day to explore quiet, secluded bays and coves, one day we found a little beach that we ahd all to ourselves sunbathe, picnic and swim.
My son and I would jump from the boat we were getting near to the beach to swim in and help moor the boat or we would simply through out the anchor in the sea and swim from there.
We pulled into tavernas - like the one at San Stephanos - the staff only to happy to hlep guide you intomthe jetty of their tavern and help you to moor.
The cost of hiring the boat was 150 euros and well worth the money and I would really recommend the experience, but do remember your suncream and water as it gets VERY hot on the water.

The second week we hired a car for three days - this was really easily arranged , it included full insurance and no excess and cost us 80 euros.
We used the car to explore the island - we didn't go to Corfu Town as we had visited that by local bus the week before. So we went to the other side of the island visiting the more sandy beaches and we had an incredible journey up the mountains to Old Perithia.

Old Perithia ( Palaia Peritheia) is a deserted village, high up in the mountains off the main road between Kassiopi and Acharavi.Perithia was built in the 14th century when the people fled their coastal homes in fear of the pirates. It grew to have eight churches, each one belonging to a different family in the village, a school, a police station and even a court, over 1,500 people lived in Perithia.
After 1912 people began to leave te village and move back to the coast, by 1955 the village was occupied only during the summer months, by1975 most of the villagers had moved further down the mountain and only a few remained now there are only six people who live in the old village throughout the whole year, they tend the local crops and look after live stock.

The second time we visited Perithia there were five tavernas in the main village square but on our first visit there was only one - they didn't hve a menu just offered you what food was available that day - we had a huge bowl of incredible lamb cutlets in rosemarg, garlic and olive oil and a wonderfully light walnut and honey cake.

We were served by a rough looking man in a leather coat, a little old lady cooking in the kitchen and it was absolutly incredible!!
Most of Perithia's houses now stand empty with broken down shutters and crumbling stone walls, the sky shining through holes in roofs. It is like a ghost town but with nothing to fear - it is just full of mysterious charm.
As we drove back down the mountain we stopped to buy bottles of home made olive oil from a clutch of old women by the side of the road.

Our third day was spent visiting Aqualand ( we had to keep the kids happy !!) What a great place and what a lovely and fun day!!
Aqualand is a FANTASTIC water parks , close to Corfu town it was easy to find and there was plenty of free parking.
In the park were Giant Slides, the Multislide, the Black Hole, the Four Twisters, the Kamikazes, the Hydri-tube, the Crazy River, the Lazy River, the adventurus and fyll activities pool, the two new "Free Fall" slides, the big size Jacuzzi and the big deep pool. There were free sunbeds and umbrellas changing rooms and showers, fast food oulets a, restaurant and gelateria, shop, mini-market and fast photo-print shop, safety lockers available, wet and dry central bar.

We all had tremendous fun - including my non-swimming husband who spent most of the day floating around the lazy river in a huge tyre!! I would really recommend this water park it is the best that I have ever seen.

In Conclusion

All in all Kalami is simply wonderful, my two visits there have lef me with incredible memories - much, much more that what I have described here - boat tribs in a glass bottomed boat, a trip to Albania and Paxos, Greek dancing, the night time boat trips to wonderful little taverna - the list goes on and on.
It's no good I'll have to go again!!

Summary: A paradise on earth!!

 

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