Circumnavigating the Koutavos Lagoon
I don’t know about other couples, but I find when planning a trip, and even whilst on a trip one person usually has to take the helm so to speak. Of course, as a travel consultant, I’d expect to be responsible for arranging the logistical side of things. It’s not that I’m a control freak or anything, but I couldn’t imagine relinquishing the responsibility of the trip planning to Peter. He’s quite happy to just go with the flow and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, if you have two people putting their penny worth in, the negotiation can take a lot of effort, resulting in lots of input and very little output (solo travel has so much going for it!). Anyway, as this trip is limited to three weeks, the bones of a schedule had been organised before departure. The detail, I like to play by ear. Today, however, I’ve decided to put Peter in the driving seat and let him choose how we spend the day. Worst case scenario – we end up aimlessly wandering the streets of Argostoli. Peter may also surprise me, so I wait with bated breath.
We started by exploring the main shopping street known as Lithostroto, which sits a couple of rows back from the waterfront. This attractive street leading through the main square is full of fashion boutiques, cafe’s and restaurants. For culture lovers, there are several museums and the Kefalos Theatre, one of the oldest and largest modern theatres in Greece. It was built in 1858 in a neoclassical style during British rule.
Peter spots the Catholic Church of Agios Nikolaos, the only Catholic church on the island and a legacy of the Venetian occupation. The church was established in 1793, destroyed by the 1953 earthquake and rebuilt in the 1960’s. Although Peter was brought up in the Orthodox Christian (Coptic) Church, he was baptised a Catholic – a long but interesting story I may share another day.
Thirty minutes in, the heavens opened and we had to seek refuge under the shelter of a nearby building. It didn’t show signs of letting up, so we retreated back to the apartment until it subsided. It gave us a chance to chuck together a DIY breakfast of yoghurt, honey and fruit.
Come midday, the skies had brightened a little, and Peter put into operation part two of his plan for the day. Whilst poring over Google Maps, he could see that on the far side of the lagoon was an archaeological site called Ancient Krani. To get to it, we would take the circular path around the lagoon and come back across the De Bosset Bridge. All sounded good. The slightly overcast day kept temperatures down, which was perfect for walking.
The first part of the lagoon walk took us along a path lined with Oleander with bright pink blooms. In the shallows, we could see blue crabs scuttling between the rocks as shoals of small silver fish darted in one direction and then another. We even stumbled across the remains of a deceased loggerhead turtle, its shell now worn paper-thin by the agitation of the water.
Once at the first corner, the stone path and manicured park turned into a gravel track where early summer wild flowers were putting on a spectacular show. It wasn’t until later that I realised that at this point we were close to the Botanical Gardens which I’d hoped to visit but hey ho – one can only do what one can do.
The short edge of the lagoon had been heavily planted with eucalyptus trees. Before the lagoon had been developed into the healthy habitat for nature it is now, it had been a swamp which had caused a lot of illness and disease. These tall trees which are native to Australia, are thirsty and were planted here to assist with the draining of the swamp.
Once we reached the second corner of the path, we realised that we couldn’t go any further along the water’s edge. In front of us was a small industrial unit which was fenced off. To continue around the lagoon, we would need to head out onto the main road. This is the main road that would take you north and east of the island, so there is a fair bit of traffic to navigate. My instinct was to turn around and go back, but Peter was adamant that we could continue and hopefully, there would be another route back along the water’s edge. Unfortunately, there wasn’t.
What there was was a cliff face on the other side of the road with warning signs about the potential of rockfall. There was no pavement, so we found ourselves walking towards a steady stream of oncoming traffic. Fair enough, most drivers gave us a wide berth but one bus driver did some vigorous arm gesticulation to us as he passed – probably calling us Malaka’s or similar. Anyway, by the time we’d committed to continuing on, we’d completely forgotten about Ancient Krani and had passed it a while back. We did, however, pass the remains of a small religious structure called Metochion of St. Apostles. I wasn’t familiar with the word Metochion but after Googling it found it to be a structure probably associated with a nearby monastery. It may have been a place for quiet contemplation or temporary accommodation for people associated with the monastery.
Eventually, we made it to the De Bosset Bridge. Just before it was a viewing point which provided us with beautiful vsta’s of Argostoli.
We’d worked up quite an appetite, mostly due to shot nerves. Back on the promenade, we were tempted into To Karvouno by the aroma of spit-roasted meat and where the portions were plentiful!
Anyway, the moral of this story is don’t attempt to walk the whole lagoon. When you reach the far corner, turn and around and come back!
