Saturday, April 26, 2014

Wildflower Picnic in the Hills of Corfu, Overlooking the Albanian Coast

Today's post has way too many photos, but it was just so pretty - I can't help it! Rob and I took the scooter back up into the hills for our last full day in Corfu. The beaches and water here are gorgeous, but I love exploring the upcountry even more. You start to get a nice view of Albania just a few miles up.
We got a little lost on the way up (maybe? still not sure)  and the road fluctuated between cement and sandy mud. We followed a sign for the town of Mengoulas.
Mengoulas is another one of those lovely deserted mountain villages. It looks like the EU made an investment in sprucing it up for tourists a few years ago, but has since let it go to seed again. There's a fancy villa with a pool for rent across the street that isn't all that expensive - probably because it's a half hour, often dirt road drive up the hill from the main road.
Such bright purple iris growing by the town well.
A few of the buildings have electricity and for sale signs, so it isn't totally abandoned.

We hiked all around through the terraced village, occasionally climbing over a wall when a passage was blocked.
So many wildflowers! And only the sound of bees buzzing around between them.
We were looking for what Google Maps had drawn as a major road to the radio tower on top of the island. Which turned out to be this:
Decided to picnic above the village instead. There were perfect table-sized smooth limestone rocks in between the stone foundations and meter-deep flowers.
Cheese, crackers, oranges and fig pie under the warm sun. We watched ants, bees and spiders busily work around us, paying us no attention.
The pink flowers matched our Turkish towel from Bodrum.
Love these two-tone sweet peas that were growing along the stone walls.
Eventually, it was time to head back through the terraced olive groves, farms and fixed up British holiday villas.
You can tell the climate is a bit different up here with so many groves of ferns. And look at the pattern on those clouds! Just like a Greek wave mosaic.
Back to our village of Kassiopi, where it was warm enough to sit and work by the pool for the rest of the day.

2 comments:

  1. What lovely wildflowers and a real sense of history in the amazing buildings. Thanks for sharing your journey.
    :)
    Cuesta Pool Fan

    ReplyDelete
  2. What lovely wildflowers and a real sense of history in the buildings. Thanks for sharing your journey
    :)
    Cuesta Pool Fan

    ReplyDelete