Durrell and all that . . . . .

Having seen the varying wildlife and plants on the island the short time we have been here makes me understand why Gerald Durrell wrote his book - My family and other animals - about his experiences on Corfu in the 30's.

We have seen lizards in varying size and colour, butterflies like microlights, dragonflies like Concorde, beetles and bugs in an array of colour. Bees, wasps and hornets the size of small cats, vipers and adders slithering across the roads and best of all wild tortoises shinning across the garden and turtles in streams and water courses.

If we didn't have so much DIY to do we could make an occupation out of logging and identifying them all.

Oh by the way, the veg gardening came to a halt due to the heat and Mrs D retired to a cold shower. The seedlings will have to remain crammed in their pots for another day, watch this space.

Back to wildlife we have seen some lovely (feathered) birds and fish of all colours and size. The place is teaming with a wonderful array of wildlife and foliage. Anyway enough of this rambling there is work to be done outside now its a bit cooler - more soon D & L

In amongst the DIY

We have managed to get around a bit over the past few weeks with various guests being here with us. We have been showing them around the island but sadly as is always the case there is so much to see and only so much time to do it - but we did the best we could. We have had a trip over to the mainland port of Igoumenitsa which was OK not much to see there but it is the most north western mainland entry port. We have been around the local beaches and villages had some lovely walks and generally had a break from the DIY chores.

Talking of which, whats on the list this summer I hear you ask. Well we have demolished the wall between the toilet and bathroom so you can now use the toilet without contortionist skills. We have lowered the wall between the toilet and shower and are now considering where to start as it now looks like a construction site. We want to take the bath out and put in a walk in shower, tile the whole room, move the water heater and the small task of replacing the ceiling as it now has two large holes in it where the walls used to be.

No problem as Mrs D is going to remove all the old tiles and have a go at fitting the new ones (better than mixing concrete was quoted!) The bathroom jobs could be a blessing as it is getting a bit hot for jobbing outside and the concrete mixer (Mrs D) has broken down in protest. We also hope to fit our new back door which we brought with us from England and anything else which pops up as urgent along the way.

We have a party to go to tonight with live music so that should be fun and then we will be starting on the bathroom next week I think so watch this space. This will of course be after satisfactory risk assessments and working practices have been done - think not have you ever seen Greek health and safety??? No neither have I. Mrs D is outside today putting some veg seedlings in which she has nurtured - picture above to prove it!

Will sign off now to check on the veg garden progress and see if any liquid refreshment is required. Y'all keep in touch now D & L

Back to the infinite job list, oh and the sun

Here we are back to the infinite job list. On the list of things to do whilst we are here this time is a bit of demolition and revamping of the bathroom and toilet, fitting a new back door, new steps outside and looking at the old door in the kitchen.

We have already done the outside decking area above, we had to do this to enable us all to sit together without sitting in a long line across the balcony. Mrs D was employed as a builders labourer mixing concrete and we managed to get the five supporting posts in before our first guests arrived. Such was the enthusiasm of our guests to have the job complete before they went that we got it done! This was a big relief for Mrs D who was spared from further labouring duties and I have to say it looks good and has been popular so far.

In amongst the DIY and other tasks we will hopefully find time for some cycling (early & late in the day as it is too hot) and some swimming in our local pool - the Ionian Sea. There may well be the odd beer here and there as and when required.

We are also thinking of exploring the western Greek mainland during the summer with the tent and the car so watch this space.

Well its getting on for sea swim time here so will sign off and promise to try to keep up to date!!

Y'all keep in touch now D & L

Here we go again

We left home early afternoon as we were only driving to Lincoln to call on some friends for a couple of days as we missed them on the journey home because of - oh no Kwikfit again.

We had a lovely stay with them and then we drove down to Margate where we had a night in a Travelodge before an early morning ferry the following day to Dunkirk. Sadly we missed our stay with Marion this time as she was holidaying at the time we set off back. Must try harder to co-ordinate the booking system next time!

Thankfully the sea was calm, the crossing good and this meant that Mrs D managed to hang on to the last full English for a while.

We arrived in Dunkirk at 11ish and then we drove down through France for our first nights camp at Verdun. Super camp site and a very old and pretty French town. We were just having the one night in France this time as we were staying a couple of nights in southern Germany near the Tirol region.

The drive to Fussen the following day was a long one but worth it as we found a cracking site just outside Fussen on the shores of a lake. The weather was good and the views from the site superb. The German autobahn is always entertaining, Mercs, Beemers and VWs tanking along at light speed which to us means we need a clear run of about a mile to pass anything due to the load and acceleration of our car. We seemed to manage OK but we did have one or two parked in the boot waiting to get past.

We had two nights in Fussen so we could have a look at the place. It would have been a lovely day had it not been spoiled by the fact we were almost out of camp stove fuel (we both forgot to put this on our mega shopping list in the UK, what a pair of muppets.) We walked miles around Fussen 'til we eventually got some from a garden centre!! The walk to and from Fussen was round the lake where we were camping. The old part of Fussen is beautiful and I think we racked up 20 kilometers that day it was a lovely walk apart from - oh no a call from Kwikfit trying to dig themselves out of the mess they gave us in the UK.

We left earlyish the following day for the drive over the Fern Pass to Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass into Italy then over the Dollies through Cortina and down to Venice for the last camp before the ferry. This time we managed to get in the right lane, miss rush hour in Venice and drove straight to the camp site. An OK site just functional for the ferry and maybe a little bit close to Marco Polo airport runway but we slept OK and were off at 11 the following day into Venice for the ferry.

We arrived at the port and the ferry was in and loading up. We got our tickets and then onto the ferry for the 24 hour crossing. This time in an attempt to save a few bob we decided to rough it in the aircraft seats as we only had a 40 minute journey at the other end to home in Corfu. I have to say it went pretty well even though there was a party of Italian schoolkids sleeping there too. We thought we would be awake all night with their noise but the good old Germans put them straight. Whenever the kids came in they were told in full volume by the Germans that it was a sleeping room and if they wanted to make noise to get out.

We arrived on Corfu 3ish the following day and after a quick bit of shopping we got home around four o'clock to a mega overgrown garden and drive area. Apart from that the house was OK, the weather was good and all was well. We prized everything out of the car dumped it in the office, had a bit of grub and went to bed earlyish. Thankfully a safe and non eventful journey back to Greece.

Pictures above show the car on the site near Fussen - bear in mind all the camping gear went on top of whats already in. The other picture shows the car bursting at the sides just down from Cortina in the Italian Dolomites.

Back in good old Blighty

Wow have we got behind here, we are back in Corfu and we haven't done a blog for the UK, the trip back here or anything since!!! Will try to catch up and get a grip on things.

So getting back home was good after the events with our friends Kwikfit in Hastings, which sadly had a second episode at home!! The house and garden were fine and Middleton hadn't changed much.

We spent most of our time catching up with family and friends closely followed by a series of shopping fixes for Mrs D. I had to ensure that I got a pork pie, real ale and fish and chip fix before we set off back.

The diary was full with social events, the shopping fixes gathered so much stuff we were on the verge of getting a trailer to get it all back to Corfu!! We piled it all up at home and wondered where it all was going to go.

We were very lucky whilst at home as the weather was almost perfect every day. We walked locally and saw the spring lambs and super flower displays, cycled in the dales, caught up with almost everyone and shopped for England. You just don't get the choice of shops or products out in Corfu, so much so, that there are a couple of guys with big vans who do shopping runs to the UK four to five times a year coming back loaded with Argos and other such outlet supplies for deprived Brits!

So having seen and done all we could in eight weeks and bought out all shop stocks we started to think about the drive back to Corfu and the mountain of stuff we had take back with us. Some of which was shopping orders for some friends out in Corfu.

With route planned, ferries booked, car tested we started to load the car. All I can say is that it is a good job we had some new shockers fitted all round because did we have some gear in the car.

All set, loaded up it was off again for another 1250 mile trek across Europe to Venice and the ferry to Corfu.

The pictures show the canal at Kildwick in North Yorkshire and a couple of local lambs near Middleton.