On Location: Corfu, Greece

By Gray Shealy

Ultimately, I just have an allergic reaction to shore excursions. I’m not a fan of group activities, nor ones that are generally over-priced and take you to over-trodden sites with the same people with whom you’ve been encapsulated for a week. Granted, we were on a very posh small Azamara ship with smaller ports from which to choose, but I still needed my escape. When we docked on the pier at Corfu’s Old Town, the sun had just risen, and taxis were just starting to line up at the gates to ferry eager passengers across the island. I had managed to convince two fellow travelers from the ship to come with us on our adventure, a mother and daughter duo who also liked the idea of being slightly rebellious. We found an affable taxi driver named Christos who was willing to work with our plans, which were sketchy at best. 

The dream was this: to spend the afternoon on a secret beach. Crystalline blue water, somewhere truly away from the crowds, some cove that no car or cruise tour could reach. I had found a few contestants on the satellite map imagery and showed them to Christos, who took the order as an interesting challenge. Clearly, he had done this before with folks of our type. We drove across the central spine of Corfu, winding through serpentine roads that spanned olive groves that were not yet being tended in the morning haze. We pulled up to a convenience store, selected a few bottles of Greek wine from the fridge, and grabbed a souvenir corkscrew for our picnic. In the town of Palaiokastritsa, Christos commandeered a small fishing boat for us which sailed across the sapphire blue bay in search of our perfect cove. 

The nose of the boat pulled into this striated cave with water so very turquoise that it made me want to dive-in straight away, but just as I was mustering the courage, the crescent appeared ahead. It was our beach, Illiodoros, perfectly clear of bodies, and awaiting our arrival. We spent the afternoon with the warm, smooth pebbles pressed against our skin as though we were having a hot stone massage. We indulged in the white wine, and I took many long swims out into the seemingly endless blue bay. A few other boats approached, but no one ever came up onto the beach. It was though we had claimed it for the day, our wishes granted from the mythological heavens above.

That night, back on the ship, our skin slightly seared and warmed from the rays and the stones, we indulgently giggled with our fellow beach-goers, content with our exploits of the day. From the top deck, we witnessed the most incredible golden sunset as we sailed northward, away from Greece and along the nebulous Albanian coast.

Syllogi’s ‘On Location’ is a series of trip reports reflecting on our personal travels, as we research and experience the bounty the world has on offer.