I won’t say what time we started, but the photo below says it all. Today we were leaving the coast and heading east across the middle of northern corfu and the widest part of the island.

The overall impression of the day was walking through greenery all day, I  suppose in contrast to following the coast. The other impression was of climbing, perhaps unsurprisingly as we started at sea level and finished at over 400 metres, but I think the overall ascent of 1,040 metres was a surprise. It was certainly a tiring day. Luckily, there were a few hill villages with cafes to keep us going.

On our first climb of the day, Mick climbed an olive tree in the middle of nowhere to resuce a stuck cat. Whether he was really stuck is an unanswered question, but at worst Mick got some tree climbing experience, and at best we saved the whole of the Greek emergency services being scrambled to undertake a rescue. The cat was eternally grateful and walked with us for a few kilometres, until it found something more interesting.

Our first stop was Agros, just after the torpedo proudly displayed on the hill side (I should look it up really). The Serafino cafe wasn’t marked on Open Street Map, so I’ve added it to help future walkers as you really need a break by here. The sausage rolls were good, although it is a surprise when you find the sausage is a frankfurter (or rather frankfurter type sausage, but obviously greek).

After descending from Agros, through some quite chilly valleys, where the mist still hung around and dew was still on the leaves. Some of these valley have quite a tropical feel. We were anticipating a tricky river crossing, where the guide suggested that we may get wet feet. It turned out not too be to bad, but who knows what it would be like in wet weather. On that subject, it has been 100% dry up until today, however for tomorrow and friday (our final day) rain has been forecast.

The path then rose again from the valley. We took the opportunity for a quick drinks stop at a nice cafe by a bridge, call The Cafe by the Bridge for some reason. Climbing up to the nice village of Valanio, and then pretty much continuing to climb, at various grades of difficulty to our final stop at Sokraki, a rather nice hill top village with amazing views.

The accommodation was our best yet, with a beautifully restored house providing a number of studio apartments. Ours had a big kitchen diner, stairs to a living room and two bedrooms. It was very impressive. The big surprise was the swimming pool, which while small was filled with the most freezing cold water!

There was only one bar open in town (on a wednesday), and we had lunch, afternoon takeaway beers and dinner in Emily’s cafe. We would have been a bit stuck without it.