Paxos

Paxos isn’t mentioned in the Odyssey. Its neighbour, Corfu, however, is widely considered to be the real world location for Scheria, the magical land of the Phaeacians. Odysseus washes up on Scheria (Corfu) after his long stay on Calypso’s island, and from here takes a sort of magical boat home to Ithaca, where he can attend to matters such as reconnecting with his old dog, and killing suitors.

You can imagine, then, the excitement with which we boarded a boat from Corfu to Paxos, feeling infused with an Ancient Greek sense of adventure and homecoming. You can’t travel to those islands without feeling like you’re a Homeric hero. A couple of seasick shipmates notwithstanding, the mood was palpable.

As always, we dropped our bags at the villa and rushed straight down to a rocky cove and into the sea. This became practically a daily routine for us, navigating the thorny path down in the hot sun, to be rewarded with an empty cove, warm clear water and a sundowner like no other.

The rest of the week followed in much the same way. Basically switching from swimming to reading and back to swimming again. There were games in the evening, short walks and runs around the area, and Combs led us in an excellent HIIT class one morning. There was even a watercolour session of two.

We took out a Fut-Fut boat a couple of days, enjoyed a few Taverna lunches, including a large number of grilled fish, pictured below. I don’t think there’s a better lunch than a big grilled fish with olive oil and lemon, and some Greek chips on the side, delicious.

When you think that Odysseus was headed towards an island in the Ionian Sea, which must have been similar to Paxos, maybe you understand even more why he was so desperate to get back!