This morning we walked along the quay and boarded what some in the party called The African Queen. Our trip across the Ambracian Gulf took us past many fish farms as we headed for the feeding ground of the population of 150 dolphins.
Apart from the young captain the crew consisted of a cook and a girl who told us about the behaviour of the dolphins. She said how the dolphins love to swim immediately in front and beside the prow of the boat. Apparently this activity represents their version of a rollercoaster ride.
We saw loads of animals just breaking the surface, jumping and swimming together. The whole dolphin festival was brilliant to see. Unfortunately my phone didn’t capture any of the jumping or aerobatics they displayed.
After 45 minutes we left the dolphins to their own devices and headed towards a place to swim. The boat anchored near the shore and I jumped into the warm inviting sea. I think this exuberance resulted in blocking up my ear and since then I’ve had trouble with the hearing in my left ear.
Apart from this hopefully temporary inconvenience splashing around in the warm waters was a real treat. I climbed back on board and dried off in the sun. Shortly afterwards our cook served up a very good lunch with mussels, shrimps, Greek salad and fried vegetables.
We then pulled up the anchor and headed back to Preveza Port. We landed at 1 pm with no idea how to spend the rest of the afternoon. We decided to have a couple of hours in our room so that the hottest part of the day would pass us by.
After our siesta we met up with Fiona and Mark and walked along the coast to the Venetian Fort. None of us enjoyed the steamy walk largely in the glare of the afternoon sun, which hadn’t yet started to soften.
In the evening Mark and Fiona joined us for a meal. We took the advice of the receptionist and walked to a very busy restaurant called the Crazy Shrimp. I just wanted a bowl of pasta. The others ordered a Greek salad, two lots of fried squid and chicken on a spit and a large plate of chips. In addition to this being too much food, in itself off-putting, the 2 large plates of squid were inedible. They tasted of cardboard with the consistency of rubber. I had ordered spaghetti with a tomato and mussel sauce. It wasn’t brilliant but good enough to eat. I gave a huge helping to Maggi and could hardly notice that I had any less. Needless to say I didn’t finish it.
We walked home for bed.