Lefkada / Lefkas

Wednesday 11September 2024

When we left the UK we didn’t have plans to visit any Greek Islands on this trip (that’s for another day!). But in trying to avoid the stormy weather in the mountains we headed quite far west and found ourselves on the beautiful Ionian island of Lefkada / Lefkas. 

Interestingly Lefkas hasn’t always been an island. It was originally connected to mainland Greece by a shallow isthmus, until around 650 BC when the Corinthians built a canal through the narrow stretch of land.

The ‘island’ has a rich and varied history - it played an important role in the Persian and Peloponnesian wars and has been under control of the Corinthians, Romans, Franks, Sicilians, Turks and Venetians. When the Venetian domination ended in 1797 it briefly became a French state before being won over by an allied fleet of Turks, Russians and English. The English domination didn’t last long and on the 21st May 1864, a treaty was signed proclaiming the unification of the Ionian Islands, including Lefkada, with the independent and newly formed Greek State.

 

The only way for vehicles to cross from the mainland to the island today is by means of a floating bridge across the 25 meter wide canal which leads onto a long causeway. The FB (Floating Bridge) Santa Maura has been operating since 1986 - previous means of crossing the canal can be seen on this webpage Historical Bridge Photos. The road bridge slowly swings open to allow boats to pass through 7 times a day (at this time of year) and stays open for about 15 minutes while all manner of vessels motor through at speed. We watched about 50 or 60 boats pass through in that time and a queue of traffic soon built up on both sides. A horn was sounded to announce the bridge was opening and sounded again twice before it began closing - encouraging the slower boats and stragglers at the end of the ‘armada’ to hurry up. 

Lefkas surprised us with its varied landscape from the steep white cliffs in the south which give the island its name (lefkos is the Greek word for "white") to the verdant hillsides with olive, pine and plane trees. It’s a yachtie and watersports paradise but if that’s not your bag there’s plenty of white sandy bays to laze on with turquoise seas to tempt you in. 

In the town of Vasiliki we watched the ferry to the neighbouring island of Kefalonia arrive, unload, load up again and depart all within about 1/2 hour. 

It reminded us of our younger days when we took the ferries frequently in the Aegean Dodecanese islands. We were quite tempted to travel onto another island but at a cost of €73 one way for the two of us and the van we decided it can wait till we get our yacht!! Well, we can dream …..