Lefkada (aka Lefkas) is yet another fairly big Ionian island, and the resort area of Nidrí has access to many walks and are at least good for a week or so of walking holiday.

Nidrí is also serious insect country which makes it less pleasant than it could have been, the setting is truly awesome.

Food and wine is generally excellent and service is also top notch. If I must mention just one place it will have be the Italian restaurant “500cc Caffé”. That place is heaven on earth. Update: I believe this wonderful place is now closed.

Selected walks: For walks on the island, see Walks in Lefkada and Meganisi by Lance Chilton (referred to as “/Chilton/”) and Lefkada on Foot by Lida Out (referred to as “/Out/”).

•1 NIDRÍ – RÁCHI – THE WATERFALLS (+ RETURN) (my total time 2h29; 221a 228d; net walking time 1h38): This is /Out/‘s walk 11 (It is also /Chilton/‘s walk 1).

Instead of using the perfectly sensible route (mostly signposted) followed in /Chilton/, I unfortunately opted for the complicated /Out/ version of this walk, i.e it is almost the same, but goes into a maze of gravel tracks just to loose a couple of hundred meters of asphalt. The timings in the book were too inconsistent to be useful. The “5 minutes from the bypass” was actually 4 minutes using their initial speed. Lots of investigation here is included in the total time of the walk. I walked the initial part of the walk TWICE and still could not see that turn-off. Had the book just indicated that it was just before the factory and that you actually walked at the side of the wall/fence of that the entire time… But no. I then walked the walk backwards from where /Out/ obviously came back in on the main route. And surprise, surprise was I spat out from what looked like a private access road beside the factory. I could never have consider going in there, I expected a real cross-roads. Also mind that the mentioned sign (actually a board) was broken off and lie hidden in vegetation. It could only be seen coming out that very narrow road.

Other than this totally unnecessary diversion, a stupid detour, the walk itself is rather uneventful. Just mind that on the return where you cross the riverbed by some sheds (N15 in /Out/) this is done on a bridge. Very strange walk description here, and this book has lots of that. Strange English sentences that at least I have difficult to understand. Something seems to be lost in translation. Oh why did I not just stick to the dependable “/Chilton/”…

•2 NIDRÍ – VLÍCHO – AG. KYRIAKÍ – DESÍMI – VLÍCHO – NIDRÍ (my total time 5h02; 385a 381d; net walking time 4h15): This is /Chilton/‘s walks 3+4.

A fairly uneventfull walk almost totally on asphalt. No problems with navigation. Desími proved just another scruffy and uninteresting beach, and I opted turning back immediately for some refreshments (included in the total time).

•3 NIDRÍ – PALEOKATOÚNA – NEOCHÓRI – EGLOUVÍ – ÁG. DONÁTOS (+ RETURN) (my total time 7h12; 1207a 1204d; net walking time 5h58): This is /Chilton/‘s walk 5.

What a massive walk! Extensive views of course. Marred (mid June) by insects though, they attacked like crazy if you stopped even for a second… And you will probably be covered by cobwebs using those short-cuts.

Navigation was mostly easy, unfortunately the “well-used dirt road” that you meet high up in the montains is also laid under asphalt now, and you follow this for kilometers… There is however NO traffic.

•4 NIDRÍ – PALEOKATOÚNA – NEOCHÓRI – RÁCHI – NIDRÍ (my total time 5h17; 610a 613d; net walking time 3h31): This is /Out/‘s walk 12.

Since I knew at least some of the complicated initial route in /Out/ now (see my walk 1 above) I gave this book another shot. Again timings proved too inconsistent to be useful, but I managed to get through it without too much hassle (or danger!).

A few important things to note: Above Paleokatoúna mind that the track left at EG24 in /Out/ is the same initial track as /Chilton/ also follows away from the main road here in my walk 3 above.

Waypoint EN7 in /Out/ is actually the SECOND fork on this track, only a minute or so apart. This cost me lots of time for investigation.

Descending towards the waterfalls (or rather the Plane café, several refreshments here included in the total walk time BTW) is NOT as described in the book. There is no safe way to climb down towards the right side of that new water reservoir when the blue dots end. Instead, BEFORE the blue dots end, you go ahead instead of continuing left inside the last S winding down, following remains of an old water channel. This way step almost into the river bed, but keep left continuing to follow a water pipe (and later more water tubes appear) on a narrow, faint path. Because of all the vegetation the path is slightly awkward but completely safe. The path goes to the right corner of the OLD water reservoir.

• Good starting points: • Nidrí

• How to get there: • By air • By ferry from some other Ionian islands • By ferry from the mainland

• More info: • Lefkas.net is THE Guide to LEFKAS