motorhome to Corfu part 3 Forums

dethleff

Motorhome to Corfu

Part 3 Corfu
Camping on deck.
Arrived on a boiling hot morning at the Venice ferry port for the “24” hour cruise to Corfu. Seeing no signs for the Minoan booking in office, I was pointed in the direction of this large glass office that bordered the embarkation lanes. Booking in went quite smoothly, I was issued a green card with Corfu printed on it, and told to place it in windscreen where it could be seen. I asked if I should be issued with a Lane number?
The perplexed look on her face told me this was a new concept to her, so I said thank you and returned to the van.
“I think I’ll park alongside that large lorry in the shade” I said to the wife. “Is that our lane?”, “haven’t got a clue”, I said, then told her that you weren’t told which lane to go in. We had arrived two and a half hours before sailing, big mistake, if you are getting off at Corfu you are last on and first off. Unbeknown to us this is not a roll on roll off ferry, and were somewhat puzzled when we could see motorhomes boarding the ferry in the direction of the bow, then the same motorhomes heading in the direction of the stern.(seen through the large open openings that are a feature of the camping on deck, deck, if that makes sense?).
There were many motorhomes on board mostly German but a couple of Brits also,
who were going to Corfu, or were going on to Igoumenitsa

Don Madge had posted somewhere; remember that you can be parked next to some enormous lorry with sheep in when taking the camping on deck option.
So finally it was our turn to board. Now is it me, or do all boarding marshals give no instructions until you guess wrongly, which way to go, anyway after guessing wrongly again, I was directed to my parking place, right next to one of those large openings
Absolutely perfect. A few minutes later a man came with a long hooked pole and pulled down the electric cable for our hookup.

We had barely time to make a cup of tea, and put the folding chairs outside next to the large opening when we were off.
The ferry the “Europa Palace” slowly made its way down the Guidecca Canal giving us a magnificent view of Venice, and making us realize we hadn’t seen a fraction of it.
We were issued with key cards to enable access to the upper decks, so I went and had a look round. This ship I believe is about 4/5 years old and is magnificent, the décor and comfort is superb, you have to remind yourself that it is a ferry.

I made my way to reception where I had been informed by Minoan lines that they had a camping site discount scheme. I was given a brochure listing the campsites and told you MUST show it when booking in to the campsite, not when you leave.
I was peeved to see Camping Fusina in Venice was listed, but mollified to see Camping
Karda in Dassia where we were heading was listed. This allowed a 20% discount.

We awoke next morning to find ourselves in view of the Albanian coast and eventually
arriving at Corfu after the smoothest sailing we had ever had.
We were first off, no messing here the marshal was frantically waving to us to get off,
didn’t seem to know that the diesel pre heaters needed to warm up, on exiting we saw they were also loading for the continuation to Igoumenitsa, hence the frantic waving.
Had a little ride round the port until we finally found the port exit, how we missed it I will never know.
We were now tomtomless, but the campsite website directions said turn right out the port, carry on to next right, and then straight on, and so it was.
We booked in giving the girl our Minoan discount brochure, no problem.
She said she would go with us to show us where to site the van, explaining that two days previous Corfu had had two solid days of very heavy rain which had surprised the Corfiots. We were shown a selection of shady pitches, or we could go on an open patch of grass, it was very hot so chose a shady pitch.

Karda campsite contains most things you would expect, it has a beautiful swimming pool.
A restaurant, with internet access, modern toilets and showers, water always hot, children’s play area and a small shop, cash point just outside. It also has mosquitoes.
First night we walked the 100 yards to the camp restaurant, pleasant enough meal, but paid for it not only in euros, but woke in the night to severe itching, yes, no I hadn’t sprayed, next morning we counted twenty nine bites on my legs, This was not a friendly welcome to Corfu.
I had now entered the stage of complete paranoia regarding the local wildlife mosquito.
I had come to the conclusion that they couldn’t just be mossies but we had an infestation of fleas, or the like. So the whole first full day was spent washing bed linen, clothes, spraying, candel burning, even made the wife take a shower.
The locals, with their bare arms and legs, and smelling sweetly, and not a bite on them said “yes it’s a bad time for mosquitoes”, whilst my wife and I smelt like an old paraffin can, what with the overdose of anti mosquito spray.

This was our first time back in Corfu after about ten years, ever since we bought the motorhome. The Island is still beautiful, but we noticed a few sad changes. It was very quiet even for the beginning of October. Most of the accommodation on the Island when we last visited was mainly self catering apartments, studios, etc, the great majority being owned by the local people. All were booked by all the big tour operators then, they would all show signs, Airtours, Thomson, Grecian holidays, Olympic,etc. This visit the only sign we saw was on a large hotel. This wasn’t because it was the last month of the season, many had overgrown gardens and homemade signs saying rooms to let, even some bars and supermarkets in the main streets shown by their neglect that they had not been open this season.
We spoke to a Restaurant owner asking him if he had had a good season, he seemed hesitant and said “not too bad” then went on to tell us that since the euro, things had changed greatly, “do you know that a carton of milk, even in the bigger supermarkets in Corfu Town now costs 1.50 euros” (about £1.05) he said adding “all we have is sun, sea, and sand. “We rely on tourists”

The Corfu people we have always found to be the nicest people you can meet, an example of this, years ago we were out walking when we came to a road that had a sign saying no entry, nearby were women picking cherries, I asked them if we could walk down this road,” yes” she said nodding, at the same time loading my wife and myself
up with armfuls of cherries.
Now in contrast to this, this year we stopped at a taverna offering a FULL English breakfast 4 euros, we sat down and ordered this, and were asked what we wanted to drink, we said tea please. The breakfast came it was superb, you name it there was two of everything.
When I came to pay I was asked for 13 euros, when I queried this, I was told the tea was not included, so we paid 8 euros for two breakfasts (£5.60), and 5 euros for two teas (£3.50) still trying to get my head round this.

Is Corfu motorhome friendly?
I suppose it depends on what you want.
Corfu is a very small island, outside the campsite we could catch a bus into Corfu town for 1 euro. From there you can catch a bus to anywhere in the Island, leaving me the driver to enjoy the scenery whilst letting someone else to do the driving.
So for me the question doesn’t arise.
If you want to drive yourself then I would say no, there are a lot of narrow bendy hillside roads, and as nice as they, are the Corfiot drivers are not quite ready for the internal combustion engine.

The return ferry journey differed by the fact we were parked in the middle of other motorhomes, so didn’t have the nice view as we had coming, still can’t complain.
It also differed this time that there were many cars on the camping on deck, deck
containing dogs, whose owners were allowed, or did, sleep in the cars with them.

We arrived at Norfolk two days before our sailing, so we went and asked if we could
get an earlier sailing. We were told that there was one leaving in ten minutes and if we got a move on we could catch that one. We drove round; the man changed our paper work in seconds, and apart from being held up by British immigration officers who searched the van we managed to catch it. This time no £10 charge.
Stan

Don Madge

Stan,

Enjoyed reading your write up, camping on board can be a lottery at times. Minoan Lines are about the best for camping on board.

As a matter of interest My Way Ferries http://tinyurl.com/y46wyc (Brindisi to Igoumenitas & Patras) and
Ventouris Ferries http://www.ferries.gr/ventouris/ (Bari to Igoumenitsa) are running the camper deck option all year now. Bearing in mind this could change at any moment.

Agoudimous Lines http://tinyurl.com/y47t4b will "Tolerate" camping on board in the winter on the Brindisi to Igoumenitsa route.

These ferry companies buy up the old boats when Minoan, Superfast and Blue star upgrade their fleet. So don't expect QE 2 service on board.

Don

peejay · Campsite DB Admin

Cheers Stan, worth waiting for and thanks.

Two trips to Greece for us,

First one camping on board was good with a sea view - but - we broke down and had to change ships at Corfu and transferred to a right old bucket, 6 hours late getting into Patras.
Return trip was magical with a sea view and no breakdowns, we'll never forget arriving in Venice in the morning mist.

Second one, on the way out, good, but a few rows in from the edge of the ship.
On the way back we were placed right in the middle of the ship between an artic and the ships exhaust Evil or Very Mad

, not good Sad

Had a battle with reception and the loading crew to get moved to a better spot at Corfu for the rest of the journey.

Still do it again though, maybe another route.

pete