Our daughter Carla wanted to have a beach wedding when she married the Neil, the love of her life. And because of logistics, decided, the island we live on was too far away for everyone to travel to. I know she was right because it can take up to 15 hours to get to us. Not always fun, but always interesting. So after doing her research decided it was definitely going to be Greece. And on the island of Zakinthos, commonly known as Zante to all the locals. Much easier to pronounce as well. It’s an island off the western side of the mainland, and a big holiday centre, although the wedding party and guests seemed to stay as far away from them as possible. The main town is called Laganos, which is extremely touristy. All bright lights and booze. In total contrast to Tsilivi (where we stayed) along with all the other wedding guests.

So let me take you back a couple of months . Dyana & I still on St Maarten doing whatever we were doing and Skype rang.

 “Hi Dad,”

“Carla, so lovely to hear from you”

“Listen Dad, What’s your shirt size?”

“Large, thirty six, thirty eight.”

“Good, and what is your waist?”

“It’s thirty three or thirty four. Why do you want to know?”
 
“And you shoe size?” she continues as if totally ignoring my question.

“Lastly, your shoe size?”

I told her, while patiently waiting for her to answer my question. I’ll ask it again.

“Why all the questions?”

“Well, Dad, it’s because we’re buying you your wedding outfit.”

I was stunned . Shocked. “My wedding outfit?”

“Yes, we want you to look like one of the boys.”

“Okay then, so what is it going to be like?”

“Oh, don’t worry Dad, I’ll send you a photo soon.”

And with a little noise sounding much like a kiss, the phone went dead! Kids can be so annoying at times, can’t they!

The photo arrived a few days later showing Neil (her fiancé) in the sort of thing that I was to wear. It looked like three quarter length tight trousers in a sort of dark beige colour and an
open neck fitted blue short sleeved shirt. Well, this was certainly going to be a different sort of wedding. And as it was our daughter, who was I to object anyway. And funnily, since living in the Caribbean, we’ve become much more casual in our dress code, or perhaps the correct term is ‘we’re now quite islandy.’ 

Now for the good news as far as Dyana & I were concerned . We had no arrangements to
make at all. Carla & Neil did it all. In fact, thinking about it, I’ve been so very lucky with family weddings. For our own wedding, (oh so many years ago), I was not involved in any of the arrangements then; and strangely enough, for our own daughter’s, she wanted to do it all. With us just having to turn up. Suits me though. I can remember all the planning for our wedding. Trying to do the seating plan then was like a logistical nightmare. With this one not talking to that one, and all the family troubles that seem to go back generations and are never forgiven. So we were really pleased not to get involved because you can never ever get this one right; and it will haunt you forever.

So, after arriving back in Blighty, (collecting the wedding outfit of course) and staying there for four days, it’s off to Zakinthos, colloquially known as Zante to its locals. A quite beautiful island off the western side of Greece, in the Ionian Sea.

After acclimatising for four days, a coach was to pick up the sixty five guests from one of two hotels and take them to where the ceremony was to take place . And everything went off without a hitch.

The venue was on a much smaller island called Cameo Island which was a hundred and fifty meter walk over a rickety wooden bridge from the larger island of Zante. Please check out how the groom arrived by clicking on the picture which turns into a video. DO you recognise the music from Hawaii Five O. I arrived with Carla and the Bridesmaids. Up the ancient stone steps on one side; across the miniscule island to the other, and down more ancient steps to the
cove and beach where the “I do’s” were to be said. Please click on the picture because it becomes a short video. OK! Enough of the mama Mia wedding now.

So the long and the short of it is that Dyana & I only had one day to ourselves. Free from all the pomp and everything. So, as Frederick Forsythe the famous author ended one of his books with the phrase, ‘Let loose, the dogs of war,’ at last……. we were free to do what we normally do…… PARTY! And have a good time exploring . Yes!

Now, let me think…… what is it that that we’ve never done before, that we’d find exciting
and exhilarating, and perhaps a little bit dangerous. We certainly did not want to just sit and laze on a beach. That’s for sure. Yes,… I know what we’ll do; why don’t we just hire a quad bike. A really powerful one and just go zooming off. So after three minutes of instructions in the quad bike rental shop, we sat astride the vehicle which looked like a bit of a tractor… and we were off! Now I don’t know if any of you have ever driven one of these machines, but in my
day, on a motorbike, the accelerator was a twist grip on the right hand side. The further you twisted the faster it went. Clutch on the left, and gear changing with your foot. Steering one of the old bikes was quite direct with you feeling every bump in the road as well. Well… How different things are now. The throttle is just a small lever worked with your second finger! No gears for us tourists, it’s all automatic now! Brakes are all in the same place . And as for the steering, well, at the end of the season, with no maintenance being done to any of their machines, you’d turn the handle bars, lean in the general direction, and simply hope! And eventually the machine would go in the direction you wanted. Oh! Another good thing on Zante, crash helmets are compulsory, but not necessarily on your head. You can simply stow them in one of the panniers, or clip them to the side of the quad. As long as you have them, you’re legal! Now isn’t that great. Zooming along with the wind blowing through your hair took me back to my teenage years and biking with a bikers group.
Remember the days when we were all young… and going to live forever? We’d hop on a Triumph Bonneville motorbike, wearing only a pair of shorts, the obligatory sunglasses, (made you look cool), and flip flops. And then the shout over the roar of the engines, “OK… lets go to one hundred miles an hour,” and we did.. totally oblivious to any of the perils. The wind racing trough your hair, your eyes half closed into slits against the wind…… Ahhh! Those were the
days . Totally carefree.

Back to reality, “I know, “Dyana said, “lets head for the ‘famous blue caves, and if we find a beach, or cove on the way, we’ll swim as well.” And that’s exactly what happened. We found a beach. Had lunch and swam. Then asked how far to the famous blue caves. “Oh, not very far… maybe about fifteen minutes….. You go that way,” said the local, looking and pointing up the road. And we were off again. Well, half an hour later and still nothing in sight. We knew we were headed in the right direction, north, so continued till we found another touristy place at the side of the road. “Oh, you are on the right road, but it’s a little further north, about five or six kilometers.”

Well, at least we weren’t lost…. Yet! And finally a sign we could actually read. In English, not in the Greek script, with an arrow pointing straight ahead. So on we continued. So the five, or six Kilometers turned out to be about eighteen and it was now five o’clock . It would start getting dark at six. I began to think. It’s no wonder the Greek economy is in the state it’s in. Nobody knows how to do arithmetic!

We were the only people on the glass bottomed speed boat. The water was as calm as could
be, a beautiful blue colour with the white wake of the boat being left far behind as we sped towards the cliffs and caves. The captain slowed the boat and headed towards one. Skillfully
maneuvering the craft through the entrance, along a short corridor to a subterranean cliff face where he stopped. A strange light emanating from the water lighting up the entire cavern. “You want to swim?” he said in broken English. So within a minute, Dyana & I were swimming in this fantastic blue lit water grotto. It was as if we were the only people on earth it was so peaceful and serene. I don’t know how long we swam for, and once back on board, the captain took a
painted white plank of wood and dipped it into the water. It was simply stunning! Please just look at the video showing the subterranean light turning everything beneath the water that beautiful turquoise blue. The only other place I’ve seen it is in the Blue Grotto off the coast of Capri in Italy. And there they do not let you swim in it, simply row you round for a very few
minutes, and then out. Once out of the first Blue Cave, he took us through huge land arches… simply stunning in their majesty. All too soon it was over, but please… please click the photos as they become short videos. I can tell you, that it was probably one of the best experiences and sights I have ever had while travelling. Careering back in the boat with Zakinthos on our left and the island of Cephalonia on our right with the sun beginning to set was just
breathtakingly beautiful. For those of you who read the book, or saw the film, ‘Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin’, it was set and based on this island of Cephalonia.

Well, we’re now back on our island of St Marten, completely and totally different, but just
as wonderful. And the temperature is back up in the thirties. How nice.