Giddy Up

Yesterday we spent the day in the charming city of Korcula in Croatia. It is a relatively small city with an 'old city' just like Dubrovnik. It is quaint and slow and the Queen Victoria had to moor in the centre of the harbour we travelled in by tender. We did a walking tour in the morning (basically a church tour) finishing with the guide's argument for the very controversial topic of Marco Polo's birthplace. The people of Korcula claim it was there, while the Venetians claim the honour with the same level of passion ! So the jury remains out ! After all that discussion beer and pizza was needed and of course ice cream ! Back on board for an afternoon swim, dinner and early night in preparation for Trail Riding !!! Arriving in Corfu at 7.30am, again moored in the harbour, we were in the difficult position of having to beat all the passengers on scheduled tours, to the tenders in order to meet our 9.15 pick up (doesn't sound difficult, but you can't believe the speed of these folk, particularly 'en masse'). So we were on the first tender - 7.45 !! This meant a 6.30am wake up (so as I write this wine is required to keep going). To add insult to injury I have barely slept, reasons: we might not get back to ship in time; according to Greek Law, our passports had to stay on the ship (so if we missed the boat, how would we catch up?); we might fall off the horse and break something and not make it back in time and not have passports - I think you can see the pattern !  However all my concerns aside (I left out the ones were the horses legs broke or bowed under my weight) we had the most glorious day. We travelled by car approx. 20 minutes into the mountains behind Corfu Town to a lovely stable. From there after we were fitted with helmets, boots, etc. we set off for a little over 2 hours on horseback, through olive groves, vineyards, citrus orchards and even a small village. We passed wild blueberries, which the guide was able to pick as she rode, however I harboured some concerns over my centre of gravity and would not attempt such a feat! Particularly since it required a stone fence in order for me to mount the horse in the first place, so without having a spare fence close by, I wasn't taking any chances ! At no time during this lovely adventure did I consider how I was going to get off the horse, I guess I was thinking fence ...... No, a triple twist and a half pike followed by a big slide ended a beautiful morning - it was definitely 'one out of the box' !!! Wayne did such a great job organising, my contribution, the afternoon in the Royal Bath House on board (I won the voucher at Bingo)! We needed it we ached in placed we didn't know we had ! And having left Greece, we have our passports back too !