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Ionian Blues

Getting in the island state-of-mind on Lefkada

By Where's Herr Gruber?

November 26^th, 2020

Ferrying over to Greece

On a very dark Italian evening in early October we drove into the port of Brindisi. We loaded Herr Gruber onto an enormous ferry and checked into our cabin to set sail for Greece. We were not the only ones. From our cabin balcony we saw hundreds of trucks getting on board as well. After some fine Italian efficiency (…only took two hours, three crashes and a lot of shouting) every truck seemed to be on board safely and every truck driver seemed to have found his way to the bar and the beer in the lounge. All very corona-proof. Before we slowly drifted off to sleep in our very fancy suite, we saw the lights of Brindisi getting tinier and tinier. Ciao e grazie Italia, you were mostly great.

Ionian Blues

The next morning at 6 am we were woken up very roughly by loud bangs on the door. It was pitch dark still, so Emy thought some drunk truck driver must have lost his way searching for the toilets. However, it was the steward telling us that we were approaching Igoumenitsa, Greece. Yay! Time for a shower. From our balcony we saw Corfu waking up in the orange and pink sunrise and slowly the Greek mainland was coming closer. It took us only ten hours to reach Greece, so we couldn’t be more excited to get Herr Gruber off the ferry and continue our trip. Not yet though, first the trucks needed to be loaded off (see video).

Two hours later, with our life-expectancy probably crumbling because of all the exhaust gasses, we slowly drove Herr Gruber onto mainland Greece! After Simon got tested for Corona, we were free to go. Well, the next 24 hours we were suppose to spend in home quarantine until results came in. Which is not that hard if you live in a van actually. Simon tested negative. We assume, because we never heard back from the Greek health services...

Lefkada

We started driving south to Lefkas or Lefkada, the only Greek island you can drive to, part of the Ionian Islands, together with Kefalonia and Zakynthos, to name a few. We weren’t quite ready to test Herr Gruber’s home-made snorkel… And actually didn’t know what to expect of Lefkada, we never heard of it. In the end it was so nice, relaxing and beautiful that we stayed for around two weeks.

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

The island of Lefkada is a quite remote place, except for Lefkada town, which is a really pretty colorful and cheery town with a port full of sailing yachts and lots of waterfront cafés and restaurants. The architecture has a Caribbean feel to it. After a big earthquake in the 1800s, most of the Venetian-style buildings were destroyed and it was rebuild in British earthquake-proof style (at the time it was a British protectorate). It reminded Emy of the Belizean Cayes.

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

The remote part of Lefkada has numerous of beautiful beaches and coves with crystal clear azure waters and lots of mountains, which we enjoyed exploring. Every night we camped at the beach, can you imagine that?! Since we are wild camping in Greece (over six weeks already…), it has actually been 99% beautiful beach spots. According to Simon the good thing about the beaches on Lefkada in particular is, that next to the fact that they are pretty, the roads to them are mostly narrow, very steep and often washed out by smaller or bigger landslides. Simon and Herr Gruber seemed to love this, Emy not so much…

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

We spend most of the days on Lefkada chilling on the beach, snorkeling a bit, using low ratio 4WD (again: Simon made me write this) and meeting very cool people. Such as Denise and Tobi, which deserve to be mentioned, traveling in their VW T4 camper all the way down from Hamburg to Lefkada, just stopping in Italy for some outdoor stuff and picking up Limocello (we drank all of it, of course). And Joren and Emma, two Dutchies who have been traveling in their van since July last year, you can check out their vlogs here. Together with the Germans we decided to swap our homes on wheels for a floating one to boat around the island. Even though Tobi is member of the German SWAT and Denise is a policewoman as well, it turned out that nobody actually ever drove a motorboat before. Simon was quite disappointed… as in his imagination Tobi could at least fly a helicopter blindly, but sadly even his drone did not survive our boat ride. See below for the pictures before that catastrophic incident…

Ionian Blues

Ionian Blues

Since there are not so many archeological finds on Lefkada, except of a car wreck on the beach and maybe some partly destroyed beachclubs, and since we are in Greece after all… we decided to leave the island behind, seeking some culture and packed up to visit the world famous Delphi and the very special Violetta. More about that next time!

Ionian Blues

Lockdown in Greece

For now a bit of info on our lockdown situation, for those who are wondering. Greece is in full-on massive lockdown, think travel restrictions between regions, evening curfews, all not-essential shops are closed. You even have to text the government a code when you want to go out to do groceries, in which they reply that it’s ok. Advanced right? We are not affected by this luckily, since we are harvesting olives for olive oil on a farm in the Peloponnesos, with a lovely and fun family, lots of good food coming directly from the farm or neighbors, having our own cabin including a fire place, liters of wine and lots of laughter. Lockdown will probably be extended into December, but the harvest is not done yet and for now we are perfectly fine here. So, we are quite lucky that we found this place and all is good!

For now, stay healthy and safe people!

Emy & Simon

© 2026 Where's Herr Gruber?

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