Paxos (Ionian):

Gaios harbour, Paxos

Just a few miles off the coast of Corfu lies the charming small island of Paxos. I visited Paxos in 2003 staying in the village of Lakka at the northern end of the island. The village has a good selection of tavernas and bars and a lovely horse shoe shaped bay.Covered in olive groves Paxos makes for a good walking destination, though for various reasons I wasn't able to explore as much as I would have liked when I was there. From Lakka you can take the island bus which runs to the capital of the island Gaios (pictured) which had a more cosmopolitan feel with numerous boats and yachts moored up. On the way to Gaios you pass through the small fishing village of Loggos. This provides some entertainment as due to the narrow street everyone sitting outside the tavernas has to jump out of their seat and retreat to the side of the road to allow the bus to pass.


Tight squeeze for the bus at Loggos

Worth doing on Paxos is to take one of the round the island boat trips. The one I went on visited some large caves -actually taking the boat right inside. It then went to the very small satellite island of Anti Paxos for some lunch at one of the few tavernas there. There is little development on Anti Paxos although one or two of the specialist holiday companies sometimes offer accomodation there.On another excursion offered by the Friends of the Ionian we were able to visit a farm to watch the goats being milked followed by a demonstration and tasting of cheese making. This was followed by a visit to an old olive oil press and a talk about the history of olive oil production on the island. The trip finished off with a meal at a taverna and some traditional music and singing - including contributions from our coach driver/guide.

Lakka harbour, Paxos

Apart from the goats being milked I can't really offer an accurate Goatiness rating for Paxos due to the lack of off road walks. However the Cockerel Count ranked as high here (in Lakka) with a superb dawn chorus echoing around the valley leading down to the harbour. It came in waves -starting at one end of the valley and working its way round. Right up in my top two (with Symi) Cockerel Counts.
So Paxos, an authentic small island with lots of walking and photographic potential especially at Lakka and Loggos (Gaios was a tad too busy for me) and certainly on my list of islands to, hopefully, revisit in the future** Regards, David.

**Re-reading this post reminded me just how much I liked Paxos, so I am indeed heading back there in 2014! I'll publish a new post on Paxos in the future.