zante zakynthos 4: porto limnionas / roxa, pups thrown in rubbish, courser chinese, gyri village

adventures on a bike – if you like riding or driving , zantes roads are great ! quiet , a good road surface in most places , visually breathtaking with insane mountain hairpins dropping into coves , old eathquake ruins meets immacualte stone houses , blistering hot bays rising to cool and cloudy mountain tops high up in the clouds . so much to see and really green too as you travel thru endless woods .

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this is porto limnionas , a tiny blue inlet in the middle of the west coast . theres good ‘jump in points’ , freezing cold caves , aqua blue water …. and quite a few people peak season . with one small taverna at the top its a brilliant day trip . in the distance one person has a caravan perched on the cliff face under a canopy from this blistering sun …what a spot πŸ˜‰

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WIDESCREEN PANORAMIC SHOT > CLICK

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VIDEO :

taverna porto limnionas with its lanscaped cliff face and tasty food .

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nearby is an almost identical place called porto roxa . i preferred it here as it was less busy . i can see why limnionas is most popular however as there are more places to sit . neither place has a beach or anything , its basically sitting on concrete slabs or gravelly bits of hillside rock or anywhere you can . roxa is a bit more of a small working harbour, where limnionas is just an inlet . there are two places to eat at porto roxa . both places have car parking .

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when we where on our way back home we went back over the mountain pass at gyri . as we went thru it we saw a tiny red door with a sign on it [as in below video of village ride] and u-turned back to have a beer . its next to the church bell tower on a small square in the centre . we sat under the grape vines with the hosts kitten , the only people in ‘our’ rooftop sanctuary . try and find this place , lovely woman who runs it too , i think shes a secret hippie as this place is a garden cafe straight out of goa , but didnt speak much english so convo was limited sadly . she even brought a freshly plucked bunch of grapes to have with our beers . perfect moment .

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VIDEO :

on the way home we freewheeled halfway down the mountain from gyri for over 5 miles until we noticed 2 puppies next to a rubbish dumpster in the middle of nowhere . we stopped as something didnt seem right . on closer inspection one had its front paw snagged under its chin thru its collar and cuoldnt really walk . we freed it up and hung out for 5 minutes trying to work out whos they could be as they both had collars . the wife went and opened a large box nearby and found a third pup that appeared dead . she burst into tears and walked away so i opeend the roped box and saw it wasnt dead yet we could save it . these pups , riddled with lice and fleas , had been thrown with the rubbish and left to die . i dont know why one hadnt managed to escape and two did . the one in the box didnt have a collar either , mysterious . the wife ran to a local house and asked for water [turned out owner later said to interpreter she thought it was for my mrs as she didnt speak english lol, thought she was nuts and desperate!!!]. we managed to get the pup to drink some off my palm and fingers down its mouth but it was so poorly it couldnt raise its head and its eyes were rolled into the back of its head , practically dead .

we had two fish we got from porto roxa we where taking home for the local cats and we boned them and fed them to the livlier two they ate the lot , starving ! it really was horrific to find animals like this first week of august in 35* heat . what kind of person does this ? occasional passing people started to stop as 2 tourists where sitting on the road and one woman openeed a big bag of dog biscuits and fed the two pups . we tried to find somewhere on our phones to take the sick one. a farmer on a tractor came by and said he would try a vet but after an hour he hadnt come back . by chance we got talking to a local and he gave us vague directions of an english woman who helped dogs . i left the wife and managed to locate her and she agreed for me to bring the sick one in . i raced back to get the wife and sick pup and we made it back to her [sue] , and while we returned again to get the other two she had given the sick one some tlc . within an hour she had it bathed , fed a honey solution and massged it . it actually had some life put back into it and was now alert , enough to open its eyes and focus on us . amazing . we left all three and she said she would try and find homes , result !

sue survives on donations and had about 40 dogs and 10 cats . she works non stop in the day then comes home to the crazy gang and works again all night . she pretty much works to support the animals so relies on donations . anyone who can help or raise support for her unselfish dedication im sure she would appreciate it . sadly since being home we found out a couple of days later the third pup died [gutted] , but the other two have made it , the white one has a home in zante , the brown one still hasnt been put up for adoption yet [so if youd like it give sue a message quick!] . its an easy process to get a dog to the uk so if anyone needs a zante bred dawg she [and the animals] would love your help πŸ˜‰

http://www.healingpawsdogrescue.com

http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHeavenHealingPaws

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the boxed they where left roped up in ;-(DSC00858

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after eating greek non stop we fancied a chinese after our apparent result saving the pups for a few hours that evening , so went to courser in tsilivi that had good tripadvisor reviews .Β  was pretty good too . beef crispy noodles and vegan fried rice were the mains

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route :

porto limnionas

 

 

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2 Responses to zante zakynthos 4: porto limnionas / roxa, pups thrown in rubbish, courser chinese, gyri village

  1. Nick M says:

    Well done both of you for saving those pups. Even the one that didn’t make it at least got some love and attention before passing away. It’s always a real downside of travelling seeing the disregard for animals.

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