SwimQuest Mathraki travel towards home

A proportion of the group met for a morning dip but I skipped this due to the tight timing of an early breakfast and boat transfer. My roommate was up and about very early and pointed out a distinctive blood moon. Again, not easy to photograph, but I tried, and it certainly formed a memorable closure to the week.

Not a true 'blood moon'

It seems that this isn't a true blood moon, one due to a lunar eclipse, as they are occurring in March and August this year.

The transfer by boat and minibus worked well despite both boats being temperamental at some point. The trip across to Corfu coincided with a misty haze lifting and gradually revealing the land.

The mist fading over the Ionian Sea

The reluctance of the boats added to the anxiety of those with early flights, but we did arrive at the planned time. Everything during the week ran on a relaxed, casual time but deadlines for travel were met. I chose flight times to fit the advertised connections but I'm not sure I'd recommend this as transfers were adapted to suit the participants’ flights. I'd suggest contacting SwimQuest if your optimum flight doesn't quite work to the publicised times to see what can be arranged.

I chose to wait a few hours in the airport to avoid the midday heat and moving luggage. Corfu airport was frantic, with large package holiday groups. However the various queues for security and passports worked well. There was a brief issue with passport control across Europe (unrelated to the much-criticised EU Entry/Exit System) during my wait but as far as I could tell, the staff handled it well and prioritised those needing to depart.

In reviewing the week I have had many new swimming experiences without serious travel problems. It's worth noting that there's only around 2 hours of planned swimming per day. This works out, for me, around 6.5km in total. Some of the group did extra dips, and of course, swam further on occasions, but I didn't feel a need as even this amount is vastly more than my normal swim training load. The technique, or coaching, element was personalised to ability, age and previous experience and I have made concrete, albeit small, improvements in my stroke. Cassie is a keen observer and effective communicator and clearly loves helping people learn to swim. My only criticism would be that I'd have liked more individual time on technique in a given session.

The restaurants on Mathraki are very capable of providing vegan fare and I couldn't say I'd ‘missed out’ significantly. The non-vegans (so everyone else) praised the meals too. Greece is as hot as you'd expect but the water may not be. I was the only wetsuit wearer but two other swimmers commented on being cold at the start of the week. I think a shorty wetsuit or rash vest would be advisable both for warmth on the occasional cool mornings and to keep the sun from burning back and shoulders.