A Naturalist's Paradise

"Spring had arrived and the island was sparkling with flowers. Lambs with flapping tails gambolled under the olives, crushing the yellow crocuses under their tiny hooves. Baby donkeys with bulbous and uncertain legs munched among the asphodels. The ponds and streams and ditches were tangled in chains of spotted toads' spawn, the tortoises were heaving aside their winter bedclothes of leaves and earth, and the first butterflies, winter-faded and frayed, were flitting wanly among the flowers."

"My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell.

Those of you familiar with Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals" will already have an idea of the diversity of flora and fauna in Corfu. For those keen to observe the beauty of nature at close quarters the island is a naturalist's paradise. Whether you are a keen botanist, ornithologist, zoologist or photographer Corfu has something for you. Pelekas, being close to both sea, woods and valley, is an ideal centre from which to explore and learn more.

Pelekas is surrounded by a wealth of natural assets and, especially in the spring, the beauty of the Corfu countryside can take one's breath away. However, the most striking aspect of the landscape is the sheer abundance of olive trees. In 1623 the Venetians offered money as an incentive to plant olive trees and to replace wild ones with cultivated ones. Within a hundred years there were more than two million and this number has increased until today Corfu is one endless olive grove. Because olive trees in Corfu are rarely pruned they look quite different from those in the rest of Greece, being much taller and wilder.

The microclimate of Corfu favours the growth of wild flowers which bloom during all four seasons of the year. There are, for instance, 36 species of orchid which have been catalogued in Corfu. In April and May the ground is a carpet of flowers, changing colour from day to day. The fields and hills are also rich with trees other than olives. One of the most eye-catching is the Judas tree which in spring is a mass of purple flowers. There are also massive oaks and elms, untouched by the ravages of disease. Everywhere the dark green cypress trees pierce the olive groves, adding yet another dimension to the landscape.

Close to Pelekas is the Ropa Valley (2km) which stretches across a plain of about 2,500 acres. Once it was a lake but now, having been drained, it is covered with a network of drainage ditches and canals which carry away the rainwater from the surrounding hills into the Ropa or Ermones River and then into the sea. Situated in the valley are an international competition standard golf course and horse-riding stables. The valley is an important wetlands habitat, home to a multitude of wildlife, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The amphibians include freshwater terrapins, which can be seen in the river which runs beside the golf course, along with hundreds of bullfrogs. Over 150 species of birds, many of them rare, have been sighted in Corfu, either as residents or migrants. The glossy ibis, the spoonbill, the gull-billed tern, the great white egret and the pygmy cormorant are some of the rarest. However, they still find refuge in the wetlands of Corfu, along with cormorants, widgeons, coots and kingfishers. Eagles, which have drifted over from the Greek and Albanian mainland can often be spotted. There are also many kinds of small mammal such as weasels, foxes, hedgehogs and otters.