We decide to get up early and film the dawn breaking over Albania but it is a misty and overcast day. It’s a 5:45 am start; we drive through the dark on empty roads for forty minutes from Gouvia where the boat is moored to Kassiopi in the North of the island. The dawn itself was a disappointment but the day soon cheered up and the bright Greecian sunlight illuminated the swathes of wild flowers at the roadside, Jerusalem Sage with its bright yellow flowers contrasting with banks of purple Honesty, the flower that dries into golden discs-like seed pods looking like nature’s money. Wild garlic and other alliums run riot, close to the road we notice the huge plants of Verbascum with their furry leaves, they are not yet in flower. In the fields wild Lupins were bursting into bloom.

The Johns family, Derek, Daphne and daughters Leafie and Amber welcome us to a hearty breakfast on the terrace. They have expanded and improved their little hamlet of houses over the last forty years. We have seen it evolve having been guests at various periods in its evolution. Leafie and her husband Marcus now live in the house closest to the main gate; they live and work in Corfu and speak perfect Greek. Their charming little daughter, Mirsini, captivates us all as she smiles and performs perfectly for the camera. The grandparents are both so charmingly loving and affectionate with her – she and they won all our hearts.

Derek took us to visit the seaside villa of a friend. The house is a dramatic collection of buildings surrounding a small valley with a virtually private bay, the whole covering about 30 acres. The gardens are dotted with statuary, some of it roman including two magnificent sarcophagi decorated with somewhat crude carvings of people and animals on the long sides. A 19thC bust of Lord Byron stood in a corner.

The first courtyard is decorated in a Venetian style with a scalloped top to the surrounding walls and typical Greek inlaid pebble floor in squares. I noticed a magnificent wellhead that Derek said is Venetian and early. On one side was a Latin inscription and the base was supported by acanthus leaves that lead us to speculate that the piece was originally Roman and was updated in the 16^th or 17^th C with a carved Venetian coat of arms. We passed through an orchard of citrus trees laden with huge yellow fruit; we were told they are lemons but they are the size of grapefruit. In between the trees were manicured beds of vegetables and herbs.

We passed through the fragrant garden in the enchanted valley down to the shore and then ascended a path up to the other promontory where a vista opened up of a rock quarry facing the sea. Apparently the quarry was revealed from a mass of rubble and screed when the swimming pool was made. Now Cypress seedlings had established themselves in the crevices of the rock looking like a bonsai garden. At the side of the large swimming pool are Roman statues of female torsos draped in folds of stone fabric. It is the villa of a modern day emperor.

Next we moved on to visit another “Imperial Villa” but this time a contemporary one. The garden was designed by our host’s daughter and her husband, Leafie and Marcus ……… Again, it enjoys an elevated seaside position with magnificent coastal views. The architecture works well and the whole is pleasing. We have come to see the garden and to enjoy the way that Leafie has designed the wild garden to blend into the wild olive grove. The olive trees have been allowed to grow naturally whereas they are normally tightly pruned. It’s too early for poppies but we see a carpet of mostly white wild flowers flourishing under the trees.

Next we drove to a small beach where Derek told us the story of its naming by the family, “Auntie’s snake beach”. Some year’s ago Aunty was picking wild asparagus in sandals when there was a shrill scream. Derek rushed to her side to discover that she had been bitten by a adder. It was in springtime, the season when snakes emerge from hibernation to warm themselves in the still weak sunshine so they are lazy and sluggish – easily trod on by unwary humans.

Along the shore and inland in the grassy wilderness bloom blue iris-like pignuts and wild asparagus as well as delicate wild orchids. As we were filming the shoot was interrupted by barking dogs heralding the arrival of a herd of goats with their tinkling neck bells; a scene as timeless as agriculture itself.

It was here that my childhood hero, Gerald Durrell, came with his older friend, the naturalist Dr Theodore Stefanidis to search for frogs, snakes and lizards and all manner of Corfiot wildlife. I kept a dog-eared copy of his book, “My Family and other Animals” with me at all times when I was a child. It was my inspiration and my Bible, I read his beautiful prose over and over again. I related to his love of nature and rather solitary existence; if only I had had a Dr Theo to guide and advise me.

Taking advantage of the now bright sunlight, we moved on to a small lagoon of sweet water into which runs a channel to the sea. Where the two meet, the water is brackish and is the perfect environment for farming grey mullet and sea bream both prized local fish. The farm was simple and traditional in design, just a few nets retaining the fish in separate compartments. The Mullet are farmed for their roe; extracted by squeezing the abdomen of the gravid females. The fish survive to live another day. The roe is then sun dried to make a prized delicacy, Bottarga, from which taramosalata is traditionally made. The roe can be shaved over pasta to make a dish fit for a king.