So the first day we got the car we ended up going to Falasarna, which has an ancient harbour. Now little known to me this was actually the ‘High and Dry Harbour’ walk that the Cicerone guide had described. Cicerone guides are terribly vague, one of my favourite instructions from the ‘Western Crete’ guide is ‘you need to pass the house with six dogs and keep the dogs on your left hand side’ I wish I was making it up! So, anyway, I realised where we were from the wonderful stone throne of Phalasarna.
We wandered around this breath taking harbour which had risen 6m from sea level due to tectonic activity, which also formed the many little islands and caves in the sea. Yes the harbour was amazing, it had withstood some pretty incredible things and there were a few latrines left from the original harbour toilets, but it wasn’t as exciting as the tiny little beach that we found whilst looking round.
Ben hunted from sea glass, and with a squeak and jumping up and down found some blue sea glass (if someone would like to tell me why this is so much more exciting than green or brown glass I’d be very grateful!) his little pride and joy sat in prime position on a rock for the afternoon while he hunted for more.
I sat on the cobbled sea floor and sunbathed. Yes, you read cobbled.
I have no idea why the floor under the sea was cobbled but it was, and I was very grateful for it as I’d heard so many horror stories of sea urchins lurking in rocky shores ready to stab you in the foot. We did find some sea urchins; thankfully they were very dead and had lost all their spines.
After the frightful experience in the car park, we headed down to the Venetian Harbour that Chania is famous for, this beautiful harbour is covered in Tavernas and a smattering of shops, the number of tavernas really shows how much the Cretans like their food, and how could they not, it’s amazing! There was also a beautiful ceramics stall; if I wasn’t so scared that things would break I would have brought most of the stall!
We then headed to the market and what an amazing place it was. Shop after shop of bits and bobs, from fresh meat to jewellery, B brought me the most beautiful hammered silver ring, and some other lovely gifts were purchased. As we wandered round the streets of Chania I saw some truly beautiful leather bags (think I may have to go back…) and the general craftsmanship of the area was outstanding! A wonderful lady was sat in her tiny jewellery shop threading beads and was just thrilled that I’d gone and brought something, Sister one of the things was a gift for you! I love how friendly people are around here, they’re the most smiley people I’ve ever met, and even if your Greek is horrific, as mine is, they say, in an excited voice, ‘you speak Greek!!!’ and wave off any attempt you make at trying to convince them that you only know a handful of words!
To finish our lovely day in Chania we jumped onto a glass bottomed boat to have a cruise to one of the islands and watch a fish show. Now I say glass bottomed in the loosest of terms! When I was little we went on a glass bottomed boat around the Kyle of Lochalsh (between mainland Scotland and Skye, I’m pretty sure this was before the Skye bridge was built, but parents please correct me if I’m wrong!) this glass bottomed boat was magnificent! It was actually a glass bottomed boat. However our wonderful Greek alternative was a metal boat with a rectangle of glass in the middle of the hull. A very special little boat!
From this boat we got a wonderful tour of the harbour from our diver guide, he was very serious only he sounded like Claude, from Along Came Polly. He warned us of the dangers of sea urchins, ‘Never trust rocks, only sands’, and created a spectacular fish show with some form of powdery bait which he waved in front of the fish in balletic movements (in my mind his life story was failed Expressive Dance extraordinaire ‘I’m going to show you how I feel through expressive dance’ This part will make no sense to anyone outside of the Coupe family, but Sister he was just that!!!)
We returned from our fish show terrified that either the parking would be closed, or would be extortionate; it was neither, 8 euro’s for the day wasn’t bad at all!
The next day we headed to one of the ’18 things to do in Crete’ destinations recommended by the Rough Guide, Elafonisi, a truly beautiful lagoon that we enjoyed from a mile up the hill in a shaded taverna. It was heaving! I mean think Meadow Hell before Christmas heaving! We avoided the crowds and went on a lovely drive through a different part of the mountains, thank goodness we have unlimited miles on the car! After this tiring drive, think 60 miles of roads like the Struggle but with cliffs and drops instead of dry stone walls, I was exhausted! The next day was spent sleeping and reading, Mumma I was a little disappointed with Trick of the Dark.
After 2 days of being lazy we decided to make a trip to watch the sunset, we drove to Falasarna and took up camp in a lovely taverna overlooking the bay, we watched a lovely sunset, although a very short one, and have an interesting dinner. Note to all: Cuttlefish tastes like fishy Styrofoam, don’t order it!!! After the most expensive dinner we’ve had, and the most disappointing, we headed home in the dark.
So that brings us to yesterday. What an adventure yesterday was! We drove to Kaliviani, about 8km west of our studio, and set off on a walk to Balos bay. Now we had intended to scale Mount Gingilos, one of the highest peaks at 2080m (around 7000ft), however I had woken with hideously swollen knees from the driving the day before, so we headed to Balos a 10 mile walk with an easy incline. Now it would have been a walk in the park had it not been around 35 degrees. The heat does terrible things to you! A walk that would have easily turned into a nice run in an English climate was a strenuous trek! Never have I been so worn out by a huge dirt track! The kri kri (local mountain goats) did provide a lot of on board entertainment though.
The dirt track that nearly killed me!
Finally we arrived sweaty and a little sun-stroked at the most beautiful lagoon you have ever set eyes on!
(yes it's an actual picture not something from a postcard or guide book!)
The water was blue and the sand was white (from a distance anyway!) it had a smattering of people and it was just idyllic. We set up our spot and had a couple of minutes to enjoy the view until a ferry arrived. Now there must have been about 800 people on this ferry and they all deployed onto our idyllic beach. Now I’m the kind of person who will walk for miles to find a quite spot of beach, literally miles, blame the parents, yet there were people less than a metre away, people even sat between us and the sea, a mere metre and a half! I couldn’t believe it! B lay reading his book undisturbed by this whilst I was flabbergasted! Why would they want to sit so close to another person?? There was a lot of beach left untouched! Anyway, after an hour and a half the great migration back to their boat began and they thankfully left us in peace!
Once the migration was over we headed for the crystal clear waters, and they were well worth the wait. Even though I’m terribly short-sighted I was able to see all of the amazing fish (and scary sea urchins) that B pointed out to me (and Dad I finally mastered snorkelling!!!!) They were the sort of fish that people have in their fish tanks not the sort I’d ever seen in the wild! I think I’ll be doing lots more snorkelling in the near future.
5pm arrived far too quickly and we decided to head homewards, the steps back up to the ridge were nearly the death of me. I arrived at the top gasping for breath and sent B in search of ice tea. The best thing for these situations! Ice tea in hand, and a couple of paracetamol for the pounding headache, we set off down the dirt track. We’d only walked about 5km when a very kind pair of ladies offered us a much needed lift back to the village we’d parked the car in. Never have I been so grateful for a lift! We arrived back at Dimitri’s very sunburnt and tired to a wonderful mixed grill and a few Fix beers, the best end to the day possible!
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