Thursday - Paradise

Up bright and early a little after seven, and down for a quick, but filling breakfast. We're officially tired of the food, but we're headed home tomorrow morning, so what's another dose of eggs and bacon? 

As usual, the sun is out in full, and we set off at 8:30. Truth be told there was not much to see during the first half hour, as once we left the 'tourist zone' the real Crete started to look the same in every direction - the landscape, while still sporting healthy trees and plants, still looked heat blasted, and I started wondering how many people suffer from heat stroke or simply faint on a daily basis. But, living in a climate such as this, the body adjusts, and in addition to the motorcyclists and cyclists, there were many out running or on professional road bikes, training just like anywhere else. 

We made one stop, at a cave, and after about 200 steps up the side of a mountain, we were greeted with a sign which read 'Welcome to the cave of the wisdom of God'. Hmmm. Not much wisdom to be found here. Would have been wiser to have saved our energy and stayed in the bus.

Back on the narrow, winding road to Elafonisi, we're beginning to get bored. Ten minutes away from our destination, according to our tour guide, I'm still trying to figure out why we are still so high up, but then the bus suddenly cuts left, the road narrows even further, and we're right on the bumper of a pick up van with a very happy dog, 'surfing' in the back, dropping altitude quickly. A little glimpse of a coast line, a flash of some deep turquoise coloured water, and next thing you know we're told to exit the bus. The bus will be leaving at 3:30, so until then, enjoy. Four ours to kill.

So, this is what passes for paradise these days? Well, we'll take it!

Sure, if it wasn't for the thousands of tourists like ourselves, it would have been a real piece, but in spite of us, what a place! The reef, nature's active filter, purified the water so it was crystal clear. No seaweed, no seashells; nothing but soft sand with a pinkish hue (from finely crushed seashells apparently). 

This we could do every day. As mentioned before, our staying in the heart of the tourist bubble was better than staying in the resorts outside of it. The resorts in those areas are your world and you would have to rent a car or take a bus just to see anything else. And we (actually, mostly me) were already stir crazy after the first couple of days.

But this place was truly amazing. It was so massive that in spite of the 2000+ plus beach goers, there was more than enough room for everyone. The food vendors didn't have eye gorging prices, so, for example, a beer was only 2 Euros, even though there was no where else for miles to buy refreshments.

The pictures cannot do this place justice, and I did wonder if I would ever return to Crete, and would it only be to end up right back here? Would it be worth the time and money and risky drive to experience this piece of paradise?

We stopped at a restaurant/cafe/bar on the way back for about 45 minutes.

From there we could see the road we would be following, carved out the side of the mountains, with not much guard railing to lend some sense of security.

Cat fell asleep on the way back, and once back at the resort the focus shifted to dinner one last time, and then planning for departure the next day. All in all it was a great trip, even if we didn't really do that much (as you can tell from the repetitiveness of these blog posts). But the point was to eat, sleep, swim, sun bathe and relax, in no special order, and that mission was certainly accomplished.