We dithered about where to go next, with no idea other than we need to keep exploring while we have the time. We had missed a few villages on the south coast, the sun shines from that direction, the wind is in the north, so we headed south towards Keratokambos as we know there are some rooms still open and available to rent.
It was only one and a half hours drive away (over the mountains) so after a very good breakfast in the hotel, we left. Our conversation with our hostess was a little confused as she thought that we were another couple who had booked for 4 nights, and was most upset that we were leaving. Her command of English was even worse than ours of Greek, but we did manage to sort it out in the end.
We stopped at Kastelli for coffee, having failed to find the Roman remains of Lyttos. We did find the site up the mountain but it was rather wet and I couldn't bring myself to get out of the car, walk a few hundred yards and see what is described in the Rough Guide (our bible) as a pile of stones. There were however three little chapels on three little hilltops, all quite close to us. There wasn't much of a track up to any of them so we didn't make our way up to them but there must have been a reason once upon a time for why they were built there.
Kastelli is only a small quiet town on the edge of a plain, but has an enormously long airport runway running along the valley just outside of it. This seemed rather bizarre! (We have since found out that this was an old military airport and will soon be the main airport for Crete when they close Herakleon) This will certainly change the nature of Kastelli.
Keratokambos is found by dropping down and down along the edge of a steep valley and winding through a couple of very small villages. We became quite nervous as to whether we would ever get to the sea, and were delighted when there it was, all blue and calm!
Lunch was a plate of little fishes while we decided if we wanted to stay. We decided that we did, so booked into Jasons rooms above his sisters taverna, which is where we had eaten.
The men were all olive picking and driving past in well laden pickup trucks.The village is on the very edge of banana and poly tunnel country. Fortunately the landscape is too steep to put up poly tunnels and as a consequence is a lot more attractive covered with olive trees.
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| Strimmers converted to be Olive pickers! |
We truly intended to swim but only paddled which was a bit feeble. The rain over the past few days has cooled the sea down quite a bit.
Supper was very simple because this was another taverna where we didn't have to choose what to eat. We were just served with a salad and a most delicious pork steak cooked on the fire. The raki around here is pretty potent stuff - ouff!!
Sunday.
We really have enjoyed staying here and will have to return. The bed was comfortable and we had a kettle and a fridge which was a luxury. Precious little in the way of cutlery and plates. Our breakfast was yogurt out of the pot and fresh coffee made straight into our mugs. It worked quite well if you leave the grains to sink to the bottom for long enough and then sieve them through your teeth and oranges don't need to be squeezed they can just be eaten!
We walked along the coast a bit. It would have been a good place for a mountain bike as there are other villages in sight tucked along the coast and not much in the way of roads to get to them.
Being a Sunday the local clergy had been hard at work since early morning but still managed to take some time off for an attempt at catching their supper!!
We drove to Herakleon pretty reluctantly, but it was an easy drive and our hotel is right on the harbour. The light was almost entirely obliterated by a 4,000 passenger cruise ship which was parked in front of the town. We have gone for a complete contrast from the last couple of days as we need a hotel with a printer for our boarding passes! The Lato Boutique Hotel can do all these sort of things. They even provided a man to park the car and carry our cases in.
We were a little ashamed of how travel weary and grubby we are looking!
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