Lawn Hill Gorge - an oasis in the desert

Wow, what an amazing place!  After travelling about 300km from Mt Isa, mostly on dirt road, we arrived at this beautiful oasis.  We had booked into Lawn Hill National Park for 3 nights, with us at one end of the park and Carole and John in the 'tent' area at the other end.  Each campsite was located to give everyone a bit of privacy so we weren't all sitting on top of each other.  Near us was a boardwalk area where we could go down to the river for a swim in the crisp, cool water. 

There are several good walks in the national park, and we did most of them over the 3 days.  On our first full day there we walked to Indarri falls, which was a series of waterfalls into a lovely turquoise lagoon, surrounded  by palm trees and eucalypts.  There were plenty of fish just taunting us in the lagoon, as of course there is no fishing allowed in the national park.  We continued on for a walk up to the upper gorge, with spectacular views over the gorge, then back down through the falls and up a ''short' walk to Duwaddarri Lookout.  Well, that walk may have been short, but most of it was uphill over very slippery shale, then of course a difficult walk down the shale back to camp.  It was a good, if tiring, day with spectacular views.

Next day we walked to the cascades, which unfortunately wasn't actually cascading, then the walk up the Island Stack and 'Wild Dog Dreaming' which again was spectacular, with a variety of birdlife flying and diving into the river, and some lovely wildflowers.  We followed this with a 2-hour paddle in a 2-person canoe.  I was rapt - the bright red colours of the gorge we paddled through, brilliant blue skies, a turtle on the bank of the river (though we did miss seeing the freshwater crocodile that everyone else seemed to have seen!), the clear turquoise water, and bright sunshine - what a magic day.


We had not originally planned to go to Lawn Hill, but Carole & John told us it was worth the trip - and they were totally right.  The scenery was spectacular, the colours brilliant, the birdlife abundant, and the vegetation amazing.  All in all, it's been one of the highlights of my trip so far.  

The only problem we had with this place was the booking system:  you have to book through a central office in Brisbane (which is responsible for ALL national parks in Qld), and we were given two nights on one site, with a third on the site next to us because it was fully booked.  However, when we arrived the place was half empty  - we ended up staying all three nights on the one site, because the people who were supposed to arrive didn't, which was good for us.  But everyone we spoke to about the booking system agreed that it hadn't worked  very well for them, and some had had to stay at Adel's Grove just up the road for a night or two before coming into Lawn Hill because it was apparently full!  I think even an honour system would work a lot better than booking all national park sites through one system in Brisbane, when the people in Brisbane have no idea of what is actually happening in the parks.

Boulia Camel Races - Finally!

Well, we've had some very wet, soggy, windy, days here at Boulia!  We've trudged through the mud and rain so many times to get to the toilets and showers and the main grandstand that we're all pretty good at mud-skiing.  Everyone is still in very good spirits, even though we don't know whether the track will ever dry out for the camels to actually run.  Lots of vans and cars are now so encircled by mudholes that there's no point trying to get out anyhow - and all the roads out of Boulia are cut because of rain, so we might as well just make the best of it.

The organisers are doing their very best to make sure that other events are still happening, and trying to provide entertainment in spite of all the problems.  The Rock n Roll night still went ahead, and I'm happy to say that we Canberrans were the ONLY people to actually get dressed up in our 50's gear and do a bit of Rock n Roll dancing on the Friday night!  We certainly made an entrance, and had a great time.  There was another group from Newcastle, I think, that dressed up as Elvises and they were having a good time too.  Our little group, together with some of the Camel Riders (all girls) had our photo taken to go in the North West Star newspaper in Mt Isa.  We had a ball!

The Camel Races didn't actually run on the Saturday or Sunday, but they did some camel tagging, rodeo events, gumboot throwing and tugs-of-war throughout the weekend, with a really good fireworks display on Saturday night.  The organisers finally managed to bring in  a grader to clear and grade the track for some races to go ahead on the Monday, so we did actually get to see some of the camels run on Monday morning before we headed to Mt Isa.  Trev and I had a bet on the second race, and came second - the odds that the only bookie left at the track was giving were so bad that we bet $10 and won only $6.50!  Not a great effort, but we can at least say we had a bet at Boulia Camel Races!

Monday afternoon we split up - Lai and Garry are heading for Winton, Lorraine and Bill are going back to Brisbane, and we are headed for Mt Isa together with Carole and John.  However, all the caravan parks were booked up (everybody escaping from Boulia once the road was clear), so we spent the night about 40kms south of Mt Isa on a clearing at the side of the road.  We had a good meal, another roaring fire, then arrived in Mt Isa early on Tuesday morning.  

We visited 'Outback in Mt Isa' and booked an underground mine tour, then arrived at our caravan park where we caught up on washing before going on the tour.  It cost $44 pp (seniors concession) and took a couple of hours.  It was very interesting, but probably a bit expensive for what we actually got.  

Tomorrow we are heading to Lawn Hill for a couple of days - it's supposed to be beautiful, and the weather has cleared up, so we're looking forward to it.

Bedourie to Boulia

Bright and early next morning we headed for Bedourie - about 190km of dirt and bitumen.  The road was pretty good, with no major problems.  We arrived by lunchtime, had lunch opposite the tourist info office, and found out that, to my dismay, the hot artesian springs were closed for cleaning, so no swimming on that day.  We tried finding a camping spot at the nearby creek, but it was too difficult for most of us to get into, so we followed Trev's Ozi Explorer map which showed a waterhole a few kilometres out of town - we couldn't find the waterhole but found the racecourse instead.  And it had a good-sized shed with electricity, two hot water showers, three sinks and two toilets.  So we set up camp around the shed, had a roaring fire, a good meal and hot showers -brilliant!


From Bedourie to Boulia was another couple of hundred kms, on mostly sealed, but some dirt roads.  We got all the info we needed at the tourism office, then headed out to the racecourse to set up camp for the next few days.  So far there were six of us, but Lai and Garry would be joining us the next day, so we needed to get an area that would support all of us.  Boulia had had a bit of rain over the previous few days, so there were some very slushy bits of ground.  Anyway, we managed to get a good camp set up, and we're hoping that the rain will hold off, through the forecast is not good.


Garry and Lai arrived next day after 3 months of travelling around QLD and NT, and it's really good to catch up with them.  We booked into the local pub for dinner that evening, and I'm happy to say it was a much better experience than at Birdsville.  They actually took bookings, and the meals were good country pub meals. We bought some tickets in the meat trays, and Garry won one of the prizes - a good serve of frozen fish, so we'll be having that for dinner tomorrow.  It started to rain that evening, and the ground is looking very soggy - so bad that the Camel Races may not even take place ... still waiting to find out.

Windorah to Birdsville

We travelled on through Windorah after refuelling and stayed the next night around 180 km from Birdsville.  We found a nice little spot just off the dirt road behind a few trees to set up camp.  While setting up we were entertained by literally hundreds of little green budgies performing an aerial ballet - they would all swoop in one direction, then suddenly turn and head in another direction before breaking up into little groups, going separate directions, then reform into one huge mass.  It was fantastic to watch, then they all settled into a couple of trees for a while before taking off again.  Nature is wonderful!  And we were also treated to a wonderful sunset while keeping warm around our campfire.

Next day we headed for Birdsville, where we finally met up with Lorraine and Bill, who had travelled across from Brisbane.  We'd been trying to catch up with them since Quilpie, but couldn't get in contact.  We booked into the caravan park for a couple of nights, as we planned to spend at least one night camping in the Simpson Desert, just past the large sand dune named Big Red.  

That afternoon we rearranged our vehicles and packed tents, sleeping bags and enough food for a night out in the desert.  We set off next morning, leaving our vans behind at the park.  The road out to Big Red wasn't too bad, but recent rains had affected the road, and we had to take it easy as Bill and Lorraine had recently bought a Captiva, which was AWD but not 4WD, so they didn't have as much clearance as we did.  We got up to what had previously been a river crossing but was now a large lake (Lake Nappanerica) and had a huge detour (a go-around) around the lake to get to Little Red, then on to Big Red.  The detour was a bit rough, but the lake was absolutely beautiful, with lots of birdlife, trees in the middle and red algae and vegetation through the water.  With the red dunes as a backdrop, it was quite spectacular.

On arrival at Little Red, we watched a few cars drive up, then drove up ourselves and checked out the view.  From there we drove around the lake and onto Big Red.  We spend a good couple of hours watching vehicles driving up and down both sides of the dune, and clapped and cheered along with everyone else when the vehicles made it to the top, and laughed when they didn't.  It was great fun, and everyone was having a good time.  While there, we bumped into the local member for the area, Bruce Scott - Trevor and I had both driven him several times in Canberra in our jobs as Comcar drivers, so we had a chat with him.

We found a spot to camp (believe it or not, in tents!) between the beautiful sparkling lake in the foreground and Big Red in the background.  Couldn't have picked a better spot - and it was free.  We climbed Big Red to watch the sunset with a glass of champagne, then cooked dinner and had a roaring fire that evening.  What a great day.

Next morning we packed up, then Carole & John, Bill and Lorraine headed back towards Birdsville while Trev and I drove up and down Big Red a couple of times - and yes, I drove up and down it myself.  Woohoo!  The good old Rangie conquered Big Red.  We followed the road on the other side of the dune to go back around Little Red and caught up with Carole & John to head back to Birdsville.  Our car and new caravan are now looking very dusty and dirty - red sand and dust caked onto every surface.

When we got back to town Trev and I popped into the Birdsville Bakery for a curried camel pie and a kangaroo and claret pie for lunch.  A young man and a film crew walked in, and I realised it was Tom Williams from 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'The Great Outdoors' - they were filming a segment on Birdsville for 'The Great Outdoors', and we ended up being in the background while Tom was ordering his curried camel pie - so now we're famous!

That evening we all went over to the Birdsville Hotel for dinner - well, that was a bit of a mistake.  On our last trip out here we had had a really good meal, so thought we'd do it again.  When we went to order a meal (you can't book, you just have to turn up and hope you get fed), we were told it would be around an hour and a half wait for our meal.  Well, over 2 hours later we were finally served.  I know they had a busy night, they must have had a  couple of hundred people there, but this was ridiculous.  And our food was not great!  Lorraine's was cold, mine was overcooked and they'd run out of mashed potatoes and veges, so I got the last remnants of curly chips and about six peas - not impressed at all.  Won't do that again!  People at the next table to us had ordered at the same time, and two of them were fed around the same time as us, but the other two had still not received their meals as we were leaving.  Very poor.

Next stop - Bedourie then on to Boulia for the Camel Races.

Heading North for Boulia Camel Races

This trip will be our first in our new Paramount Duet Expander caravan.  We purchased it a few weeks ago from Canterbury Caravans in Bayswater, Victoria, and we're really happy with it so far.

The plan is to travel up to Birdsville with Carole and John, where we'll meet up with Lorraine and Bill, then on to the Boulia Camel Races where Lai and Garry will join us.  From there, we are heading to Karumba, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, then on to Townsville and back home.  

We left on 1 July and spent our first night in Lake Cargelligo.  We stayed at the caravan park for only $20 per night for a powered site.  They had a good fire going at the camp kitchen area, and we certainly needed the heat.  I'm sure that Lake Cargelligo would be a nice place to stay in good weather, but while we were walking around the town it started to rain, and it felt like needles of ice piercing my face.... bitterly cold.
  
Next morning, we were off to Louth, where Trev has previously spent many hours with his fishing buddies not catching fish.  We had been there before with Bill and Lorraine, and stayed at a free camp on the banks of the Darling River.  We set up camp in the same spot, then went up to Shindy's Inn, the local pub, for a drink and a bit of local knowledge in regards to the road conditions etc.   Apparently all the roads we are planning to travel on are in pretty good condition at the moment, so things are looking good.  It was still very cold in Louth, and my little hot water bottle came in very handy.  Trev threw in his yabby net, and managed to catch a grand total of 3 yabbies - we felt sorry for them, so released them to live another day.

From Louth we travelled up to Hungerford, which is just over the border into Queensland.  On the way, John had a bit of an altercation with a large emu - didn't do any damage to the car, but the emu definitely came off second best.   He had badly broken one of his legs and was unable to get up on his feet - poor John had to put him out of his misery, which wasn't pleasant.

We refuelled in Hungerford, then onto the Currawinya National Park on the Paroo River.  It was a beautiful spot, we found a camp right on the river and decided to stay for 2 nights.  There was plentiful birdlife around the waterhole, and it was very pleasant sitting on the riverbank with a drink, a good meal, and watching the sunset and moonrise.  There are some shearers' quarters and a huge shearing shed (with some machinery) in very good condition, as well as ruins of a couple of homesteads in the park, so there's plenty to look at.  


On the second day we travelled up to the two large lakes in the park, Lake Numalla (freshwater) and Lake Wyara (saltwater).  Both lakes were quite different - Numalla was almost yellow, and Wyara was blue, with a huge pelican colony on banks in the middle of the lake.  Wyara is the breeding ground for the pelicans and other waterbirds, and there must have been thousands of adults and chicks on these banks.  It was a wonderful sight.  In the late afternoon we drove from the lakes to a rocky outcrop called 'The Granites' - gorgeous red rocks which we climbed up for a great view over the national park.   It really is a lovely park, and hasn't been 'over-sanitised' which is what seems to happen to a lot of national parks in New South Wales - they have too many rules and regulations which are really designed to keep travellers out, rather than welcome them in.

From Currawinya we travelled north and stopped at a tiny town called Toompine (population 3) - it's tagline is 'The Pub with no Town'.  It literally is just the pub, but offers free camping to travellers, obviously on the premise that if you are staying there you will probably have a meal or a drink at the pub.  This is something that a lot of little outback pubs are doing to stay alive and works very well.  While having lunch there we were chatting with the publican and another couple mentioned that they were going on to Quilpie - she said that if we wanted to stay at the caravan park we should book ahead as it was filling up fast.  I said we were planning on staying there too, so she phoned the park and booked four sites for us all - pretty good service, but nothing out of the ordinary for country people.  They all work with each other out here, which is a great thing to see.

We arrived at Quilpie caravan park, set up, then booked in for a cooked meal around the camp kitchen - $15 for silverside, veggies, white sauce and damper, together with a singalong around the campfire.  Great fun, and a good way to meet other travellers and have a chat and a drink.

So far on our travels we've learned the following things:

• make sure you close and test all cupboard doors and fridge door before setting off (had a couple of drawers pop open and spill contents onto the floor, but nothing too drastic)
• red dust will find it's way inside, no matter how airtight you think your van is
• watch out for emus - we've decided that the collective noun for emus is:  'a stupidity of emus' - because they have a body the size of motorbike and a brain the size of a gnat, and if they see a car they will actually aim for it instead of running the opposite direction
• double-check all your instruments - especially the one that tells you whether your watertank is full or empty (we ran out of water even though Trev was positive he'd totally filled the tank).  But the meter showed we were out of water and it was correct!

Tomorrow we're heading for just past Windorah then onto Birdsville to meet Lorraine and Bill.

Spectacular Santorini - everything they say it is...

 After spending a couple of weeks driving through many villages, mountains and towns in Western Crete, we decided to finish off with a couple of nights in Santorini, one of the most photographed islands in the world - everyone has seen those amazing photos of the blue-domed, sparkling white churches against a deep blue sea, and it was definitely on my  'bucket list'.  

Well, getting there proved to be a bit of a problem - apart from the fact that we were there just ahead of the 'official' tourist season, trying to find a tourist office that could actually sell us tickets was virtually impossible!  And trying to book the ferry tickets online actually was impossible.  We finally were referred to one agent in Chania who could organise the trip for us.  But we had to do all the hard work for him - we found him just before the Greek 'siesta' time (from 3.00pm for about 3 hours) and he really wasn't interested in putting himself out to book ferry tickets, because it was going to make him late for his siesta.  He had a poster on his wall advertising ferry tickets from Heraklion to Santorini plus 2 nights accommodation and transfers and we actually had to point it out to him and sell it to ourselves for him - just ridiculous, but eventually we got it done and were ready to go to Santorini next day.

We got up early to drive to Heraklion, about 2 hours away.  The ferry crossing took less than two hours, and we were picked up at Thira harbour by the manager of our hotel, Villa Popi.  That was an interesting, small, budget hotel, just off the main street but through several quaint little alleyways.  Our room was small, but had a balcony which overlooked the ocean and some blue-domed churches, and the location was excellent.  We were a short walk away from the main shopping areas, restaurants, the cable-car, and the view over the volcano on the other side of the island.  Villa Popi had a pool which I did use, despite the fact that the water was freezing.

Thira (the capital of Santorini) was wonderful, with all the startling white buildings hanging on the edge of the cliffs, lots of art galleries, jewellery shops, and really different items for sale.  There was a lovely feel to the area, though I'm sure in the height of summer it's incredibly crowded and maybe not so pleasant.  There were heaps of restaurants, and I must admit the food here was much better than in Crete, with a lot more variety and better prices.

We booked a tour for the next day of the Volcano and Hot Springs through Santorini Sailing for only 28Euros - it was excellent.  We were picked up from the harbour in a wooden sailing boat and sailed over to the volcano, where we were escorted on a really good hike up to the caldera - it's a live volcano, but no fire and brimstone, just steam coming through a few vents.  But what a fantastic view!  

On our return to the little harbour, we were then taken to a little bay with hot springs, where we could swim if we wished.  But our guide advised us that to get to the 'hot' springs we must first jump off the boat into freezing cold water and swim for about 100m till we reached the springs.  And that the return journey would be worse, as we would be swimming from warm water back into freezing water.  We umm'd and aaah'd about it for a while, but decided that we'd come this far, so we might as well just jump in and do it..... well, 'hot' springs was an exaggeration, and 'freezing' water was an underestimation!  But I reckon that's the fastest I've ever swum - both ways!  So we can both tick that off the list.

Next up was a hearty lunch at another little island, Therisia, then we hopped on a couple of donkeys (they were actually mules, and not very healthy-looking ones at that) to take us up the 200-or-so steps up to the village at the top of the island.  Again, spectacular views, then a long walk back down to the harbour for our next sail to Oia, then back to Thira.  What a fantastic trip - well worth the money.

We went back to our hotel, then decided we'd catch a bus back to Oia for the famous sunset over the domes - found that the next bus would get us there too late for sunset, so negotiated with a couple of other women and all four of us took a taxi there.  If I thought Thira was beautiful, well Oia was on yet another level - it's obviously where you would stay in Santorini if you had plenty of money - the art galleries, shops, bars and restaurants were sooo beautiful, and the homes and hotels were just gorgeous.  Lots of churches and windmills, and Oia is located right on the northern tip of Santorini.  Sunset was lovely, but it was hard to get a decent photo with all the damn tourists in the way!  Ah well, you can't have it all.  

We had a wonderful two nights in Santorini, then boarded the ferry to take us back to Crete, to stay two more nights before we headed home.  

So we've now visited Crete, more of a small country than an island, and although we enjoyed our time there, I think we would have enjoyed it a little more if we had arrived a couple of weeks later.  It is a beautiful island, the scenery was spectacular, but I would have liked to meet and talk to more local people - because we arrived before the beginning of the season, a lot of the small tavernas were closed, and those that were open had very few customers - in fact, sometimes we were the only customers.  I'm glad we spent a couple of nights in Santorini, because that really was beautiful,  we met and talked with other people, and we finished off our holiday on a high note.  You can see more photos of Santorini here.

Now, what's next????

Photo Albums

I've just uploaded some more photo albums:  Athens,  Chania Town, Mountains & Villages, Ancient Aptera, and Santorini.  Check them out.

Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road...

The last couple of days we've done quite a bit of exploring which, of course, involved us driving our tiny little car (it's a Fiat Panda, not a Punto) on the wrong side of the road over winding mountain roads; through small villages where cars are parked on both sides of the road, and you have to breathe in to get even a motorbike through; as well as the towns with cobbled streets, heaps of people, cars and no rules about where to park or stop and have a chat with the guy in the next car.  It's been interesting, to say the least.  And I don't know how the bus drivers manage to manoeuvre through all this, but they do. 


Before we left Australia, Trevor loaded an app called iGo onto his phone, which has maps of Greece on it, and it has been really helpful - don't know how we'd have managed without it.


We travelled over the mountains through numerous little villages (all with their own tavernas) down to Paleochora on the south coast of Crete.  We both took a turn at driving, though we were going much slower than the locals.  The scenery was spectacular - we passed through olive groves, orange orchards, vineyards, fields of wildflowers, and the glimpses of the Lefka Ori (the White Mountains) were amazing.


We had lunch at Galaxy, a seafood restaurant on the beachfront at Paleochora - baked swordfish and papoutsaki - delicious.  Again, free raki and dessert.  The town is on a small narrow peninsular, facing the Libyan Sea, with a rocky beach on one side and a sandy beach on the other.  Very pretty, but the wind was blowing and the waves were crashing over the seawalls - although it was a lovely sunny day, the wind was freezing.


From there we took a different route back over the mountains to Kastelli (Kissamos) where we stopped for coffee before heading home to Stalos.


Next day we drove East to visit Ancient Aptera, a town that was first established around 1400 BC.  The ruins include Roman baths and cisterns, an amphitheatre, temples, a villa, as well as a monastery, chapel and monks cells.  Also in the area is Koules Fortress, built in 1867, which is largely intact and has a magnificent view of the ocean. 



Our next stop was at Almerida, which is one of the areas I had looked at when trying to find accommodation in Crete.  The beach here was just gorgeous, with varying shades of crystal clear turquoise water, sand on one side of the bay, and pebbles/rocks on the other.  We had some lunch, then decided to take the plunge - well, the water was certainly crisp!  I managed to get in and have a swim and a bit of a snorkel, but Trev took some convincing.  Eventually, he got in too, and we saw a few small fish, anemones and that was about it.  But we've finally had our first swim in Crete!

Arrival in Chania, Crete

Our one-bedroom apartment in Stalos has a full kitchen, dining area and living area with a balcony overlooking the swimming pool and the ocean.  The owners, Dimitra and Manolis, left a decanter of home-made wine, home-made Raki and some greek pastries for us on the dining table - very welcoming.  It's a quiet rural/seaside area, with small tavernas around, and sheep in the back field.  However, it's quite a walk down (and up) the hill to the main road where we can catch the local bus into Chania, or Gerani.  Plenty of exercise to burn off all those carbs!  


After unpacking we walked down the hill to catch the bus for a look around Chania, a very pretty old town built around a Venetian harbour.  We were lucky to get a bus quite quickly, as we are right in the middle of the Greek Easter festival where everything slows down and the locals are on holiday. 

We did the tourist stroll around the front of the beautiful old Venetian Harbour, being accosted by touts trying to get us into their restaurants - I have to admit, some of them had very good lines, and we had some friendly interaction with them while 'running the gauntlet'.  As we kept going, other restaurants boasted 'No pressing, no stressing', or 'We don't talk, we just have good food' - quite funny.  We walked around past the Maritime Museum (which was closed) then found ourselves in a rabbit warren of narrow cobbled streets in the 'old town' - just lovely, and they had some beautiful little art shops, jewellery shops, local crafts etc, as well as numerous tavernas offering the same sort of fare as those on the front, but at cheaper prices.  


We ended up eating at Xani's, a small restaurant run by an Australian woman and her Greek husband.  Lovely food, and good conversation with the owners, as well as an Israeli couple sitting at the next table.  That was really interesting - they'd flown over for just a few days as the flight is only 1.5hours from Israel.  We talked about families, our countries, and then our flights, and how our layover was in Abu Dhabi - and they replied that they are not allowed to fly into there, indeed into any Arab state.  This was something that had not occurred to me, as being Australian we have virtually no restrictions about countries we can visit.  Quite sobering - again, I thought how lucky we are in Australia, when so many countries around the world are in the middle of wars, famines, and other atrocities - and how much we take for granted.

Over the past couple of days we've tried the food at several establishments, but on Monday we went back into Chania and found the seafood restaurants on the right hand side where of the harbour where all the Cretans eat.  We tried one of the recommended dishes from our waiter - fresh crispy skin snapper cooked in olive oil (of course!) and lemon with herbs (a Cretan specialty) with a Greek salad.  Delicious.  And of course they brought us complimentary warm bread, and ice cream and Raki to finish.  Probably one of the best meals we've had so far.  And we enjoyed people-watching as we had a leisurely lunch.


We had another wander through the old town, where I bought some lovely silver ear-rings in a Greek design, and a pendant to match.  My first purchase - I'm pacing myself!


We met Diane, the local agent for our apartment rental in Crete, and she gave us lots of info on what to see and where to go - she organised a car for us for the two weeks at 240 Euros for a Fiat Punto - pretty reasonable.  We went for our first drive on the wrong side of the road yesterday - that is, Trev drove.  Quite interesting, we went up into the mountains as we thought it would be quieter - that's true, but they were very narrow, winding roads, so Trev got a good workout.  And I was astonished to see these amazing snow-covered mountains in Crete - I really wasn't expecting it, and they are so beautiful.  They're a wonderful backdrop to all the towns along the coast and the harbour.


We drove throught Platanias, Kolumbari then on to Ravdoucha, which Diane told us was a good snorkelling area.  That was fun - for me anyway, not so much for Trev, as it really was a very winding, narrow mountain road - a bit like the 'Mama Mia Highway' on the Isle of Capri, Italy.  We only got lost once and ended up on a bit of a goat-track (the Rangie would have loved it) so we asked a little old Cretan man standing next to a field where the beach was - no English at all, and our Greek certainly wasn't enough, so I mimed 'swimming' and he pointed us in the opposite direction.  Yayy!  We retraced our tracks and finally ended up at the bottom of these huge rocks, expecting it to be totally deserted - but no, there is always a taverna at the end of every road!  And the beach was a very pebbly rocky one with a big swimming hole, so potentially it should be a good snorkelling area.  We'll return another day with our gear and check it out.  We had a coffee in the taverna, then headed back to our apartment, this time via the national highway.  


Time for a quiet night at home - eating out twice a day is getting rather expensive, not to mention very fattening!

Next Stop - Athens, Greece

After much anxiety and stress, I finally received my new passport (long story, but Australia Post is not on my list of favourite agencies!) on the morning of Tuesday, 10 April, so that we could actually leave Australia for Greece that evening.  We were travelling for the first time with Etihad.  Our flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi was 14 hours and we were three hours into our flight before we received our first meal and drink - not great service, staff not terribly friendly, a little disappointing, as we had heard good reports about Etihad.  


We had a couple of hours at Abu Dhabi, then a 3-hour flight to Athens, where we caught a taxi to our hotel, the Polis Grand Hotel in the Omonia district.   Our taxi driver barely grunted at us, certainly couldn't manage a smile, but got us to where we wanted to go in total silence.  A good start to Greek hospitality, I thought.  However, the manager at Polis Grand was very friendly and helpful, and we squeezed into the lift to take us to our room on the 6th floor.  The lift was cosy, to say the least - it took a maximum of 5 persons, but with two of us plus luggage, we were breathing in!  The room was small but adequate, with a great view of a new construction over the road, with scaffolding and green cloth enclosing it - lovely!  Good job we weren't planning to spend much time in it.


We walked around the area, trying to get our bearings, so we could plan our next couple of days.  We had a cheap dinner at one of the little tavernas around the corner (not terribly exciting, but we weren't too fussy about food at that stage, just wanted to get back to the hotel and have a sleep.  But not before we finished our evening at the rooftop bar at our hotel, with a lovely view of the illuminated Acropolis in the background.  Very civilised - I had a couple of 'home-made' strawberry and lemon cocktails which were very sweet but had a bit of a kick.  Trev also tried the local brew, Mythos.


While taking photos of the Acropolis I had a conversation with a young man from Libya who we'd spoken to earlier in the lift.  He told me he had been in Athens for 5 months, in the hospital - I assumed he meant he was working in the hospital, but no, he had been in hospital getting treatment for burns and bullet wounds - he said 'You have heard of Gaddafi, well, I was injured, I had burns on my legs and body and I had to come here for treatment'.  He showed me a scar on his arm that was caused by a sniper's bullet.  I was shocked - I asked if he was OK now, and he said, 'Yes, I am good now, thank you for asking about it."  We are so lucky in Australia - things like this are so foreign to us.

Next morning we purchased a two-day 'hop-on-hop-off' ticket on the red bus that would take us around most of the tourist spots in Athens as well as down to Piraeus, the port where we would be catching our ferry over to Crete.  This was definitely a worthwhile purchase, and a good way of getting an overview of Athens.  We visited Monastiraki, the Agora, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Temple of Zeus, the Acropolis Museum, the Temple of Hephaistos and numerous other ancient buildings.  Despite the fact that we had bus tickets, we still walked several kilometres over the 2 days in Athens, so we should be getting fit. Except, of course, for the fact that everything we eat here is so full of carbs - breads, olive oil, cheese, and such huge serves!  And not only that, every time we eat, they give us either free appetizers, or free desserts and raki!  We're going to return to Australia as big, fat, drunken blobs! 


On Friday (which is Good Friday in Greece) we packed our bags and caught the metro, which is very clean, efficient, cheap and easy to use, to take us to Piraeus to catch our overnight ferry to Crete.  We spent the day in Piraeus, ate lots more food and drank lots more Greek coffee and raki (it's almost obligatory) then boarded our ferry, the FB Lato at 6.00pm.  It was a very nice ship, with a good dining room, reasonable prices and again, huge serves of food.  Our room was certainly very compact, with ensuite and flatscreen TV, and we both slept very well.  Must be all that walking!  We arrived in Crete at about 5.30am, and actually left the ship around 6.30am to be greeted by our driver to take us to Stalos for the next part of our holiday.