Life with MK: Exploring Western Crete

The last two days I have spent driving around the western part of Crete with the friends I met in Athens. Two of them rented motorcycles and me and one of the Kiwis rented a little Suzuki Jimmy 4 wheel drive. The guys on the dirt bikes wanted to do some off roading, and that we did.

The first day we drove along the highway for a while until we went up the second to last peninsula along the northern coast of Crete. The roads on the peninsula were super rocky and I was very glad to be in a car with some good 4WD. The views were pretty awesome as we were fairly high up and the landscape was beautiful. There were very few things indicating human alteration of the area which I always like. There were also a ton of goats and sheep, and the sheep looked really different than the sheep in Ireland. Definitely a cool breed I have never encountered before. Chris, maybe you can shed some light on the sheep from Crete! So the road we took seemed to go on and on, and eventually we wound up at this amazing little cove with a pebble beach cliffs, and beautiful blue water. Actually, the water here in generally is really pretty blue and very clear, but this place was stil pretty amazing to see. I love being in secluded places, and since the drive out there was really rough and long we were the only ones out there.

We drove back along the same road and made it back to the city of Rethymno where we are staying just fine. Parking here was quite an adventure as there are barely any spots open!

Yesterday we decided we would give the south shore a visit. We drove along the road to Plakias, and boy was it beautiful. The drive goes through this enormous gorge with spectacularly high cliffs and a beautiful stream going through the bottom. We off roaded a little to get down to a power station to see the stream and it didn't disappoint. Beautiful water, flowers, greenery, and rock made for quite a relaxing stop. We continued on to the beach and as you exit the gorge you get a birds eye view of the area. We decided not to go to the main beach in Plakias and instead went to a smaller beach in Damnoni. We relaxed on the beach for a while and it was lovely.

After the beach we headed along the windy roads of the interior of the island to find Lake Kourna. Thank goodness Pete had downloaded a map that miraculously showed us where we were on it, because some of the turn offs were confusing. Along the way we stopped at a cute outdoor cafe with waterfalls and lots of trees for a drink. I ordered a Sprite, but got some Cretian soda that tasted like bubblegum instead. It was kind of gross, but I drank it anyways. We eventually wound up at the lake and had a bite to eat before renting an awesome paddle boat with a water slide. This lake was amazing. I wish pictures would do it justice, but it had clear blue water and mountains along one side of it. We took the boat out for an hour and went swimming in the lake, using the water side a lot.

After the lake we head back to Rethymno and returned the car and bikes and headed to the hostel. I was beat to I just relaxed, watched the finale of Glee (which actually had some surprises in it), read a little, and went to bed. Today I think I'll explore Rethymno and then take a bus to the airport which is an hour away in Hereklion. This has definitely been a nice spontaneous destination!