Mini trip East Crete

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Clunegapyears

Going to Gonies

Saturday 1st March 2025

I’d not been sleeping well, worrying about getting Jez out of his parking. Angles in tight lanes. Overhanging trees. But it was fine … what are a few more scratches!

We parked up at Kalives for me to shop and J to unload the car and fill with water. We hadn’t left the car in the parking, as we realised we’d left the spare van keys at home. J looked when he dropped the car home, but no show. We are being anal about where my set are!

We also had missing phone charging cables. I was sure I’d packed them. But we didn’t find them till the next morning when I went to pack the day walking backpack! I now have a list of everything to bring!!!

On arrival, J nanny napped and I walked.

*Too many stray dogs. Friendly enough but Corrie doesn’t like her bum sniffed, who would! I heard her yelp when 3 tried to gang rape her.*

I visited 2 of the 3 frescoed churches. Only one was open. Lovely 1455 frescoes. The next church was closed, but the bone box storage area was open. The Greeks rent a burial plot for minimum 3 years, then the bones are exhumed.

The Internet shows pictures of the reservoir full of water. Despite only being 1st March, and a lot of rain in February, it is virtually dry.

Roza Gorge

Sunday 2nd March

Thank goodness we took poles. Not a long walk but the ascent was ‘technical’. The second half was climbing. Corrie had to be helped / pushed three times. We did hear one whimper. A lot of it is a very narrow track and a sheer 300m drop on one side. Fortunately, strong barriers or it would have been lethal. But we did it. Slowly! We watched two ladies attempt to descend, all we could hear was nervous cries!

Signs top and bottom of the gorge do state that you enter at your own risk. 😆 The walk book authors, where I’d found the walk, declined to descend the same route, so we planned to follow suit.

Kera village at the top boasts two tavernas. We fell into the first one. It was busy with Greeks. The second, when we walked past, was empty. Delicious wood oven pork, chicken and waxy potatoes. 75ml of wine and raki

The easy walking route was further but so much quicker, passing Keras Monastery.

*The monastery hosts a pilgrimage every September. C12 frescoes were only discovered in 1960. A C12 icon was stolen to Rome in 1498 and the copy was chained to a pillar as that kept getting stolen* too.

*My boot sole just stayed on with the use of a hair band.*

As Fast As We Can

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Clunegapyears

28/06/23

We stayed in Crete for June’s 70th and caught the ferry the following day. The boat didn’t leave Chania until 10.00 p.m. Having cleaned the house we went to Almyrida for an early supper. Eating good Greek food by the sea was lovely to do as we won’t be back for months. Bonus that we didn’t pay much as we used a raffle voucher.

29/06/23

We arrived in Pireaus at 0600 and stopped in Corinth for breakfast. Having hours to kill before the ferry left Patras, we spent the afternoon in a sleepy small resort watching paddleboarders and swimmers. I crocheted until late lunch. Another water front meal!

*Granny squares to make a baby blanket for J’s new granddaughter.*

*So gonna miss Greek food and* *the sea*

We intended to be dry that night. But one half bottle on deck led to countless. I daren’t count the €s! But I slept well! Maybe also, as the top bunks were available so CO2 couldn’t share! They did both attempt the ladder!

30/06/23

We arrived in Bari at 10.30 but didn’t get out the port for an hour and a half! Not only were we kept on deck for ages as our car was right at the bottom, but traffic light timings weren’t adusted to allow the port traffic to exit. CO2 hac to cross their legs and curse until we got to the first service station.

We’d made the decision to drive, drive, drive. So we did. Through the night. Bari is a good 5 hours further south than our Italian port of choice. Minoan have stopped sailing Patras to Ancona and we saved about €350 by sailing to Bari.

We stopped for fuel, driver changes and food. A 1 hr stop where we both snoozed. Bologna during rush hour, but we travelled late and easily around Milan and through the Gotthard tunnel.

01/07/23

We arrived in Calais about 2.30. 200 km in about 26 hours.

We considered catching a boat today but decided against as we’d both hit the tiredness wall.

Fortunately the hotel allowed us an early check in. Oscar had a cardiac arrest and by the time the hotel had helped to identified an emergency vet, it was too late.

*He was a little shit, but my little shit*

06/22: June

Posted on July 15, 2022 by Clunegapyears

June

On my last post I mentioned how hot it had got … well it just got hotter. And we did less and less and what we did do was slooooow. Real feel was around 36C most days. I think we saw cloud one day. Now, don’t think I’m moaning as I really would rather have a blue sky and excess heat than grey cold. Just such a shame electricity is so expensive … we sweated rather than run the air con. To be fair, we have acclimatised. I remember being in Corsica and Sardinia in a heat wave, only a few degrees hotter, and we imploded. At least on Crete we generally have a breeze down by the beach.

Big events during June were:

J Cardio Check up

For the princely sum of 90EUR that J paid, he had a full heart check up with a private cardiologist. ECG and other tests that J doesnt know the name of (!), and he was declared perfect! Several times … Perfect. Well, I know he’s practically perfect (aka Mary Poppins, who also had eternal youth), but it was good to hear the cardiologist declare his heart perfect at the end of every test. All clear until the next check up in 6 months.

High Maintenance Man

J has had prostate cancer treatment 2018, and bypass 2021; he also had skin cancer quite a few years ago. Definitely high maintenance man. A result of living and working in Jordan for 9 years. Im sure everyone is aware of the high skin cancer rates in Australia and other hot places as it was just never a concern. Facial areas were removed eons ago and he had a particularly nasty cream that burnt off any subsequent flare ups. One patch on his face was persistent so he saw a private dermatologist. 90EUR for the consult and skin patch removal the following week. I mention the prices as trades to the house always seem to charge EUR70 and medics EUR90! But also how inexpensive and how immediate the treatment / appointments. Don’t knock Greek healthcare, it’s fabulous. Bless the dermatologist … he was concerned that J would worry that he would have scars on his face. A) the alternative of having pre-cancerous cells that become cancer is MUCH worse. And B) He’s lovely scars from his shoulder surgery and a long one for his bypass. One more is not an issue. But please, James, no more bullets; you can’t dodge them all.

You will be pleased to know I am well! J has been running and I do Killer Pilates with Inke (German goddess married to a Greek). You know that you have a good teacher when they make parts of you ache that you’ve obviously avoided using! I’ve a few friends that attend these classes, so its fun as well as achey!

Maddy and Jordan Main Holiday

A two week holiday in Crete, close to the sea, what’s not to love when you work hard. We had intended to leave them in the house for 3 nights whilst we went off in the van, but Stella kyboshed that. We offered them the car for day trips, but generally they wanted to relax. We ate out a fair bit, of course. Jordan is getting into cooking and cooked one night. A couple of BBQs. Chania for a wander and Gyros. Maddy went brown. Jordan used 12 bottles of Factor 50 and his freckles and his hands joined up. They’re coming back for 6 night over Christmas … yay. Think they like Crete!

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Jordan had THE conversation with M … no dogs in our bed! Guess Corrie won that one.

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Sunset BBQ on our balcony.

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Octopus Bay for a swim. A salty swim as no rivers to dilute the sea water.

Introducing Stella

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There must be SOMETHING left in here!

We have gone mad. But not as mad as you think … YET! Two dogs is plenty and I do keep saying that as soon as CO2 go to the rainbow, we can start travelling by plane together (J had to stay in Crete to mind CO2 in March when i flew home for the Aged P’s 60th wedding anniversary. Not opposed to leaving them, but Oscar has other ideas! And we could do long haul! So NO MORE DOGS. Do remind me of that … please.

So why Stella? There are a huge amount of cat and dog rescue organisations in Greece. We’ve done a little … our Merc was driven back to the UK with 4 dogs. Attended the odd function and bought at auctions. But not a lot. Felt we ought to do something more practical. A FaceBook plea popped up. A UK tourist wanted to adopt a dog that lived on the hotel beach. Fed by guests at the breakfast, lunch and dinner service. Julie discovered that dogs cannot fly direct into UK and the dog needed fostering whilst rabies jab and passport sorted. It was late, we were already in bed. Alright, I’d had a glass or two. So had J, so when I said I would message to offer to foster the dog AND bring it back to the UK with us, J grunted assent. By the next morning, events moved fast. We drove east to near Kolymbari. Julie had already left to fly home that morning. We eventually found Stella asleep under a sun lounger. All the hotel guests seemed to be English and confirmed Stella was a dear little dog. She visited the vet next morning … EUR144 for puppy jabs, Leish blood test, pet passort, chip and general health check. Oh and puppy food. I thought she was full grown, but NO about 5 months, so no chance of being pregnant! Not having had such a young puppy before the chewing has been ‘interesting’. My new and expensive sandals were a victim. The clever cobbler took the old pair and ‘cobbled’ together the straps onto the new pair. So far, that’s sandals, 2x flip flops and 2 x charging cables … we are pretty vigilant now! Julie had left EUR300 at the hotel reception and has asked me if I need more money … I’m confident she and her husband will turn up to collect Stella. She is a dear poppet but we really DO NOT WANT 3 DOGS! So why 4 dogs???

Introducing Herclues!

Before spontaneously offering to foster and transport Stella, we had contacted the rescue organisation who repatriated the Merc with 4 dogs … we could bring a smallish dog back with us in our motorhome. Well they came through. So the morning of the day we left Crete, we collected Hercules. He’s 5-7 years old. Was abused, starved, dreadlock fur. Had been in foster for 2 months. He loves cuddles, but flinches and nips and growls if you approach him fast or startle him. He’s had warning bites at both J and I. And he is moulting big time. I had no idea moulting meant whole clufts of hair. He is allowing me to brush him 2x daily. The ISSUE is anyway, so he’d become Feck!

Gill Visited

An unplanned but very lovely visit from Gill. She stayed for 5 nights near Rethmyno; we had Maddy and Jordan staying, so Gill would have been sofa surfing, if she’d stayed with us. I collected her from her hotel for lunch back at ours … Maddy and James wanted to see her. We returned to her hotel via Chania (can’t come to Crete and not visit). A dip in her hotel pool and a meal out. She’d a mini apartment so loads of room for me to stay. On Sunday we swam and drove up the mountains to Spili. Maravel Gardens is one of my fave places. Stefanos created a medical and herb garden. He sells home made remedies, herbs and spices. I am now totally ‘into’ his lotions and bar soaps / shampoos. A lovely lunch on the terrace with soothing music with a very dear friend from eons ago. Hopefully I’ve persuaded Gill and Bron to visit in October.

Karl’s 60th

Karl and June have become very good friends on Crete. They given us material things (table chairs, curtains, knives etc) and lots of advice. As well as being good company. I particularlylike eating out with them as J and June like nursery food (fish and chips, pie). But Karl cooks and I mean COOKS. So he and I peruse menus and decide what to share …a bit of this and a bit of that … just like I do with Mutt. His 60th was 29th June … he was talking about paying for a load of folk to eat out … we offered to host it. Our house in Almyrida is set up for parties … ground floor kitchen with large opening doors to ether covered patio. It was a fabulous evening with folk that had never met, all getting on well.

Decorations and table in place for 14.

Post party there was little clearing up to do as the female guests (why is it always the females???) had down all the washing up and clearing. But we managed to do little … in the afternoon I binge watched Love Island. I KNOW its crap, but I’m now addicted …. blame Maddy! The next few days were busy with packing cleaning and making beds … Ian, Mel and 3 boys are using the house in July. I was relieved to work out how to pull out the sofa bed … funny how little things worry at you.

Another Catch Up!

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Clunegapyears

Update … Another One!

Feb to April 2022

We parted the UK shores with Jez fully laden with more stuff destined for our Crete house. Still had to leave some things behind, but we’ve been ‘allowed’ a storage unit in the Aged P’s new house car barn. You can imagine our excitement after having had to remove everything down to a toothbrush as the Aged p’s downsized. The storage unit is currently is home to a heavy combination microwave cooker and various items of camping kit. Plus some things we will use when we are back in the UK in the motorhome.

We travelled to Crete via Antibes to spend 2 days with James’ daughter Sarah and family. Quite a compliment that 5 year old Jade wanted to spend a few hours with us alone whilst Sarah was at a party with Cian. Jade was amazed at our strange home on wheels. A bed that comes down from the roof. A wardrobe under the bed. Cupboards under the floor. She was determined to use our strange toilet and so did!

Back on Crete we spent a few nights in Jez in the Kalives carpark, near our house. We needed to clean (or so we thought, but our lovely gardener who had been checking on the house had cleaned for us!) and unpack. We picked up a hire car, another Andy Pandy Car (Fiat Panda). Small but serviceable, but it took several loads to get our stuff up to our house. And the house needed a lot of sorting to accommodate our new stuff.

We had ordered a new car, a Suzuki Vitara back in November. We knew ETAs were sliding with supply issues so we popped into the Suzuki dealership to ascertain a realistic date. Yep, not March, more likely May/June. Ooh er … we are paying for a hire car. Do you have anything else available? An, XXX but another EUR2000. The charming Mathew said I’ll check the computer but I really don’t think so. Then his eyebrows waggled and we held our breath. Yes, exactly the same spec as ours due in 3 weeks. Destined for a lease company but they wouldn’t know / mind if they had ours many months later. And it came with a better media panel (basically and android tablet). Under 3 weeks later, it was ours. Any names suggestions welcome … it’s grey and reg is XNY3632? After the debacle with Zorba, which was such a great name, we’ve not thought of anything suitable. So we now have a hopefully reliable car with a 5 year warranty, after all the car and van costs of last summer!

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Nameless car.

I was back to the UK for a few days in March for the Aged p’s 60th birthday celebration and Mum’s birthday a few days before … no diet then!

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Jez has been stored at an airport car park with CCTV, gates and security 24/7. A great rate of EUR180 for 5 months. We’ve taken him out twice now, leaving the car in his place. Robyn came over in March and we headed off around the main sights of the west. The weather was bloody awful The first night was sooo windy, only James slept. Must be the sleep of the innocent! I lay there thinking that I couldn’t wake Robyn in the bed over the cab to move the van to a more sheltered spot. And Robyn lay there thinking, if this were my van I’d move it. We made sure we found more sheltered spots after! Our trip included Stavros (Zorba’s famous dance was filmed here), Falsarna, Elephonisi, Paleochora and Matala. There is no road along the south coast, so twice we headed north only to come south again. On one such drive, we had snow piled 2ft high either side of us, hail, snow, rain and wind! We were wearing all our clothes and using the van heating … in March in Crete! The worst March weather Crete has had in 35 years!

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Got a stick happy dance from Oscar on Elaphonisi.

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Sheltered overnight at a monastery.

The Aged P’s came over for 11 days. We rented an AirBnB house near Agious Nikolas. An ice cream in Ag Nik, Big Spinalonga walk and a meal in Plaka and a drive around the Lasithi Plateau. Great mini trip, but again cold and windy. Given the Aged P’s are wine connoisseurs (alcoholics!), we did a wine tasting and compared wines from another tasting J and I had done. You wouldn’t come to Crete for the wine … it’s expensive for the quality compared to other EU countries … as the Aged P’s have told me after their Bulgarian wine tasting 2 days ago!

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Chill time on our patio.

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Navigating a steep down, up and a ford at the Botanical Gardens. A good lunch was at the reward.

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The Ag Nik Glutton. A rare species

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View finally of the Lasithi Plateau a bendy drive up.

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The wine snob. To be fair, it was rank.

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A chicken diner delivery on our balcony, after a couple of mojitos!

Maddy arrived for 6 days. She’s in the last throes of her MA so did a few hours most days essay writing, sleeping and chilling. She and Jordan are back in June for 2 weeks.

Otherwise, we’ve met up with good friends who live near us, had a few walks, and done admin. Amazing how the time flies! We finally got to meet our lovely landlady, who was over staying with her partner’s family. She has assured us that she’s happy for us to continue renting long term, so we’re good to do a few things to the house. Small world here. I had admired a painting in one of our favourite restaurants. Googled the artist and messaged her. Lives not far and yes she has a studio / gallery near her home I booked to view her work for a couple of weeks hence. Half an hour later a message from our landlady … the artist is the mother of her partner! The artist’s name is an unlikely Balsam Wood … how cool is that. And we now have a lovely painting hanging on our wall.

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1878-1888 You’re Evicted, Come and Get Your Stuff!

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Clunegapyears

Tuesday 27th April – Saturday 8th May 2021

OK, so I’m STILL playing Blog Catch Up, in a big way!

They’d discussed it, considered it and discounted it before. So we thought leaving our stuff at the Aged P’s house was OK. Then we got that phone call. We’re selling and down sizing. Please come and get your ‘stuff’. Research and a really useful FaceBook called Group Road Trip: UK to Greece & Back and we were fairly confident on what paperwork, tests etc we needed. Right to transit is a very powerful travel card.

On another FaceBook group someone asked about getting a dog from Crete to UK, on behalf of an elderly friend. We offered if the dog was not too big. It turned out to be not one but two LARGE dogs. The owners had been on Crete for 16 happy years, but infirmity meant they could no longer cope and were relocating back to their family farm in Kent. We agreed to transport them! Mad!!! So our road trip became a Canine Odyssey!

Departure Date was booked on 27th April, so we could enjoy James’ birthday on 26th. Just before this Karl cooked a memorable birthday meal with his signature work of art cheese board and short rib beef which was unctuous. We officially didn’t need PCR tests as transmitting Italy, but Minoan said we did, so we had them done at 8.00 that morning. Results back at 2.00 – first hurdle cleared. We collected our 2 guest dogs so all 4 could get used to each other before we crammed them into Zorba the Greek car.

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Rex was a nervous dog and took a while before he’d come into the house.

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Car seats came out, giving us a flat space for the 4 dogs. All our SCANT luggage was tied vertically to the head rests to give the dogs lying sown space.

The Route

Day 1 – 27th April: Departure onovernight ferry from Chania to the Pireaus on Greek mainland.

Day 2: Driving up to Igouminitsa for a longer overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy.

Day 3: Arrived in Italy late afternoon so drove for a couple of hours after curfew (had a form in case we were stopped) to a pre-booked dog friendly hotel.

Day 4: Antigen tests in Reggio Emilia and drove to another dog friendly hotel near Nancy France.

Day 5: Up through Belgium mostly to a hotel outside Calais. Constantly checking if Antigen tests were uploaded by the lab … considered going via an airport … moved crossing and booked an extra night in Calais. As well as being the weekend, it was also a bank holiday across most of Europe … so everywhere shut!

Day 6: Should have caught a morning train, but antigen tests were still not available online! Sunday … wandering the delights of Calais!

Day 7 – 3rd May: Free and fast antigen tests and late morning train. Dropped Millie and Rex in Kent. Collected UK car from Aged P’s and drove both cars onto our house in N. Devon for our quarantine.

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Day 1: A sunny spot on the Chania ferry before we set sail. The cabin was very stuffy and smelly … with 6 bodies …. dog breath and flatulence!!

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View of the Drapanos Hill and Almyrida. Gillian messaged me to tell she was on the Kalives beach and waving at our ferry, , so we waved back … not that we could see each other!!!

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The evening was spent completing all the transit during curfew and Passenger Locator Forms we needed for each country. Fun! A whole new level of admin and stress! It was good we had, as there were a number of road block in Greece and one chap wanted to see the ferry to Italy form … think he was miffed he couldn’t fine us for breaking the out of prefecture rules.

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The ferry stopped at Heraklion before crossing overnight to Pireas.

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Day 2: Early morning off the ferry and straight to a beach for a dog walk.

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We were in plenty of time for out evening sailing from Igouminista, so lots of dog walking and a really good gyros for supper. We’d seen this old tub sail into port, but couldn’t quite believe that it was our boat. But it was and it did make it to Italy. Trucks but very few passengers.

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Day 3: We didn’t arrive in Ancona until late afternoon. So plenty of time to sample the extortionate EUR4 coffee, but it was an Pukka Italian espresso.

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View of Ancona port.

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Early evening walk as soon as we found a beach once off the ferry. Despite lots of coaxing, only 2 of the dogs pooped the poop deck. Can you imagine holding a wee for 18 hours???? Cabin marginally less hot and stinky than the previous crossing.

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Milly, that’s Oscar’s bed!

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Settled in their own beds after lots of bed hopping! Fabulous hotel with no charge for dogs and large room.

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Day 5 Whilst J was driving, I was checking for tests, investigating if anywhere was open for new tests, changing the Tunnel and booking an extra night in the calais hotel. We couldn’t find anything open other than a few small service station shops, so breakfast and lunch were chocolate. Supper was an emergency tin of COLD cassoulet I’d bought en route. A tough day in many ways.

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Day 6: Tourists in Calais! Think we’d done most of the sights by lunchtime! Only 6000 steps seeing the Town Hall, Vauban citadel and lots of municipal gardens … one style of planting …. only 2/3 flower varieties and straight lines.

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Being Sunday , Covid and a BH weekend, we couldn’t find anywhere for a coffee and only found 1 restaurant open in all our walking around Calais town. We ordered a takeaway … chicken and fish pie. But again it was COLD, as the restaurant assumed we’d heat it up at home … hotel foyer microwave broken! We were making good headway into our Greek wine stocks by this time! Since Brexit, we are limited to 18 litres of wine per person, so we crossed with just under that!

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Day 7: Free antigen tests done, with print outs form the lab. Dogs in the Tunnel French pet area … tiny and boring compared to UK side … national attitude towards pets?

Quarantine in our house in North Devon was OK. We did pay for test to release, but lost a day due to when the weekend fell. On the 2 days we had to post the test results we took the long way round to the post box. And our neighbours walked CO2 a couple of times. They would have taken them out more often, but the weather was dire. Felt cold. We cleaned both cars. Did admin. Still felt cold. Sorted stuff in the shed. Did some exercises. And watched far too much TV! Still really cold. And thank you to all the Crete folk sending us pix of the warm weather there! Mum had knitted me 3 garments, the first to be sewn together was a super chunky jumper, which I then lived in!

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We got through a lot of logs!

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Great excitement … a McDonalds McFlurry on release day!

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Tide out at Combe Martin.

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We ate well once released … this was the take outs for putting together at home from Thomas Carr Michelln * and Lin and Bo, over in Exmoor fed and watered us! well.

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Mackerel and scallop tortellini.

Clune Gap Years

A journal and reflections of our motorhome travels

Tag Archives: Crete