Crete Day Eleven – A two and a half hour drive to the beach

A two-and-a-half-hour drive to the beach

We were up at 07:15 as agreed to meet Kryzsztof and Natalia for breakfast as they had kindly invited us to join them on a two-hour drive to a pink sandy beach. Shortly after 08:15 we were on the road heading south through Crete. Some nice views over the sea. After about 45 minutes we turned to drive through the mountains. Wow what an experience, there were rocks on the sides of the roads from landslide, sections of road missing as they had also slid away, single track sections through some very small villages and plenty of traffic for Kryzsztof to navigate. In most sections we were safe as we hugged the side of the mountain and not the drop on the opposite side of the road. We had some interesting conversations on the way there and always tried to involve Natalia as her English isn’t so good, we relied on Kryzsztof to translate some.

We finally arrived at Elafonissi beach two and a half hours after leaving the hotel. Wow a wide-open beach with plenty of cars starting to park up. Remarkably like Southport Beach. Once parked up I was glad to stop the childhood demons causing me to feel unwell with car sickness. Out of the car large breaths of air were taken and I started to feel a little better and we all settled down of four sun loungers that cost us 4.50 Euro each for the day. The water was crystal clear, warm and calm but the best bit was the sandy beach. Smooth silky sand with a pink hue in it. Once I get home I’ll post some photo’s so you can all see the color.

I wasn’t relishing the drive back through the twists and turns of the mountain but managed to keep the car sickness at bay. We stopped off at one of the many village stalls at the side of the road selling Olive Oil and Honey and decided to buy some local honey, extremely sweet and a unique aftertaste to it. Now on this leg of the journey we were on the edge of the road overlooking the drop down into the valley below with truly little protection. Kryzsztof managed to get us back in two hours though. We both grabbed as cold beer before heading to our rooms for showers and change of clothes for our evening meal.

Later in the evening we sat on the lobby bar balcony with Kryzsztof and Natalia as it was cooler than the bar area. It was their last night in Crete as they have an early morning flight back to Berlin. We may see them later this year as they are coming to Burnley to see family and we may meet up for a coffee, we also have an open invitation to visit them in Berlin. We thought we had missed Murdo and his wife but spotted them in the bar, we’ll catch up with them by the pool later tomorrow (Saturday).