We woke up to a great Cretan morning with high temperatures and a deep blue sky and resisted the daily banter to one another … “Oh no, not blue sky again …..!” After a clutch of visitors to the house and various outings to meet up over the previous week or two, we had time to sort out the housework of brushing dust from various corners and getting the floors mopped and dry while the temperatures were only hot rather than stifling!
While our friend Mike was staying last Sunday, we had been invited to a barbecue at a house which was a bit off the beaten track. We had had a few problems making contact with these kind people who had issued the invitation and at least knew how to get to Exantas which is a friendly little village literally five minutes away. However, there are a few mini mountains and foothills to negotiate in the meantime. The three of us took our family saloon (as per instructions) down from the motorway on a steep track that ended in someone's olive grove. Turned round and tried the next track down from the motorway and stopped at a house with a swimming pool to discover if whether this was where the party was. Nothing in response other than the barking of a large dog. Down into the village to get more instructions. Take the road for 200 m and turn right at the track and take the right fork. After several more fruitless attempts to find the right track and opportunities to hug olive trees, we returned back to the bottom road and tried to find another track – only to turn into the second one we had taken from the main road. All this time, we could see our friends house enticingly up the mountain but had no idea how to reach it. Eventually we spied some tiny figures on the balcony and shouted across the valley and gave signals in semaphore - LEFT …. or RIGHT? They waved back cheerily and our petrol light came on! We carried on along this track which curved backwards and forwards several times (so left or right would have been right either way) and we arrived hot, thirsty and exhausted after a bit of a safari. It took an hour and all our petrol! It seems that many of their visitors arrive in a similar state of disarray. However once we had recovered ourselves and had drunk several glasses of water we had a lovely time and met a lovely Greek family who had travelled a long way to the bbq and had no trouble finding the place at all!
Spilli was our destination midweek to show Mike a few of the sites and we set off for the mountains where the mountain streams fall down the rocky outcrops right into the centre of the town. Stopping at the cafe next to the Lions Head fountains for a refresher was wonderful and we washed our hands and faces in the wonderfully cool jets of water.
Checking the time and realising it was getting late we stopped at Panormo beach for a sardine supper. The need for peace and quiet with lots of shade had us heading for Camping Elizabeth on Thursday only to find that our normal retreat was invaded first of all by a van out of which two smartly dressed young ladies emerged carrying a D.I.Y. Bower and several bunches of flowers and yards of white tulle. Then a very tall Scandinavian vicar arrived and we realised that a wedding was about to take place on the beach.
With Mike's help we managed to put up trellis panels around the upstairs balcony which gives our growing creeper plants a bit of well needed shade and us a little privacy when we want to have a meal overlooking our mountain and nice view. Said mountain has now lost all but a few wisps of snow from the peak and the countryside is taking on the variations of ochre and burnt sienna that we are familiar with.
Our morning peace is very often shattered by the raucous noise emerging from various travelling sales vans selling fruit and vegetables, kitchen ware, clothes and shoes, meat and fish. It is the fish van that seems to have the loudest megaphone and has the villagers rushing past (especially soon after pension day) with shopping bags of tasty fish. Life in the middle of a village is not quiet or peaceful and there are plenty of loud conversations which double in volume as it bounces off the stone walls! There are no riots here, however, thank goodness only lots of conversations about politics. We are setting off for the CIC Barbecue at Camping Elizabeth tonight and will stay overnight in one of their air conditioned cabins. We have the guitar packed and lots of mosquito nets/repellent. Wish us luck!
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