Champagne Aegean flights to Athens/Crete on New Year’s Day
got us off to a good start but somewhere along the way, a cold bug hit me so by
3rd January I felt grim. The
weather the first few days matched my preference to stay indoors in front of
the cosy wood burner during self-imposed quarantine.
Any trip to Agios Nikolaos needs a coffee stop and again the lack of people feels odd, a fact obviously enjoyed by an egret perched on one of the small fishing boats moored at the lake.
The cloudy days were followed by two
‘halcyon’ days – blue skies, sunshine and no wind, 20c = mini summer. For the first, we walked along the beaches
and headlands of Istron and for the second we went to Sissi and enjoyed a walk
in the company of three well-behaved dogs that decided they’d see where these
odd people went.
By our second Saturday, I felt ready for a proper walk so we
set off to use a clearly marked trail above the village of Kroustas. The walk includes woodland and open views
across Mirabello Bay and identifies some Minoan remains. As you can see below some of the walk was cool and damp.
Here are Alan and Hilary at the 'gate' of the large Minoan house at the pinnacle of the walk.
To find this walk, pass through the centre of
Kroustas, turn right along the side of the school and keep going until you
reach a clearing by the side of a huge water cistern, clad to look like a
house, with a picnic area. Park here and
follow the marked trail that starts by an information board.
The next day was another ‘summer day’ so we strolled the
esplanade at Ierapetra and made the most of the sun with a coffee and lunch
stop. It’s such a treat to see empty
beaches instead of crammed sun beds!
Village news - The Kritsa village post office has closed as
part of cost saving activity and one of the gift shops now has a mini post
office counter set up in one corner.
This will be a fab way of increasing their foot traffic although their
winter opening hours are erratic. The
main headache for them is that hardly anyone has a proper address – the
previous postman remembered where everyone lived so ‘Surname – Kritsa’ got
electric and water bills delivered. When
we went into claim our bills we saw a huge stack of undelivered mail so it will
need regular checks to make sure nothing goes astray.
We woke to a thunderstorm on Thursday 16th Jan and then the next day we enjoyed our breakfast
on the balcony today at the start of another ‘summery’ day – the contrasts at
this time of year really are amazing! Later
in the morning, we enjoyed a spectacular flying display courtesy of griffon
vultures and hooded crows and ended day with an enjoyable quiz night in an Agios
Nikolaos bar.
Today we've been up to Kathero for a walk across the plateau and Hilary came too. We'd only gone a few hundred yards when we realised the usually dry river had far too much water to negotiate without getting wet boots so Alan had to fetch the car to drive us through. After that, no problem! Although we did notice that the breeze coming off the snowy mountains made the temperature markedly cooler than down in the village.
We're almost at the half way point for this trip so intend to do lots more walking, weather permitting.
