Grecian Formula Part 6

MEETING UP WITH FRIENDS FROM BISBEE

Gordon and Kim on one of our great treks through Crete

A tip for those planning world travel in the future, get an international cell phone during your travels. Everyone now expects travelers to have a cell and I must admit it would have come in handy more than a dozen times for meeting up with people and making travel arrangements but us quasi old schoolers made due with using email, Skype, and Facetime.

After a great refreshing sleep at the Archontiki, we were scheduled to meet up with our friends from Bisbee, Kim and Gordon, to explore the western end of Crete. Their time of arrival was estimated at 2:PM at the bus station and after checking out the location was, to our surprise, only a couple blocks away from our hotel. We waited at the station on time and after twenty minutes past the time of arrival without seeing them, Sharon went back to the hotel and discovered an email from Kim stating they missed their bus but would be arriving an hour later.  As the adjusted time stated they rolled in and after a joyous welcoming, they followed us to the hotel, checked in, and we showed them around as much of Chania as we knew in our short time of discovery. Over dinner we discussed our plans for the next nine days together, retired for the evening and got ready for the next days adventure.

Gordon taking his watch over the Libyan Sea..Look out Momar

Our first stop was a restored mountain village now an inn called Milia tucked away high in the mountains of western Crete. There is nothing more fun than having friends to help navigate and get lost with. Everyone has an opinion and generally after all the jiving and sarcasm settles, we found the right pathway to our destination.  The roads in this area are usually scarcely defined, decent tarmac but extremely winding and narrow which sets the stage for more excitement and not always for the faint of heart. My careful driving skills prevented Kim from abandoning the ship except once but that I’ll explain later.

We parked at the designated area, threw on our packs and hiked down the trail to the village that expounded organic cuisine, solar power, and working farm. The descriptions were close enough and soon the old rough stone structures appeared so we were ushered to our quaint suites with more charm than words can express.

Ditching our packs we quickly assembled and Gordon, our trekking leader, lead us on a couple hour walk up the side of the deep canyon onto a saddle with an incredible view. Then we returned to our rooms, readied for dinner and sat down for quite the feast put together for us by Milos, a Croatian Borat impresario and the general manager of the property, plus one of the funniest persons I’ve ever met. For two days we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Milia using it as our hiking base camp before we drove off the mountain to the fishing village of Palehorra where Kim and Gordon had made reservations for two apartments within walking distance of the town and the beach.  During our week at the Olive Tree we had incredible adventures, in fact so many that I can only provide you a headline for each one and you will have to get the rest of the story from one or all of us at a later time.

Sharon prepares Incredible food on hot plate.

Wine in plastic bottles satisfies our souls.

Gordon discovers new love…homemade Greek yogurt, fresh fruit and honey

Hiking so intoxicating Curt kisses the earth hard, letting blood and spraining wrists

Short drive to Elephanisi turns out to be road from hell…Kim leaves vehicle.

While sorties fly over…Gordon takes to anti-aircraft gun.

I kissed the earth a bit too hard.

Taverna at the end of short hike makes all of us giddy with happiness .

Kim and Gordon...Bon Voyage

I couldn’t begin to say how much fun we had with our friends but as time passes the end is always waiting. The morning of our departure we drove Kim and Gordon to the small port where they boarded “Neptune” while the sun still silhouetted the departing boat as she gently delivered them to their next adventure and we returned to the apartment to pack our things and began our long day of travel back to Athens.