Day 37. 8/10 /2018

Four wheel exploring the mountains.
We are off on a trip to the mountains and our guide is right on time , Nassos is his name and there are two other men in the car ,Kendal and Alex , both from America, and they live together in the Hamptons Long Island. We head west out of town ,Nassos introduce himself and talks about the different area of tourism , and how different country have been coming to Crete for years and had never moved from the beach or the swimming pool as they don’t have those things in there home land. He swings of the main road and on to road built many years ago and is telling us how for 200years, from 1720 til 1920 Crete had been at war with Turkey and then the 2nd world war came. First the Italians, then the Germans came to take control of the airports so they could move there men to Africa easily.
We continued on climbing as he spoke ,the suddenly he turn off into a olive farm. Here we were able to see a 3000 year old olive tree, the oldest on the earth, also saw the tools and machinery used in bygone days to press the olives to make olive oil. We move on still on back roads wide enough for just one car then suddenly he stops the car and say “ from here you walk .” We are now a the bottom of Mesavlia gorge over 5000 m high , it deathly quite but also strangely beautiful as we all walk for fifteen minute or so , above us high in the sky the condors are sailing and soaring on the wind currents. Finally there he is and we are off again ,this time the conversation is about bees. We learn there is a Queen , the workers and the drowns. We than learn that today after much research all man made hives are all the same size . This continues all the way up the road leading out of the gorge , his reason was that road is very narrow and if he didn’t distract us there maybe a little panic as we are very very close to the edge.
We continue climbing til we reach a 17 th century small mountain village that had been partially destroyed during WW2, but two men had an idea in 1975 to rebuild the whole village and make it eco friendly holiday experience . They brought each home and there were 10 which left little money for the repairs, so they did this themselves and in 1995 the first ever eco friendly tourist holiday cabins were opened ,since then many more have opened around the world.
This is called Milia and it has one of the best Restaurant in Crete and we stop for lunch. The food is beautiful , the conversation interesting , and then it’s time to be on our way. We climb a bit more then he stops the car and we are looking at Topolia Gorge the view was amazing. Photos taken and now we head to the Hermit cave, this cave was used during all the wars but particularly against the Turks ,as a classroom to educate the children as the Turks didn’t want the Greeks to have any chance while under their attack. They now use it for naming days and Christmas pageants. Just like that 6 hours have disappeared, and we are heading back.
Poppy nap time . I wake and it straight off again walking in a different direction to the port then circling back to the side of the port to find a wine bar the guys from U.S.A had told Shirley about.we tracked it down and would you believe , not open on Sundays, “ b***** , I really wanted to try that,” it might’ve been a different word, so amble on a little Shirley saw this small restaurant, and it had a wine we had tried before . We stopped , white wine , people watching ,much quieter tonight, ended up buying dinner here as well . Good food , but it was like they were going into knock off mode, everything came out slowly and at the end when we needed the bill it took me going and paying and letting him know others were still waiting for theirs. All up it was a nice experience just a bit strange.
Well that ends another adventure ,tomorrow is our last day in Greece ,who knows what will do, maybe a swim in the Mediterranean would be good. So until then , stay safe, look after each other .
Love ,
Shirley and John