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Published: October 16th 2008
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Our rental car on Rhodos
I think we should get one of these when we get back to CANADA !! Day 13 and 14
Good Morning…it’s another beautiful morning here in Paradise at Kiotaro, our last day here, and though we are sorry to leave in a way we are looking forward to our Grand Adventure aboard the Ferry to Crete.
Now where was I? Ah yes, yesterday. It was jammies to bathing suits day again. We will hopefully have our clean clothes back today and I am now starting to believe Anna really will iron our things. She dries stuff on a clothes line and her washing machine is outside under a little canopy; she even has one there from Canada! We hit the beach about 10 and I swam for a while, floated for a while, swam some more, you get the picture. Gord continued his snorkeling, and I went back to the room to grab my book…Met Anna on the stairs with our bless-ed clean clothes in hand. She ironed our t-shirts and even my jeans for goodness sake! The piles of clothes look so pretty I decided to use them for decorations!
Home from the beach around 2, a little lunch and then off exploring the western part of Rodos. Gord’s
Road to No Where
B did NOT think our little car would make it up this hill, and I told her she was wrong. Guess what...we almost went into a ditch while I spun the tires trying to get up!! B was right..BAD MOVE !! standard transmission driving skills are improving; he just needs to remember the car has a clutch when he turns it off! I noticed when I was floating around that I have this kink in my neck…whiplash I think!! It is very dry on Rodos, it is the Island that gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year. We saw many dry riverbeds as well as the remnants of the terrible forest fires they had here a few years ago. One good thing about this being such a touristy Island is that the roads are in very good shape. There were many guardrails, something we saw little of on Chios.
We saw a sign showing an Old fashioned windmill not long after we set off. The road we turned onto was very steep and of fresh gravel. I told Gord we would never make it, he begged to differ!! Hahaha We actually made it farther than I thought we would before spinning out. I walked the rest of the way and found there was absolutely nothing to see. Perhaps they are in the process of setting up?
We wanted to see 3 things on this excursion:
Dead Mans
If you look really hard, you can see a memorial at the end of this curve. An older gentleman was in a vehicle some time ago, when it went right over the cliff (about 100 feet) and his family erected the religious structure. These can be see all over the Islands...they have no guard rails in most places Fourni Beach (a “shingle” beach as opposed to sand or pebble), the Castle of Kastellos near Monolithos, and the sun set. The drive itself was not very interesting; it is neither barren nor forested in this area, just kind of dull and lifeless. As we approached the coast, however, that all changed as you can see from the pictures.
At the summit of the pass we came across 2 little roadside stands, the first we have seen so far in our travels. Both guys were selling honey products (this is the honey production area of Rodos), olive oil with various herbs added to the bottle, and Souma. All these products are fresh off their farms. The 2nd vendor was very proud of his Souma and gave me a wee shot to try. I am not a big fan of “spirits”, the taste and burn reminds me of when I siphoned gas out of my dads truck for my motorbike when I was a kid. It burned alright but then a few moments later this very clean,fresh and cool fruit taste filled my mouth, it was lovely. This area is famed for its production of this brew made from
Prancing in the surf on Fourni Beach
just before getting knocked flat on my butt by a wave seasonal fruit, and is 50% alcohol! It is similar to a brew produced in Crete called Raki, otherwise known as Greek Fire Water!
After deciding the benches set between the 2 vendors would be our sunset watching place, we headed of for the shingled beach. No more guard-rails on the beach road as you can see from the picture. We saw a few mini-gourges that have been carved out in little valleys; the area reminds me of the hoodoos just south of where I am from in BC. Got to the beach and I trotted into the water…I took about 4 steps and there was a sudden drop-off. This, I guess, is what is meant by shingle. I couldn’t see anyone else out swimming so I decided not to go out any further. A wave came along that knocked me on my butt, so I floated along the shore a bit taking in the scenery, which is very dramatic like all western sides of Islands we have seen so far.
The pictures of the Castle ruins and the sunset speak for themselves.
We broke 2 very basic traveling rules today. Rule # 1 always
wear appropriate footwear for the conditions! I had on my Birkenstock sandals for goodness sake…what was I thinking when I started clamoring over rocks, looking at where I was going, not where I was stepping and down I went. Got a good cut on my knee and actually cracked the sole on my sandal (it kinda went down between the rocks I think). When we got to our sunset viewing place (right beside the souma/honey vendors) I asked the woman now manning the booth for some papertowel (note to self, the mini first aid kit should not be left in the suitcase back in your room) cuz I could tell there was some gravel in the cut. She grabbed some toweling and doused it thoroughly with Souma!!! It is healing up remarkably well.
Rule # 2 When driving at night, be sure of your route! When we left the sunset behind I forgot that we took a little side tour from the main road and should have backtracked to return to our circuit. Off we went and got to the part where we ha to turn off onto a secondary road. Well, the map defines yellow roads on
almost there
about 129 steps up... the map as secondary but paved…hah! No pavement and a road in very poor shape, like Midlothian Rd in need of grading in our area or the road into Mitten in the west. For 11 km’s we bounced around switchbacks, never seeing a soul. Of course, you go so far and then you feel committed, right? We made it, picked up a few new squeaks in the car, and the sky was spectacular when we stopped a midway to gather our wits! The red sky in the west and the full or nearly full moon in the east!
Day 14
Last day here, swam, walked around the village, sent some e-mails for stuff in Crete…The sky is a little cloudy, the first we have seen since Lesvos, and rain is forecast. We are heading for Rodos Old Town shortly. There was a monastery (Moni Tsabakas in case you want to look it up) I wanted to see on the way, but it closes at 2:40 and we won’t get there in time! It’s a place of pilgrimage for childless women…on 18 Sept (the Monasteries festival day), women crawl up the path to the place on their hands and
knees, then pray to conceive. The write up I read didn’t start with the phrase in time past, so I assume this still goes on. Did do the “hike” to the 7 springs…not much else to say about that…again the pics tell the story!
All for now, will try to get the last blog, and a few videos if I have time, and this one sent out from our fav little Walk Inn, before catching the ferry. We can get into our cabin on the ferry at 10:30 and set sail for Crete at 3 a.m., arriving in Sitia, Crete tomorrow around noon. Should be a hoot! Bye, B & G
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