Now I'm in love!

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Geo: 37.11, 25.38

We arrived in Naxos on Tuesday morning via a flight from Athens. The plane was only a 50 seater Fokker Friendship (50 year old plane we think!) so a bit scary and the runway at Naxos airport was tiny. We didn't prebook a hotel as it appeared from my research that there were heaps to choose from and that we should be able to barter the price down as peak season doesn't start until July/August. We caught a cab from the airport and took the first place we saw to save us dragging our bags around. There were indeed plenty of hotels, so many that we didn't really know where to start. And most of them are almost brand new or still being built as tourism in Naxos is still in its infancy. In the end we gave up looking for another hotel in Naxos town as they just didn't seem to be what I was looking for. We decided to hire a bike the next day and go to some of the other beaches (6 to 10 km away) and have a look there. We eventually found a nice roomy studio with a balcony, sea view and pool - all my pre requisites. Andrew went off yesterday morning to get a scooter but came back with a KLR 650 road/trail bike that has only been hired out once before in the last year. Most tourists obviously prefer a scooter. He had gotten talking the day prior to a local who ran a bike shop and owned a GSXR 1000 - luckily Andrew was wearing his Suzuki cap! The guy would have spent all day talking bikes if we had the time. Thats when Andrew saw the dirt bike. There was no doubt in my mind that he would come back with anything less. It turned out to be a good choice because some of the roads are like goat tracks and its quite comfy for me. At least as comfy as our bike at home. We were both truly impressed with the island of Naxos. Being an island you can see the sea from most roads on or near the coast so cruising around is an absolute pleasure. The Agean waters are crystal clear and the scenery is stunning with its contrasting colors of blue, white, green and brown. I wanted to stop and take photos every 100 metres it was so beautiful but Andrew just wanted to ride!! Some of the roads were actually in quite good condition so riding a full on road bike would be awesome. Naxos is a complete contrast to Cairns. More like Mexico if anything. The landscape is dotted with rocks, cactus and giant bromeliads with flowers 2 metres high. Barely a tree to be seen in some places. And everywhere you look there are little white villages with a blue and white church on every "corner". Some farms even have their own tiny little church. As you move further inland the hills turn into vast cliff faces and mountains with villages built on the sides of escarpments. The landscape becomes more bleak and there are ancient stone fences all around, similar to Ireland. We stopped at one point to take some photos and started to listen to what we first thought to be some kind of bird and then realised that we were hearing perhaps a hundred goats, with tinkling bells around their necks, making their way back to their farm - at a guess I would say to be milked. We rode to the most northern point of the island thru the interior and back out to the coast. Stopped off at a very layback beach lined with a few cafes and had a drink and a rest. We then made our way back to Naxos town and to our hotel. We had been riding from 11am to about 5pm with only a couple of stops. We liked it so much we have taken the bike for another day and are going to back track a little so I can take some of those photos I missed out on yesterday. Then we are going to take advantage of our new residence and spend some time relaxing by the pool and on the beach directly opposite. Fortunately our new hotel is close to a few shops and restaurants so although we have moved away from the main town, most things we need are close by. We had dinner by the water in Naxos town at the same place the last 2 nights as we found that the best places to eat are those where you order from what's in the kitchen rather than from the menu. It took us a while but we now have it worked out. You have be really careful not to order too much as the servings are huge! I have been finding some fantastic vegetarian dishes and Andrew was very pleased to find a goat dish available last night so we have been experiencing a new kind of Greek cuisine.

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