A lemon tree of our own

The (rocky) road South

Last year, when Claire and I took our road trip around Crete, I seemed to be blogging about it bit-by-bit for months. Despite that, I never quite reached the last day, when we stayed in Frangokastello at Flisvos Apartments, which are literally on the beach. It is a beautiful place, and so this year we took our recent guests there for a day trip.

It was partly because it has a nice beach, partly because it has a castle, and partly because of the spectacular, if terrifying, drive. The journey from Chania to Frangokastello means taking the main road south from Vryses towards Chora Sfakia, and passing through the Imbros Gorge. We though this would give our visitors a taste of the amazing gorge countryside that Crete has to offer, without inflicting the 16km of the Samaria trek on them in 34° heat.

The journey there was more fraught than usual, since a large amount of EU funded work is being done on the road. It is being widened, and some of it is being replaced with tunnels through the mountains. Whilst we totally approve of this work, we weren't quite so happy getting caught up in it.

As it is the only route south, it hasn't been possible to close the road whilst the work is carried out, and so for some parts of the journey, the narrow stretch of road that could barely let two cars pass had been stripped of tarmac, strewn with boulders, and we had to weave our way through rock-drillers, diggers, trucks and workmen.

It was a bit like being in some kind of crazy driving video game - except that you were perched on side of a cliff and the danger was real. We'd certainly earned our lunch and a relax on the beach by the time we reached Frangokastello!

Beer. Bay. Puppy!

After our trip to see the picturesque Balos lagoon on the Gramvousa Peninsula, we headed to another new destination on the west of the island, Falasarna.

Falasarna is a long strip of beach facing west, and the approach sees you winding down the hillside, passing sign after sign promising the best beach, free parking, the best food and the best apartments. Spoilt for choice, we did what any self-respecting indecisive bunch of people would do - drive on until the road stopped and we had no choices left.

This turned out to be a great idea, as we ended up at a bar with a view out across the whole of Livadi Bay.

A bar with beer...

...and a selection of delicious Cretan snacks...

...and a puppy!!!!!

Here she is dutifully sitting under the table looking forlornly at me in the hope that I'm going to spill some of my food.

The long and winding really, really, really bad road to Gramvousa

When some friends came to visit up a couple of weeks back we indulged in the luxury of hiring a car, which meant we could explore some places we'd yet to reach on Crete. One of those was the Gramvousa Peninsula. We'd seen quite a bit about it on the late lamented 'Crete News & Life' show, as they had a recurring feature about it. However we'd never been, and as we drove out of Kissamos-Kastelli we were the furthest West we have ever been on the island.

There is only one road on and off the peninsula, and even by Cretan standards it stretches the definition of road.

Almost as soon as you reach the peninsula the tarmac ceases, and you are driving on a loose rocky narrow gravel road that hugs the side of the coast. We had spotted it from a distance as an orange gash against the green of the mountainside, but hadn't realised quite how rough it was going to be. Or how long.

The track must cover the best part of 8 kilometres, which took us 40-odd minutes at the speeds we could muster. On more than one occasion we encountered a stretch that was so steep that we feared that we would have to give in and reverse our little car all the way back down the track.

We made it to the top in the end, where there was a car park and a curious little cantina. This offered some drinks, but, rather distressingly, no toilets.

Claire and I had some hot nescafe which was heated on a little gas ring stove, whilst one of our friends got an unusual cup of tea. Made from local herbs, it was not to her liking, and having read some signs around the place, we weren't sure if it wasn't in fact made from one of the endangered species that are part of the 'reserve' on the head of the peninsula.

The object of our trip was to see the stunning lagoon at Balos, which is, literally, picture postcard material.

A trek to Georgioupoli's chapel

After visiting Lake Kournas we headed to Georgioupoli. This distinguishes itself by being one of the few villages or towns in Crete to have a statue in the main square which isn't of Eleftherios Venizelos.

We stopped by the sea-front for a drink. The beach is a very narrow strip, but stretches a long way around. There is a small jetty with a chapel on it, and we decided it would be churlish to visit the village and not pay our respects there.

This turned out to be much harder than we had anticipated. From a distance the jetty looked like it was probably tarmac, but when you got up close you realised it was just loosely piled together stones. It was solid enough, but was quite testing on the feet as you needed a constant sense of balance along the walk.

When we got to the chapel they were obviously doing some renovation work, as amongst the religious icons and artifacts were some rollers and pots of paint. The smell was definitely much more 'white spirit' than 'Holy Spirit'.