Crete Road Trip #9: Bad, bad navigation

On the whole, we found our efforts to navigate around the island worked pretty well. Especially after we bought a road map which actually showed Crete's roads with any degree of accuracy.

We had a little bit of trouble navigating around the Knossos region on the second day, but apart from that it had been fairly plain sailing.

Until we tried to get to Spili.

First of all I set us on a small road heading too far south, and we suddenly found ourselves at the sea again. And then, once we'd set ourselves right again, I managed to get us to take a wrong turn at a major junction, and to start heading off into the hills.

Now, I have to confess that I then rather stubbornly said, "Oh well, let's stay on this road, we can take another route there" rather than turning back. Without taking into account the type of road we would be travelling on.

And so, instead of a nice simple drive on one of Crete main roads, Claire got unscheduled practice of her mountain driving as the route I insisted we follow took us up hill, down dale, and then up into the clouds.

She was not, as I am sure you can imagine, best pleased.

The very last bit was saved for worst, as the descent into Spili was terrifyingly steep on a narrow road with endless switchbacks.

Oh boy, was I popular.