Spending two nights at this small town at the foot of the Gorge was definitely a good decision. We wondered while at home if there would be enough to keep us occupied, but we needn't have worried. Right from the time the zillions of taverna chairs emptied with the arrival of the two ferries, this place has been quiet and very relaxing. We planned a bit of a scaled back travel this time, but none the less we have been busy almost continuously these past three weeks. So a chance to linger, reflect on our travels and simply take things as they come has been wonderful.
Each day the many hikers that flow down the Gorge arrive and gather through the afternoon. The town takes on a buzz like a busy bee hive with the activity cresting as the ferries prepare to sail at 5:30. First one boat traveling eastward (which we will catch tomorrow) loads and prepares to depart...
...and then the second ferry arrives and it's crew begins to load foot passengers as well before sailing west. Greek planned chaos follows,
but eventually everyone is settled and the boats depart one after the other.
Then what had been a vibrant, hectic place suddenly falls silent. I could again hear the birds and feel the cool breeze coming off the Med. There's a collective sigh from the tavern staff, and the owner, our host, sits down across from me, lights a hand rolled cigarette, takes a long pull on his iced coffee and quietly says, "this is the very best time of the day". And he means it. We have an almost 180 degree vista in front of us and with just just one small island out there, the next stop is North Africa. We can literally see the curvature of the earth.
We sit back, have a cold beer and admire the view. I prepare the day's blog post and then we head up to our simple room for showers and clean clothes. We haven't carried very much stuff down with us, so we each hand wash and hang out the couple of things we have from the day. Much like any day on Camino. We go back downstairs and our host moves us to a front seat where we look out over the Sea and enjoy the changing light.
A new moon begins.
Our humble abode.
We enjoyed a couple of big beers, then wine with dinner and the traditional gift of Rake with our dessert, also a gift on Crete. Well fortified, we wandered down to the beach to view the night sky. I'd hoped that it would be good here so far from artificial light. I wasn't disappointed. It was stunning.
This morning after a nice breakfast,
we decided to walk along the east coast to find a place to swim. It was a warm start, but soon we found our rhythm and any stiffness from the night (very hard bed) and the trek yesterday soon vanished. We started out through soft sand and above us we're again very high cliff walls, though at the bottom of this one was a nice collection of bee hives. Yogurt and honey, made right here! That's the entrance to the Gorge just to the right.
Eventually we stopped at a rocky beach and went straight in to the cooling, but warm waters. Lovely!
We floated on our backs in the salty water and looked up at the cliffs above. Then four big eagles or maybe they were vultures began circling in the updrafts.
I started watching them closely and was able to locate their landing spots and possible nest sites on the cliffs which are studded with small caves.
And just before we left I was able to catch these two where a few moments before there had been none. One,on the right with the second one just landing. Very cool!
We retreated the way we'd come.
We caught up with the local residents as we passed. Nice horns!
Jeez I'm glad I didn't meet any of these in Spain!
We've just watched the ferries depart at 5:30 and now we are heading down from our veranda to enjoy a nice quiet drink before dinner. The clouds have rolled in, something we haven't seen since we left home. Very odd. Tomorrow we will catch the empty 11:30 ferry down the coast and pick up a bus north to Chania where we will stay in our nice apartment for two more nights. Looking forward to that, but this last experience in a small Greek village has been very nice. A good choice!
Addendum: we are sitting down in the outdoors part of the taverna drinking cold beer in the quiet of the village after the Gorge walkers have departed. Just locals in the taverna. There are many wasps buzzing us and our host tells us at there were many people ordering fish and that they will eventually go away. I tell him that I'm allergic to wasp bites and he replies that the solution is to drink Rake with a beer chaser. Willing to try anything, he brings me several glasses of rake on the house. Much like drinking Dutch gin with a beer chaser. Very nice! So I write a short poem to remember the moment.
Beer chases raki,
Host claims raki keeps wasps off,
Tastes like sound advice!
He's right. I haven't been bit since the Rake arrived on my table. Of course feeling less pain isn't always a bad thing either:)
As we sip our beers and Annemarie reads my post it seems I've inspired her:)
Roumeli Rythem
Like the waves that wash in this place has a flow
The hikers gather en mass, then they go
The village returns to itself: fishermen resurface
The restaurants feed the few remaining, now their only purpose
Tomorrow the hoards will flow in again
Those who live here know exactly when
They will be ready when the next deluge arrives
Going with the flow, for the peace after 5:30 they strive
The waters calm, the evening calms
Even the wasp recede, the quiet is a balm
In the restaurant she asks for tea
But he says if you're here now we only serve raki
On our second evening, we are now friends with our host
It's seems intimate now, well almost...
What a gift to be here to experience this flow
And tomorrow before the hoards, we will go
1 comment:
Another great day! I tried to leave a comment on your other post, about the walk in the gorge, but Blogger wouldn't let me, unfortunately. But those bridges look like they've grown out of their surrounds, like they're natural rather than constructed.
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