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| Jul 31, 2008 |
Aegean film location |
Last weekend I was dragged along to see Mamma Mia - The Movie. I'd wanted to see this film, if only for the Greek Island scenery and not much else.
Once I'd overcome my phobia of Abba music, I began to relax and settle in to the movie and take in the filming locations of the Sporades group of Greek Islands; specifically Skopelos and Skiathos. These are beautifully forested islands, and differ from the somewhat barren and dryer Cyclades islands that I've visited. |
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| Jun 02, 2008 |
This time last year... day 20 |
Saturday 2 June 2006.
There's loud music from a nightclub that backs onto the hotel.... it keeps us awake until 0300, then sounds of mopeds buzzing off into the night as nightclub staff go home (until 0400). Then at 0730 the jack hammers started from the road construction out in the street. We didn't get much sleep overnight.
We meet and chatted to a British couple over breakfast. Later went to Lixouri on the ferry to have a look around.
Today was a rather quiet day. Tomorrow we have an early start for our journey home. |
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| May 30, 2008 |
This time last year... day 17 |
Wednesday 30 May 2007.
Tony's not well today. I think he's got a bout of food poisoning or something. Still, I felt fine if only a slight headache. I had breakfast in the hotel dining room by myself. Later I went out to get more water (3 bottles for 9 euro) and something to eat and return to the room for most of the day. I occupied myself on the balcony while Tony slept until 1100. It's mostly overcast today. I saw the occasional ship and ferry out on the water travelling along the Peloponnese coast. Read up on Ithaki, a small island next to Kefalonia I'd like to go to once we get there.
By early evening, Tony still wasn't well so I took him along the street to a chemist and he started to feel better once he'd had some medication. |
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| May 28, 2008 |
This time last year... day 15 |
Monday 28 May 2007.
Got up about 0800. The beds are hard and lumpy so we didn't get a good nights sleep. After breakfast we walked along the main street of Argassi and caught the bus (¤1.20) to Zakynthos Town, also known as Zante. It's quite cloudy today and rather windy. We walked up to Kastro, an old venetian fortress only to discover it's closed on Mondays. Just our luck. Looked around shops in Zante and waited ages for a bus that didn't come so we walked the 4km back to Argassi. Sat out by the hotel pool for a while but it clouded over again - definitely not our day! Played cards and drank Mythos Beer on the balcony for a few hours. Advanced on to Ouzo... needless to say, we got a bit drunk.
Out to dinner in Argassi, we found a Chinese/Indian restaurant. There are several of these combo restaurants here, we chose from the Indian menu, which was very nice. The curries were nice and thick, not like the slop you get in Australia. Later we explored more of Argassi's main street. I bought a small statue of greek wrestlers to add to my collection of souvenirs. We stopped at a tour agent and bought a boat trip for tomorrow for ¤25 each. The lady was British and very helpful.
Our washing had arrived back at the hotel. Had a fabulous coffee in the bar, courtesy of Monica. Later, back in our room we were just getting off to sleep when fireworks start going off in Zante. |
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| May 28, 2008 |
This time last year... day 14 |
Sunday 27 May 2007.
We slept in today, had breakfast about 1000. Played cards in the room until 1200 and then checked out. We had several hours to fill in before our flight to Zakynthos (via Athens) so we caught up on sending e-mails. I had typed out a nice description of our Samaria Gorge walk on my GMail and stupidly forgot to send it. Then I copied it to my blog but instead of control-c, I hit shift-c and lost everything. I had to start again.
Had some lunch then picked up our bags from the hotel. Walked to the taxi's at Plateia 1866 (one of the city's main squares) for a thrilling and speedy 18 euro ride to the airport. The Olympic Airways flight to Athens left at 1700 and then transfered on to Zakynthos, located in the Ionian group of islands, arriving at 2130 - slighty later than expected. A large plane load of British had also just arrived, so the baggage claim area was rather crowded.
We got ourselves a taxi to Zakantha Beach Hotel in Argassi. We have a corner room on the first floor with a balcony facing the sea. The hotel organised for our washing to be done tomorrow. |
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| May 26, 2008 |
This time last year... day 13 |
Saturday 26 May 2007.
We had an early start at 0500. Downstairs, the hotel had prepared a light breakfast for us, then raced off to meet the bus at 0615 that would take us to Samaria Gorge. By 0710 the bus is winding through mountain roads in heavy early morning fog. When we were near the top of the mountain, and the bus stopped for a 20 minute break for people to get last minute supplies and have food and drink before the walk.
By 0745 we were at the park entrance, and ready to start our adventure through Samaria National Park. The trail descends from 1280 metres, and covers over 13 km inside the national park, and then another 3km outside the park to where the southern coast of Crete meets the Libyan Sea. We're the second bus load for the day so there's not many people on the track yet. The gorge is more impressive than we imagined. Every step of the way the scenery is quite stunning with views of steer rock walls, still shrouded in mist.
The first section is all down hill, on a rocky but well maintained zig-zag track. We pass signs warning of rock falls but we felt completely safe. There are plenty of rest stops throughout the gorge but we only stopped at a few. The guide had given us suggested times to be leaving each of the main resting places, and we were well ahead of that schedule.
By mid-morning we had reached the old uninhabited village of Samaria, were we stopped for a snack. The village was abandoned when the gorge became a national park back in the 1960's. Saw a couple of Kri-Kri (wild Cretan mountain goats) but these seemed tame as they wanted to eat half my muffin.
I'm amazed at the variety of terrain we pass through... forests, olive groves and rocky gully's. There are lots of interesting shapes and patterns in the rock walls of the gorge. This is easily the most beautiful walk I've ever done and I'm hoping my photos are as spectacular as the scenery.
Tony seemed to be setting a cracking pace and not stopping at the rest stops. It was quite an effort to keep up with him. After an hour of rock hopping, my right knee began to play up, becoming quite sore to walk with. It's happened a few times before when I've been on extended hiking treks so I was half expecting this to happen. Eventually, it was just too painful to walk and I had to stop and sit down for about 15 minutes. I took some headache tables which managed to kill the pain somewhat. My water bottle was also getting low. I continued on, luckily about 10 minutes later we arrived at the next rest stop. We stayed here for about half an hour and with replenished water bottles we continued on, my knee not as sore but I'm still taking it easy.
One of the features of the gorge are the Iron Gates, a gap in a towering rock wall about 3 metres wide. The narrow way through is partly submerged so we carefully negotiate the stepping stones and try not to get our feet wet.
By the time we get to the end of the park we were about 90 minutes ahead of the suggested times. Here we rest and enjoy freshly squeezed orange juice and then finish the final 3km to the southern coast of Crete. We arrived at Agia Roumeli about 1330, plenty of time to have a wade in the water and cool our tired feet in the Libyan Sea. We also had plenty of time to sink a few beers and have some lunch. The small village of Agia Roumeli has no roads connecting it to anywhere on Crete. We have to catch a boat back to another village (Sougia) to get back on the buses, so it's better we not miss the boat!
We boarded the ferry around 1630, and took in the amazing southern Cretan coastline. We reached Sougia around 1730, and then hit the road for a very long trip (2 hours, 30 minutes) back to Chania, just in time to get some photos of the sunset on the old port. Had a shower to wash all the dust and sweat off us and had something to eat at a nearby taverna (I recall it had blue chairs - mmm, very Greek!) A very long day, and we were very tired by the end, but it was well worth it - definitely the highlight of our tour of Greek Islands. |
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