Eastern Crete
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Sun 3 Jun 2012 06:44
Agios Nikolaos
29th May - 4th June
We returned to the marina and as requested had the same berth on C
pontoon. We decided it was time to play the tourists and so arranged for a
car hire through George who gives yachties a good deal even in the height
of the season. using the car we were able to drive to some of the ancient
Minoan sites - the Palace of Malia on the coast near to Heraklion and of
course explore inland on this quite diverse island. We drove up countless
hairpin bend roads and reached high upland plateaus in particular the one
called Lathisi where intense agriculture is still evident; although the
thousands of small windmills for pumping water are mainly defunct now,
they still scatter the fields.Snow was still to be seen on the very
highest northern mountain slopes and yet we were using the air
conditioning in the car! We particularly enjoyed visiting the ruins of the
Doric settlement of Lato dating from around
1200 BC. The views down to the bay where the marina is were stunning.
The market day in Ag Nik is Wednesday so we made another visit and
purchased lovely fresh produce - most of which is grown on the above
mentioned plateau.
The Diamond Jubilee celebrations in the UK were a must for Jacky so an
English bar was sourced and she duly attended to watch the Thames pageant
and of course Arwen was dressed overall for the weekend. (Our actions on
this front encouraged other UK boats to follow suit so we had a few yachts
looking very festive!)
Having got laundry and cleaning jobs completed we decided it was time to
start making tracks so another discussion on routes followed. We finally
decided to head for the Cyclades before heading west. A window in the
weather from the strong north west winds presented itself so we plan to
leave tomorrow.