A Week on Crete (4)

After 2 days with a lot of driving we decided to stay close to home this day, and do the Liguria beach thing. Emmanuel had told us that Liguria beach was about 20 minutes away and very beautiful so that was our plan. Winding road down from the National highway took us to the little town. We parked our Focus and walked along the pavement past the restaurants and appartments on the shoreline with the beach and the Mediterranean Sea to the north.We found a nice restaurant, Micheals, where we had a delightful lunch. It was a family affair, Michael senior and his son waiting on us in turn with exquisite manners while I think Mrs was doing the cooking. Lib had the fish and I had the lamb kebab.The beer was good and the mood relaxed. A few tourists were there, Germans i think, including a beautiful mother and daughter it seemed.

After lunch we sat on the beach in the shade of an umbrella and took a swim. It was hot and muggy and even for a pretty much non swimmer like myself the water was alluring. The Germans were stretched out in the sun. I walked into the water a little surprised at how slippery the rock base was that I had to cross in the shallows. Not only that but there was considerable debris in the water that caught on my feet, like plastic bags and litter. It distracted from the exercise although the water was most refreshing. I had suffered a severe head cold and nasal congestion for two weeks and believe me it was good to get in the salt water and blow it all out.

With all the litter in the water i was reminded of something my brother in law Phil told me when he went to the Greek Islands a couple of years ago. He was on a boat and it anchored so the passengers could take swim. after diving in he was horrified to see a human turd floating by, destroying the illusion of the pristine blue water. I think the turd came from the boat toilet if I recall the story correctly. This reminded me of what our guide at had said at Kusadasi on our tour to Ephesus. As we drove past a beach not far from the port he said it was a popular swimming spot for tourists who didn't realise that raw sewerage was discharged into the bay. not until at least a floating surprise went past their eyes, or worse. Such is life. We are quite spoilt in Australia with our magnificent coastline and clean beaches and coastline by comparison to Europe.

We returned to our villa via the supermarket in Gazi and bought wine and supplies. The Greek wine we found to be excellent, and inexpensive at about $5-6 Aus a bottle, no kidding, really excellent.