Chilling on the beach in Missiria
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2010
1
6
9
Trip End
Jan 23, 2010
Where I stayed
Elizabeth Camping
Rethymnon, Crete, Greece
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Just as we were finishing breakfast an older gentleman came walking over curious of the new campers. His name was Gunner and was originally from Sweden but had been living in Australia for the last 25 years. We had a nice long talk with him about everything and also found out that they had been traveling for about 2 years now. They had bought a caravan when they arrived in Europe and had been bouncing around ever since; definitely my kind of retirement. It was the start of a long friendship and some seriously good times to be had. He was probably in his 50s but was still a teenager at heart and we had some serious fun hanging out with him and his wife Anna while we stayed in Crete.
After breakfast we headed to the beach and there were huge waves crashing into the beach and it was pretty windy but the temperature was climbing and the sun shining bright. We headed into town to buy some beer and food and then returned to our campsite. Without a fridge handy we came up with the idea to bury the beer in the sand as it was fairly cold once you got down a bit. It worked surprisingly well and kept them cold all day. The laundry was free and we desperately needed to wash our limited amount of clothes grabbing everything we didn’t need to wear that day we did a couple quick loads as they would have to air dry and we needed the sun and wind of the full day to do so. Our socks had become biohazards and it was a much needed task we had been putting off as everything cost outrageous prices up to this point.
With laundry on the go and no plans for the day we headed to the beach dragging some lounge chairs at our site and set up shop. The wind was a bit chilly but we were able to use the lounge chairs as wind blocks and lay in the sand. Between the sun and the sand it was incredibly hot and we found ourselves shirtless and in shorts laughing to ourselves as locals walked by in full coats, scarves and trousers. 20+C might be cold to them but we were in heaven and enjoying the sun for as long as possible. A German couple staying at the site came up to us at one point and we chatted with them for a while about our plans and travels and then continued our sun bathing. After preparing some sandwiches for lunch Scott went to check on the laundry and I headed to the toilette. Upon my return Milly had showed up and got into our lunch bag and gulped down all our meat in a matter of seconds. Angry at her betrayal we chased her off and added that to our shopping list for tomorrow. Luckily it was pretty cheap and not a huge lose but our lesson was learned; don’t leave food lying around a site with dogs. Scott continued to lay on the beach and I headed to the campsite to do some blogging.
Preparing some pasta for supper we both gulped it down in record speed and it didn’t even dent our hunger but thanks to Milly we didn’t have anything else to eat other than muck and didn’t want to deal with that. We grabbed some beers and the torch and went for a walk down the beach as the stars were out bright. The combination of a sky full of stars and the waves crashing in was incredibly relaxing and we spend a couple hours just wandering around. Upon our return to the campsite we finally found the Big Dipper in the sky as due to our location in the world had moved to almost on the horizon. Up until now we had searched for it but never been able to find it. It was an interesting moment as the Big Dipper reminded us of home only due to its new orientation we realized how far from home we were. We sat and enjoyed the moment on the beach for a while reminiscing about the trip thus far before heading back to the tent to watch a movie. This was the first time we had a plug right near our tent and were able to run the laptop making a little theatre as we chilled the night away in the tent. A great start to an amazing time on Crete we dozed off fairly early hoping it didn’t rain as the laundry was still wet and decided to leave it out for the night. We had found our own little piece of heaven and were quite enjoying the warm weather and looked forward to another day of lounging tomorrow.
