Crete

We took a quick one hour flight from Athens to Chania (prounanced haan yah), rented a car and headed west. Our AirBnB apartment is literaly steps from Nea Chora beach and a beautiful boardwalk full of restaurants. This week we had several excursions planned, but they were canceled for one reason or another. We ended up with just one event and were ok to just enjoy some beach time.

Day one - A spa day and then beach time. We found a great place in town for massages and pampering. It was great. Old Town is down by the pier, a leisurely 30 minute walk from our apartment. We had fun each evening finding a new place to eat and just touring around.

Day two - Lay on the beach, dinner in Old Town, and shopping for souvenirs.

Day 3 - Welcome to Balos Beach. We drove a little over an hour to a town where we joined four others for a ‘safari trip’ to Balos Beach. It was a short trip out of town and then on to the long gravel road to the beach. We pulled into the parking lot and the guide explained we had to take the trail down to the beach. We couldn't see the beach until we were about ten minutes into our hike, and it took our breath away. Nor did we realize how far down it was…. well, life is an adventure!

The trail was full of rocks, ledges, sand and people. It took us 33 minutes to get down and 40 minutes to get back up. We were surprised how quickly we made it back up, realizing how we had definitely built up our endurance during our trip.

We had several guests along the way. This area is open range for a very large herd of goats and they were quite at home to greet all of us, looking for things to nibble. They are actually milking goats and the feeding/milking pen wasn't very from the beach so there were plenty around. This guy was very handsome. They weren't troublesome but one little guy just couldn't take no for an answer, so he got a bop on the nose and then he got the message. He moved on to another group. They also liked unattended bags, so everyone had to watch out for everyone else.

Keith went exploring and found a pink sand beach…. well, let's just say he found pink sand.

The safari was heading back to town when we took a side trip to an area where the Monks used to live in the caves of the mountain. Since then, they created this bbq area and groups come up for an afternoon of fun.

This is a door into one of the caves where there are shelves made as beds. There were a number of caves where a small herd of sheep now sleep in.