25/9 Claire - My little yellow Greek car

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Originally uploaded by blenkers

Actually its a Hyundai.

Until today I have only been as far as Sami which is an hours drive from the villa. No I am not proud but with Mum and Gwen here they are keen to do a little exploring so it’s time to take the Hyundai out of its comfort zone. It’s just over two hours to get from Skala in the south to Fiskado in the North. I am confident in the little car since our off road experience the other day.

Having arranged to go to Turtle beach my friend Vios gives me some directions in the form of pointing down the mountainside towards twisty roads that are only visible by the late night street lights and seem to be intertwined with many other twisting roads. Looking down over a town in the dark doesn’t really help you visualise the road to take, neither does the copious amount of alcohol that I have consumed before said directions (if I recall it was Ouzo, wine, a “surprise cocktail”, metaza and some kind of shot that Vios, Gwen and I had to keep warm) so needless to say by the time we set off the easiest thing to do was to follow the local green sign for Turtle beach. Easy. Unless you also think, which I didn’t, these are the same local green signs that point towards the mini market that, when asked, Vios and Spiros laughed that when we find it we can let him know where this is too. OK, I digress, the sign for Turtle Beach is halfway up the mountain and takes you off the usual road down to town (I refrain from using the term “main” road). In fact the junction that I take to get of the usual road is so steep and sharp that the little car has to do a three point turn whilst hovering precariously close to the un-barriered mountain side. This is the first swear word of the journey I hear from my Mum in the passenger seat. As we follow the road it starts to become even more narrow, then a little more rubble appears, then it becomes completely unsealed, then it turns into a track of only stones, then the stones become the size of those that you’d struggle to walk on never mind drive over in a car with tires the size of an electric wheelchair, and then also becomes steep enough that you have to kinda steady yourself with hands on the steering wheel/dashboard. This was the second swear word from Mum. Then we start to pass through what is the back end of a farm or small holding with chickens, rusting equipment, a hammock for some tired Greek man to take a snooze. As far as Gwen and I are concerned this is still part of the same road and quite an exciting journey. Mum disagrees and I hear the third and final swear word of the journey.