Double Hatting on two beaches

The day was spent in a most productive touristy way with the 8 riders in two mules covering a fair amount of distance checking out selected parts of this large island. Adventure was in the air and after OSno.1 herded the cats we managed to exit the compound mid morning and headed over the hills to Sammi (the namesake blow-up stayed behind to protect the pool).

Crossing the island involves negotiating mountains, and so the underpowered, overloaded beasts were put to the test as we took in the picturesque views of Grecian countryside with the standard olive trees, olde fort ruins on hills, impressive churches and quiet villages strewn along the winding roads as they're generally perched on the sides of impressive mountains. SIL behind the wheel, blogger providing the vibes and snapping scenes. 

OSNo.1 insisted we go see the caves. When we got there the car park was chockers, the queues extensive however backing out was not an option. Some very clever queue reserving was performed by Claire and so it wasn't as painful as a Disneyland scenario. Worked quite well, didn't time it (guessing maybe 30 ish munutes) it kept moving. The attraction at the end was a 15 minute paddle (12 to a boat) maybe 6 boats in action as we moved around a blue pool of water at the base of a hole in the ground.

They'd dug a tunnel to funnel the hordes to and from the water level where the boats moored and where people boarded, were delighted and then alighted after the paddle. Pure tourist trap. What was obviously once a magical hidden treasure was now something that someone is making sqillions out of. It was pleasant and fun and got some good pics and can tick that off. Nobody was complaining. A slight annoyance by the Pom as our extra 3 riders were Aussies as well..just can't escape them. They're everywhere. The group then split, one went off to suss out a beach while the other went to check out the second cave. This was really cool. Because it was underground and the temperature was a welcome relief from the air above.

It was also so because of its cavernous nature and the stalactites and stalagmites aplenty as well as a natural raised podium where apparently artists perform from to lucky crowds below, this indeed a really cool place. 

After stopping at a Cafe to collect iced coffees and cheese pie we caught up with the other half of the group when this blogger realised that the swimming gear was back at the ranch. Hard enough to herd cats to all move at once. Impossible to get them to do all they should at the same time. So therefore had to suffer the indignity of swimming in his underwear. Good advertising for the manufacturer though (except of course not using the body shape they would normally use to sell their product). Didn't really matter here but beach no. 2 it was a bit of a different scenario. We needed to swim because it was hot (has that been mentioned yet?). Thanks to MIL1 we were all wearing our rock walking swimming shoes. We had no choice. And after a bit of a frolic in more clear, buoyant warm water where this blogger had another epiphany that also left behind was the goggles, snorkel, and GoPro adaptor for water sports (that had been previously constructed the day before beside the pool in the compound) that there were a few missed opportunities going on here.

Remembered to bring both hats though. The beach was great, rock based (not sand) obviously a little local spot so not too many invading hordes. After spending and hour or so there, we sniffed the eucalyptus tree leaves and headed north along some seriously high winding roads.

A quick stop to take in the view down to Mirtos beach which was baking in the midday heat, showing how the waters get their colours to those above. Glad we weren't down there though as it looked extremely exposed with no natural air con to cool the brow. So onto Fiskardo where we landed at Emblisi Beach. And spent a few good hours there. So whilst you have people of all sizes and all ages in all states of undress, flaunting their beautiful buttocks and other bits, trying to hide the specific bits with strategically positioned minimalistic patches of cloth, its pretty obvious when youve got some idiot who forgot his togs and has to use his underpants as swimwear. Its so obvious as his skin is really white where his shorts normally would be. Grose. How uncouth. For all we know he's been wearing them for a week. On one side, and then possibly the previous week inside out. Grose. Like maybe this is actually how he washes his clothes.? Yeech.. do I really want to bathe in the same water as this potentially disease carrying obviously unsanitartised person?.

Must admit it would have looked even wierder had I have been carrying a kids paddle with a GoPro attached, goggles, snorkel and then filmed them all in the process of doing so.

Still... one person had a clear perspex canoe, maybe anything goes these days.

We had managed to find a great spot in the shade of a big tree and had some fun trying to keep the umbrellas vertical when you have no sand to drive them in to in order to expand our shadow footprint as much as possible.

Beaches made of rocks are really hard to get comfortable on. Especially when trying to lay on them wearing your underwear. Because you know that those others nearby who are sunbathing on their blowup lilos, sipping on their Pina Colada's are surruptiously saying to each other, hey look there's the dude that smelling up our pristine water ways by wearing his unwashed underpants. 

This beach is very pretty. Its a cove of which the edges are lined with sedimentary rocks, conveniently cracked horizontally and split vertically by the elements to create layered ledges to which people can lounge around on as well as being in the shade depending on the time of day.

The rocky beach also has a cafe/bar type shack thingy which pumps non obtrusive vibes into the air as well as goods into the bellies of the people between it and the waters edge.

After hanging there for a few hours the crew decided to go to local restaurant for dinner instead of driving home first. Great choice. Whilst we may not have been in our normal dinner attire, at least this blogger was not in his togs. Yes there were wet underwear patches showing through on some of the crews attire but we got away with it.

Being early yet again we had another fantastic dining feast on the edge of the harbour where the rich people land their little service dinghies (which belong to their yatchs which are moored in the harbour), they step out of the dinghies, straight to the restaurant table, eat their wonderfully fresh Mediterranean based food, possibly grab a few items from the souvenirs shops (just to stay in touch with the common folk you know, by actually personnaly purchasing something in a shop ...hmmm...maybe we should just get the opare to do it, after all we are a tad busy dealing with all this expensive linen clothing and the pressures of the fluctuations of the stockmarket).

When we first walked in past this quaint seaside (UNESCO protected?) area with its nicely painted buildings adorned with cascading bougainvillea of all colour varieties it was pretty much empty. After our fabulous dining experience walking back though it was chockers. This blogger was too worn out to think about capturing a pic of the beautiful couple walking along with a stroller carrying an extremely ugly pug. He (in his linen pants and tossed hair look) spent a long time getting the perfect shot of a local touristy ornament, whilst she (dressed in a double layered black lacy dress thing) did a quick check in the reflections on the sunglasses stand to make sure all was in place. Their kid (matching dads tossed hair look) was querying the value/worth of the toy sword he was waving around. Nothing particularly wrong with any of this, just wish photo was captured to avoid the verbiage. They were a great sample of the A listers who adorn this beautiful place.

The trip back to the compound as the sun went home to Aus took about an hour and half. A spectacular drive and yet for some reason the gopro was sitting at home and the slow TV opportunity capture lost. 

Was a fun drive though. They have some nice roads and SIL did a great job in navigation to get us home safe and sound.

We tried to get enthusiastic about the soccer but the lone Pom in the team went to bed instead of supporting her crew  (so we Aussies collectively agreed that it really is a boring sport....no score after 50 minutes of play...uuurrgghhh)