The herding of cats went much smoother this morning. Thanks to a well worked out team plan and prior prep the togs got included and indeed got a good work out later as a result.
Due to a lot of hard work by the social committee we were up, fed, lunches packed, out the door, into the mules and on our separate ways to the same goal by 9:15. Bad Panda went south full of the DILs & SIL.
The MILs and FILs went north to Argostoli Harbour where we snagged a reasonable parking spot and strolled the final 600 meters to meet our boat hire dude. They were busy, so it took about an hour of phaffing, signing, paying, training, loading etc to get underway. Our vehicles for the days adventure were two runabouts with 30 hp outboards, bimini covers, fold out ladders, built in eskies, all the safety gear stashed away somewhere and generally enablers of a great day out. Basically this would quite simply not happen back in Aus. Bureaucrates there would have conniptions if they found out someone was letting tourists have so much fun without them getting involved. This involvement would consist of introducing enough impractical conditions to ensure the industry would not survive. They'd get a bonus though. Here, however all you need is proof of ID and the ability to prove you can control the vehicle adequately for a couple of minutes. Which this blogger (who is actually qualified for this stuff at home) did, took control of the beast and we headed of for a 3 hour cruise...a three hour cruise. Actually had 6 to muck around in, however with roles of the classic TV show pretty much aligned nicely it was hard to get the tune out of your head once it was implanted.
Free of the harbour restrictions we sped away around the cape and down the coast to rendezvous with the kids at White Rocks beach.
It's a curious name. This beach has been there since the beginning of recorded human history and they call it that. Sure the rocks are white, just seems like an incredibly lazy effort for a people that can call a street Papachristodoulopoulos Drive. They could've called that one Black Bitumen Drive but didn't.
Anyway, we met the second boat, offshore as we're not allowed to beach the beasts for obvious reasons (damage to the craft), but we can use the anchors so we did that and swam between the beasts, visiting each other and generally splashing around. Thanks to your bloggers previous gopro watersafe engineering efforts we managed to capture some really boring underwater videos as well as the usual plethora of pics on the devices. Boring because as it turns out there is not much happening under the surface of that amazing coloured waterway. Lots of sea grass and a few small fish. Figure the big ones are all being consumed by the folks in the restaurants. Still it was worth the effort and lots of fun.
Now that we were teamed up again and that spot seemed a bit crowded the two skippers fired off across the apparently calm waters towards an island a few ks offshore. Little did we realise that the wake of a cruise liner was heading our way. SIL was paying close attention and managed to slow down for the second wave. Your blogger was not (distracted by a gopro) and subsequently managed to get the craft airborne, pretty much creating an underpants cleaning situation for the passengers. Only one broken bimini strap and dented ego were the outcomes. Moored off the island was pleasant.
Larger vessels were parked on the shore and had gangplanks to enable the occupants the opportunity to escape the crowded conditions on-board for a while. With the armada of tourist boats having ploughed towards us like a scene out of a pirate movie, our lot waited until the next port of call before the need to touch solid land overwhelmed them and they all swam to shore leaving blogger to his own devices (those being a gopro and a stereo).
This beach was an isolated red sand one at the base of some bright cliffs. Little did they realise it was a strictly nudist beach. Which was ok until some dodgy character arrived out of nowhere and demanded they get their gear off. Not really, he just traipsed along the entire length, set up camp and went swimming. Our lot were back on board by then and we were heading off around the corner to moor off another picturesque spot out of the wind and hung there for a bit, swapping between vessels and eventually the girls did a bit of synchronized swimming. Time enough to practice for the Olympics next month.
The two vessels parted ways then, the oldies cutting their way across the rough waters trying to find the best path against the wind and associated chop whilst the young ones headed south into some large swells and a rollercoaster ride to get back to their base.
With both cameras frantically capturing the best angles of the setting sun a game of walk through chess was held between blogger and OSno.1. Certainly out of touch as far as the nuances of that game goes. Stress levels increased by the walk around the pieces nature and the fact that it was being recorded. Good fun nevertheless.
The spectacular mountain that dominates the eastern frame of view was showing off again as the sun slipped away, pinpointing particular peaks as it partook its passage.
Dinner was another gastronomic delight put on by the team with master chef Andy at the helm. We have definitely fallen into local time eating once the sun goes down around 10 pm.
Most of the crew collapsed for the night before the TOD reset to zero.
1 comment:
What an adventurous birthday!
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