Day 4: Elafonisi
The wind is still high, so we decided this would be the day to go to Elafonisi as it is on the south west side of the island so probably more protected than the beaches facing north. Not sure if we were right.
According to "the internet", Elafonisi is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and certainly Crete. It is known for shallow, pink sandy beaches, crystal clear water, and a small island you can walk to when the tide is down.
Being that it is so famous we assumed the roads to get there would be easy to drive. Totally wrong. We took different routes there and back and both involved cliff hugging blind turns, roads too narrow for two cars to pass, and massive tour buses making their way back and forth to the beach. Emilie demonstrated her mastery of our manual transmission Mercedes in negotiating our way there and back.
The beach was amazing, but sadly the wind made it tough to stay for very long. We were able to get set up on the island after wading across sandbar, but after a swim it really wasn't very fun sitting on the beach as the beautiful pink sand became a painful projectile. We probably got the timing right as we arrived by 9:30 and left just before noon when all the tour buses were arriving so we missed the height of the heat and the crowds.
We had some thoughts to visit Falasarna beach on the way home, but we drove bast a few unmarked beaches that were slightly protected so we decided to spend some time on them instead. We are really enjoying having "private" beaches as the sea and landscapes are truly beautiful.
We ended the day with a home cooked mean at the house. Graham and I got to try out a "Greek style (?)" open faced grill. We mis-judged terribly how much charcoal they had left us, so we ended up scavenging drift wood to make the coal bed which was an experiment that turned out better than expected.
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