31/12/24
Our alarm went off at half past five in the morning. We’d decided to chance the bus. After a quick coffee we walked into town in the dark. There were some workers lurking around who got picked up one by one. The bus left Siteia at 6:15, it should arrive in Palekastro by 6:45. We waited and waited. The Sun started to come up. Nothing. The shopkeeper apparently had deeper connections than the bus company itself.
At about 7am the owner of the kiosk that overlooked the bus stop arrived and started opening up. We asked her about the bus and she was straight on the phone. Somehow immediately speaking to someone and she confirmed there would be no bus. How disappointing.
Not to waste the day we decided to go for a local walk. We went towards the Minoan town again but this time carried on past it. There was a marked road that travelled along the coast, but it really was nothing more than a track. We passed some snazzy holiday cottages that looked like they would be very peaceful.
We decided to climb up to the Peak Sanctuary that sits above Roukkolassas. There wasn’t a clear route from this side of the hill but we figured we could have a go. Our first attempt was a failure. The path led into a sheep pen and was a dead end. We went a little further up the track and passed through a gate. It was just tied up with string.
The Sun came out as we headed up a dry rocky gorge that formed one side of the hill we were trying to ascend. The gorge didn’t have super steep sides but it was an exciting walk, climbing over the many rocks that blocked the path. Halfway along we beelined up a rocky slope to try and find the actual path. It wasn’t easy on such loose ground but we eventually found a clear trail.
The trail led to the top where a sign marks the Peak Sanctuary. This was where the Minoans potentially carried out religious rites. Petsofas is the only one where figurines of weasels and tortoises have been found. There wasn’t a lot to see now, but there hundreds of pieces of clay pots scattered all over the ground. Near the edge the wind was so tremendous you could lean into it. We’d been shielded from it by the hill on the way up. We sat for a few minutes out of the wind, eating some oranges, and enjoying the Sun.
We headed down, this time on the way marked path. There were beautiful views back up and all around. As we got lower we passed a sheep enclosure. One of the little lambs looked dead. The rest of them appeared to have seen us a threat and run away, their bells jingling. The lamb wasn’t dead. He’d apparently slept through the whole thing and now ran around crazily too.
We decided to do a longer walking loop back to the town. We followed a way-marked track for a while, but then there was a gate in the fence that had been so well tied up that we to buckle and bend it to get through. Randomly, in the middle of nowhere, there was a church. It was locked up. The track continued and had been newly relaid. We managed to open a flimsy tied up gate but then had to jump over another as it was padlocked. The next gate was fortunately being opened by a shepherd as we got there. He didn’t care we were there, he just smiled and said hello. We walked down to the main road and then took one more rocky track to shorten the route back to the town.
We went back to the shopkeeper as she had mentioned the possibility of a taxi on New Year’s Day. We arranged to be picked up at 10am the following day to travel to Zakros. A return journey for €50. It was a lot of money, but we’d come all this way and hoped to see a little more than a tiny corner of Crete.
We bought food for the next two days, to cover the holiday. Lots of fruit and vegetables. There were several children about, young and old, with triangles ‘playing a tune’ to shopkeepers and being given money a coin or two. They then duly spent the money in the shops on sweets. We walked back home, laden with our goods. It was a blazing hot afternoon and we sat outside sunbathing in the finally sunny weather. There were lots of ants wandering around on the patio. We ate a slice of leftover pizza each for lunch.
For dinner we had tomato and lentil pasta. Some really small circular pieces of pasta we hadn’t tried before. Jonathan tried his hand at making an orange cake but it didn’t work very well. The oranges we picked from a nearby tree were too bitter and we didn’t have any oil to use. It was a bit of a sad sticky mess. We carried on watching the excellent show, Kaos. Tomorrow we should actually be going to Zakros with any luck.
Surly They Won't Make It 