Crete
After a 10 day trip back to the UK to celebrate christmas and catch up with our family and friends we took a slight detour from our European travels and set off to Kenya for 3 weeks. Once I have finally finished editing the 1000’s of photos I took there I will add some blog posts from that trip but for now I will skip ahead to our visit to Crete.
Once again we found that the weather was not typical for the time of year so although we had lots of sunny days we also encountered some ferocious storms and some snow (proving without a doubt that momo is not currently equipped for winter weather). We knew there had been snow in the mountains as I’d seen photos from fellow travellers who’d visited Crete earlier in the year but we were told by our campsite owner that ‘it’s probably all gone by now’.
With this not-quite-concrete reassurance we began our journey across the mountain pass to the south of the island, seeing just a smattering of snowflakes at what we thought was the peak. It was only when we actually reached the peak that the snow became heavy, the road became slippery, momo started to struggle and I became worried.
With no other way but down we crawled round the bends and were met with the sight of the 4×4 that had just overtaken us being pulled out of a ditch by a tractor. This was not in any way reassuring and neither was the way we slid to a halt behind it, our winter tyres almost defeated by the ice.
Whilst I was gripping the seat and breaking into a nervous sweat, Craig was joking about how best to bail out if we slid off the road and over the edge. This may seem inappropriate but was actually quite comforting, Craig didn’t seem worried so why should I? (it was only later I found out he wasn’t entirely joking and was actually preparing me for the possibility of making an emergency exit!)
After an excruciatingly slow descent we were finally back on clear tarmac and were full of relief – until remembering that we would have to make the same journey back to catch the ferry in a few days….
It turns out we didn’t have time to be worried about the snow as over the next few days we met and adopted a 6 month old puppy who had been abandoned on our campsite. This had not been part of our travel plans but who could possibly say no to this face…!
He is a Pointer/Labrador mix and has been brilliant fun to own, not to mention incredibly well-behaved (our motorhome has not suffered any damage or accidents at all). He seems just as happy to have found us as we are to have found him. He has a pet passport (with microchip and rabies vaccination) so is free to travel around the EU with us and the Greek vets were really helpful with the whole process (they have a real problem with strays in Greece so I think they are always happy to see one find a home).
By the time we left southern Crete the snow had cleared and although we were met with stormy weather in Heraklion the ferry was still running so we made it back to Athens safe and sound and with our new addition 🙂
