The Rambling Writer Returns to Crete, part 7: Back to the Sea

Thor and I diligently pursue our physical and spiritual therapy in the clear, nurturing Mediterranean off Southern Crete.

NOTE: Of course, Thor and I had to make another trip to Greece, as he’s fallen as much in love with the islands as I am. This time, in addition to other island-hopping, I wanted to return to Crete after 37 years. My first months-long trip was as a hippie backpacker, camping in the ruins and falling under the spell of the mysterious, vanished Minoan culture. This time, I got to introduce Thor to “glorious Kriti” and research more settings for my novel-in-progress, THE ARIADNE DISCONNECT. This new blog series started October 19, 2019, and will continue every Saturday.

After the storm riled up the sea (blog post 11/16/19), Thor and I made the most of our last full day on the south coast to plunge in at two beaches. (Doctors’ orders to rehab our leg and hip injuries: swim as much as we could!) First we revisited Skinnaria beach in its steep, rocky cove, where the water was still a bit rough but bracing.

The narrow road up and down was also “bracing,” with its steep turns and jagged rock formations (also top photo).

As I mentioned before, although the landscape looks bare, especially during the fall before the rains come, aqueducts bring ample water down from the mountains and hillside springs. In the photo above, you can see the pipe delivering water to the taverna on the beach. And there were open aqueducts along the roadway higher up:

These sheep wandering along the road appreciated the fresh drinks.

Then we took ourselves and our picnic lunch back to the more sheltered east end of Plakias Beach, just up the road from our room.

Thor jumped in to cool off….

… and then we grabbed our snorkel gear to explore the rocky depths beneath the cliff.

How I long for a “Star Trek” transporter beam to take me right back to that magical sea!

We love diving down to swim among the schooling fish in the glimmering light beams. Or just swimming farther into the purple-blue, soaking it up. Another school of my favorite “forktails” came to welcome us back:

All but the most remote beaches in the Greek islands (we didn’t have time to really get away from it all) offer freshwater showers in varied construction to rinse off the very salty seawater.

After our swim, we decided to explore a trail leading along the base of the vertiginous cliff bordering the bay.

All trails on Crete seem to involve easing around prickly bushes, like these ones we dubbed “chickenwire brush.” We’ve often seen specimens of these round bushes, like tumbleweeds, placed in empty fireplaces as decoration in Greek island homes.

Of course there were caves in the cliff. They seem to be everywhere, used for everything from hermit dwellings to animal shelters to shrines.

As Thor was walking ahead of me on the trail, while I dawdled to admire blossoms and blue sea, he looked up the towering cliff to experience an amazing sight and an epiphany…

Geologist Thor was admiring the structure of the limestone outcrop when suddenly two large raptors appeared above the cliff top. Seemingly enraged, they flew at each other, clashing and grappling with their talons as they fought in the air. Entangled, they dropped out of sight behind the cliff above the cave.

Was it a portent from the gods? After reading “The Odyssey,” Thor has been careful to give proper due to such Olympians as Poseidon, whose wrath can be powerful. (We made sure to thank him for mostly calm seas on this trip!) Musings on mortality followed, and Thor reported to me an epiphany: Greeks for thousands of years have walked where he was standing, perhaps even some of the warriors blown off course after the Trojan War, like Odysseus, and maybe they also gazed up at this impressive outcrop. To the cliff itself, millions of years old, all these human travails are merely an eyeblink’s shimmer in time. This cliff, tilted in the earthquakes and upheavals common to this region, was once the sea floor, the ripples over its surface caused by waves. As Thor gazed upward, with a dizzying swoop the vertical turned horizontal — the towering cliff face once more the wave-rippled sea bed. He felt himself flowing in those waves of time, along with the fighting birds and ancient heroes, and he suddenly lost the looming fear of growing old and dying.

As the Greeks would say with a shrug, “Etse k’etse.” It is what it is….

So, what with swimming and hiking and philosophizing, we were ready for another shower and dinner. We walked to the other end of the bay to a lovely seaside taverna for tuna souvlaki and spinach salad.

Then we raised our glasses of raki — “vitaminas” — to another fiery sunset on glorious Kriti.

Next week: Over the mountains to the ancient Minoan palace of Phaestos.

*****

You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Cafe is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection.  It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?”  The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com