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I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself
Saturday. Our second Saturday. The day of my MKGees on Tour geocaching event down on the beach. But that was in the evening, so there was quite a lot of day to fill up.
We had another slow start. We were still suffering quite a lot after the Samaria Gorge walk. It took quite a lot out of the kids. I was tired and my little toes were a bit sore, but otherwise OK. So there wasn’t a great deal of enthusiasm for anything and certainly no enthusiasm for going out in the morning.
So we had a slow breakfast again and then the kids retired to their bedroom again for more lazing around. I’d had a day of doing nothing the previous day though, and frankly I was bored because I’m not really one for reading books and I wasn’t tired enough to spend all day in bed. So I went back to the reception area to see the man about renting a car. He’d got one available that I could take straight away, so I rented it for three days, got the keys, and then went back to the room to sort myself out.
The sorting out involved getting extra insurance in case another accident should befall me. And then, of course, the packing of a day bag and the head-to-toe application of sunblock. I was ready to go by midday. As far as I knew, there were no other plans until my event at seven, but I’d already decided that going out for 2-3 hours would be enough.
Facing Your Demons
So I headed off up the road in another Fiat Panda to see what I could see. This car was bright red and had done about half the distance the other two had. It was a noticeably smoother car to ride in and the engine was nothing like as gruff.
My plan was to go hit the multi-cache up in Achlada that I’d started on our first day.
That cache was away up in the hills again in the next village along from the one where I damaged the other car. So I approached with some trepidation in case it was a similar village. Anyway, first job as ever was to fill up with fuel and buy soft drinks for the day.
As it turned out, the road up to Achlada was better than the one to Rodia, and there was a big wide street right through the centre with no parked cars. There was also a big parking area right by the church, which was sort of where I needed to start from.
First of all I headed west of the village for one of the multi stages and for another cache in some abandoned buildings. Those were fun.
From there I decided I was already as close as I could get the car to the actual multi-cache final location, so I just legged it. The walk took me onto the top of a hill that had a fantastic view over Agia Pelagia down to the sea. The view in the picture below, as it happens.
Moving On
So, flushed with success after not totaling a car in a Greek village, I decided to move on. My next target was in the seaside village of Palaiokastro. That name means “Old Castle” as far as I’m aware. It is so named because there’s an old castle there. It’s on top of a hill. There’s a cache up there but I couldn’t see how to walk up there or where to park. However there was a multi that started by the beach. It finished about 10 yards from where I’d parked, so that was a bonus.
I decided on one more from here so I drove a few miles along the north coast highway to grab one in the car park of a service station. There was a random church there too, but fundamentally it was a car park.
And from there I decided that was enough. So I drove back to the hotel to see what the girls were up to.
Take Me to the Beach
It turns out that the girls were planning to walk down the beach and have a dip in the sea before my caching event. That was fine with me. They were planning to set off a couple of hours after I’d got home, so I had time for a quick snooze beforehand. Result!
We spent an hour or so in the sea and then retired to our new favourite cafe for some milkshakes, beers and snacks. The beers and milkshakes came quickly. But there seemed to be a problem with getting food ready. It took ages and ages. They told us it would, but nevertheless….
Eventually our food arrived about 5 minutes before I needed to be at my caching event. I figured I better actually go, on the basis that someone else had said they were coming.
Eventing
My event was located along the path in the car park at the end of the beach. I’d called it MKGees on Tour, because that’s essentially what it was. Two others had said they were coming, but one wasn’t sure whether he’d make it.
I stood at the given location for a couple of minutes before I was approached by someone. I thought (from his appearance) that it was the “maybe” guy. But it turned out to be the “definite” guy. And his girlfriend. That was good. So we stood there chatting for an hour, looking out over the beach and watching the sun go down. They’d raided a travelbug hotel in Heraklion earlier in the day and had bought the contents with him. I thought he meant three or four, but he had actually brought 18 trackables with him. OK, those are going to have to go back to the UK, because I hadn’t been finding many big caches on the island.
Kas and the girls joined me once they’d finished eating and paid the bill. We talked for about an hour but then decided to call it a day. The other two cachers wanted to go find a couple of caches while the light was good. I’d concluded that the other guy (Mr Maybe) wasn’t going to come. So we left.
When I got back to the hotel I checked my phone and he’d texted me at 7:30 to say he was on his way. He must have passed us as we were walking back up the hill. So I felt guilty for about 10 minutes until I concluded that arriving 5 minutes before the end of a one hour event that only two others were attending was pushing the limit a bit.
Night Time
Nobody else wanted dinner in the restaurant because the snacks at the bar were a bit bigger than expected. So I grabbed a quick one-plate special alone and then met Kas in the terrace bar for a couple of drinks before going to bed. Tomorrow was going to be “tourist central” potentially