Around the Island (Γύρω από το νησί)

House in Margarites

On our last day in Crete we hopped on a tour bus for a trip around the island. Again, I saw scenery I hadn’t expected on this island and heard mythology I was completely unfamiliar with – I didn’t know that Hera was the second wife of Zeus. It’s great to learn new things! If I could do this trip, again, I’d do it in reverse order – this tour first, then Knossos, then time spent exploring Chania – I think it would help to put things in a more historical perspective and allow me to more closely investigate this unique part of the world.

Rolling on the River

Forest along Caves Road

If you have all day to do it, the drive from Perth along Caves Road (Hwy 10 and 250) through the karri forest and then along the coast is a gorgeous. One of our detours took us out to Eagle Bay to look for a whale or two, but all we saw were beautiful beaches and people soaking up some sunshine. When the weather warms, this will be a great place to enjoy snorkeling and other water sports. Yallingup, another scenic town, is where the smaller waves come in and nearly every day you can see people trying to catch a wave or two. Farther along the road the forests and open areas allow native animals to roam, treating us to mobs of kangaroos and wallabies with a few emus thrown in. These are not animals in wildlife parks, but those that still inhabit the bush. Margaret River is an area much like the hill country in Texas in that there are oodles of wineries, lots of tall trees, and loads of hilly roads. They call the climate Mediterranean, since we’re near the coastline, but it's cooler than what we expected. The warmest temperature was in the low 70s (20s centigrade) with

Top L to R: Pirate cow, Golden cow, Cow with mailbox
Bottom L to R: Wine store, Social Club, Cow with helmet

on and off sunny skies. Caves are also found in this area ranging from completely guided to ‘Here’s a helmet and a torch, see you later’. One of my favorite sites on our drive was the small town of Cowaramup. Normally you’ll see all sorts of life-sized cow statues in this town, but during our visit there was a bicycle rally so the statues wore bicycle helmets!