An overnight ferry from Athens took the Caters and I to Hania, Crete. We had an apartment for a few days to get to know the city and visit the beach which was only a minute walk down the road.

From Hania we took a hire car west to Falasarna, visiting Greek wineries and olive cellar doors on the way. We spent two nights here, taking a day to hike from the town to Balos Beach.

The morning after our hike we drove an interesting dirt mountain road in our very capable Hyundai i20 to Elafonisi Beach (pink sand beach). From the beach we took off into the mountains for a night at Omalos town which is the starting point for hiking down the Samaria Gorge. We started early to beat the crowds and hiked through the gorge to reach the beach in time for a midday swim before lunch. We spent the evening and a night in Agia Roumeli (the beach town at the base of Samaria Gorge) and the next day Megan and I packed our things and headed off along the coast to hike a 20km part of the E4 to Sougia while Jan and Greg hiked back up the gorge to the car and then drove to pick us up. We drove all the way back past Hania to spend the night in Stavros.

We now started to the eastern half of the island with a night in Rethymno where we walked the fort and explored the small cobble street old town. After here we continued on to the Lasithi Plateau and Dikteon Cave before a night in Agios Nikolaos. From here we went to visit the old leper colony on Spinalonga Island and then a night in Sitia. A few days in Heraklion to finish off Crete and then we were on another boat to Santorini.

Three nights in Santorini soaking up the beauty and marvelling at the influx of tourists as each cruise ship came in.