Plakias Forums
Ostraco's Bar => Gossip => Topic started by: harribobs on June 18, 2006, 10:57:24 PM
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i don't know about using the town signs for rifle practise
i think someone has got an anti tank gun in Anapolis
(http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/72724275-M.jpg)
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i don't know about using the town signs for rifle practise
i think someone has got an anti tank gun in Anapolis
([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/72724275-M.jpg[/url])
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6334\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
On our first visit to Crete (pre Plakias) we got friendly with the owner of a mini bar who said the Cretans were the heaviest (unlawfully) armed population in Europe. He offered to show us an underground bunker near Chania full of tanks. No idea about the truth. When I asked why this was so he shrugged and said that Crete was a very strategic place in times of strife and that if anything ever happened there wouldn't be any time "to wait for Athens".
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I think I read somewhere, might have been on this Forum, that because Crete has been invaded so many times over the centuries, and that the locals were not prepared and ended up fighting with pitch forks and the like, they now refuse to give up their weapons just in case.
Luckily the modern friendly invader goes there because they like everything about Crete and arrive without weaponry.
george g...
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prior to WW2, the central government in athens, worried about the republican movement in crete, had ordered the surrender of all weapons ( and removal from the island) of course a lot got hidden but that certainly didn't help in May 1941
i watched a TV programme not so long back about the battle and ( i think) it was anthony beevor interviewing cretan veterans. the old fella asks him if he'd like to see the german machine pistol and lugar that he used in the war.... next thing beevor is in his back yard shooting off magazines from his lugar and Schmeisser machine gun! everyone grinning from ear to ear ....only in crete
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prior to WW2, the central government in athens, worried about the republican movement in crete, had ordered the surrender of all weapons ( and removal from the island) of course a lot got hidden but that certainly didn't help in May 1941
i watched a TV programme not so long back about the battle and ( i think) it was anthony beevor interviewing cretan veterans. the old fella asks him if he'd like to see the german machine pistol and lugar that he used in the war.... next thing beevor is in his back yard shooting off magazines from his lugar and Schmeisser machine gun! everyone grinning from ear to ear ....only in crete
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6390\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Dear Harribob- no disrespect intended, but by the frequency of your postings I was wondering if you actually have a job you enjoy up north? With your love of Plakias, why don't you
just run a taverna in Plak and enjoy 7 moths a year.
Santa
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I know there's certainly a lot of weapons around experienced on;
New Year's eve pistol out of the bar window
Easter Saturday AK47 outside the church in Selia and Easter Sunday sounded like a gun battle. Luckily in this part of the world they don't tend to use them against fellow human beings!!
Still quite scary being woken in the middle of the night (eve of a wedding) with automatic gunfire (sounds like) outside your front door!!
Ali
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Dear Harribob- no disrespect intended, but by the frequency of your postings I was wondering if you actually have a job you enjoy up north? With your love of Plakias, why don't you
just run a taverna in Plak and enjoy 7 moths a year.
Santa
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6401\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
oh yes...full time, board level job, but delegation and multi-tasking allows me the time i need to do the odd post on here , and probably about 10 times as many per day on a military history/genealogy site, plus running my own historical site
i suspect i'd get bored running a bar
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I know there's certainly a lot of weapons around experienced on;
New Year's eve pistol out of the bar window
Easter Saturday AK47 outside the church in Selia and Easter Sunday sounded like a gun battle. Luckily in this part of the world they don't tend to use them against fellow human beings!!
Still quite scary being woken in the middle of the night (eve of a wedding) with automatic gunfire (sounds like) outside your front door!!
Ali
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6402\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
The only shooting I have experienced on Crete was a rabbit hunt that ended in a fantastic casserole in Lendas. But my impression is also that there are guns everywhere. In my hitchhiking days I never got a ride with a local without seeing a gun in his car, some had to clear out a shotgun to make space for my backpack, but most had a pistol between the driver seat and the hand brake or stuffed away in the glove compartment. After the first couple of times I got used to it. This was in the 80s, I don’t know if the situation is still the same.
Tom
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when we went up to pachnes from anapolis, our driver had a shotgun in the cab , with a hand full of shells rattling around the gear lever
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Okay just browsing the forum and saw this topic and just have to ask - my dp said that he'd love to stay in Anapoli for a couple of nights when we eventually visit crete again, we know where it is but is it true that it's quite difficult to get to? One of our friends said recently when we'd mentioned it that they'd tried to drive to to the village but turned back as the roads were too scary! Are they fibbing ?
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it would be more difficult to turn around than to complete the drive
it is a steep long and sometimes hairy drive up but it's not THAT bad, i just take it nice and easy and make sure you don't get careless
do it because it's a great experience!
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The second time we went up there which was a few years ago now, we counted the hairpin bends 48 and I agree Chris it is a bit hairy at times but that's why I've done it numerous times since. Luv it!
george g...
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We did it about 4 years ago and found the hairpin climb up/down the most scary we have done and we are fairly intrepid motorists on Crete. Might just have been the mood we were in at the time. It was the first time I've ever experienced vertigo when driving. To show how chickenish we were, we stopped at each hairpin on the way down, checked nobody was coming up and then drove on the mountain side edge of the road rather than against the drop side. I feel quite stupid writing and telling you this as I really can cope when driving with anything that is thrown at me on Crete but that bit of road just got to me somehow !!
We didn't get to the gorge - I think at the time we didn't realise it was there !! It is our intention to do that this Autumn.
John R
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Take a deep breath before you go over the bridge John, luckily there's a small bar on the other side made from olive wood, then just cruise around in the peace, you will be unlucky to see anyone else up there.
george g...
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We didn't get to the gorge - I think at the time we didn't realise it was there !! It is our intention to do that this Autumn.
John R
we're planning a circular walk, probably leaving the car at the top of the gorge at aradena, walking down to loutro over to the gorge mouth and then up it! really looking forward to that
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We did the trip last week and i have to commit that driving this road to Anopolis had something special... Though we really made some roads over the alps with cars and motorbikes we were all happy to be back down in Chora Sfakion... Many of these concrete objects showing the end of the roads were missing and I do not want to imagine why they fell down... But it was worth the effort. We planned to do a walk to Glyka Nera and Loutro by parking our car half the way 'tween Chora Sfakion and Anopolis but as there was no space to park the car and wife and children refused to make the frightening steep walkdown we returned for a bath at plakias farend...
You can park your car beneath two wrecks of other cars when you have almost reached Anopolis: A breathtaking view down to glyka nera. Not only because of the hundreds of metres rapidly falling down but also because of the garbage dump consisting of all kinds of trash mixed with the cadavres of a few dozens of sheep.
Now back home at the rotten desktop...
shinaria
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If I remember rightly, if you park your car about half the way up overlooking Sweetwater beach, there is a pathway that leads to Loutro.
I'm not much of a walker compared to some of you guys so don't quote me.
george g...
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Right, but the parkinglot was full as already three cars parked on that site...
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If I remember rightly, if you park your car about half the way up overlooking Sweetwater beach, there is a pathway that leads to Loutro.
I'm not much of a walker compared to some of you guys so don't quote me.
george g...
an important point to make is don't even think about that path if you suffer from vertigo :'(
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[attachment=445:attachment]Hi Harribobs,
I was looking through some old posts and saw your comments about the path above Chora Sfakion to Sweetwater beach and agree with you.
I walked the path last July and I don't like heights !
The path is potentially dangerous with lots of scree and loose pebbles. Fantastic, but I would not advise for those of a nervous disposition and definately not for kids, unless sensible teenagers.
I will try and post a picture (first attempt) since joining the forum.
If you look closely at the bottom right hand corner you will see a very small bit of blue, yes that's the sea down there !
Hope this works.
Regards,
trekdriver
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Hello Trekdriver,
thank you for the photo... just last week I finished a painting "Anopolis" showing the mortal remains of a group of sheep [maybe half a dozen] embedded with trashes, wrecked machines and other things I don't want to think further of] beeing thrown from the roads' edge way down to the sweetwater beach. Strange smells to come together with a wonderful view... Unfortunately my camera had some problems and I have no photography of that ...so I had to paint it ...
Best regards
shinaria
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hi trekdriver ( and alf of course)
yes thats a scary path to sweetwater and quite a scary drive to anapoli as well
good fun though, i'll be doing it again quite shortly, we're going to do some walks up there and will probably stay over a night or so
cheers
chris
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just found a nice video made on that road at yahoovideo. Fasten you seatbelts....
http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490 (http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490)
shinaria
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just found a nice video made on that road at yahoovideo. Fasten you seatbelts....
[url]http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490[/url] ([url]http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490[/url])
shinaria
Looks like it has been resurfaced and possibly widened a little bit since we were on it in Sept/Oct 2006. Will be doing it again this year.
The video is entitled Killikratis which surely is a very similar road down to Imbros. However I'm sure it is a video of the track down from Anapoli to Sfakia.
John R
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just found a nice video made on that road at yahoovideo. Fasten you seatbelts....
[url]http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490[/url] ([url]http://www.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=682490[/url])
shinaria
Looks like it has been resurfaced and possibly widened a little bit since we were on it in Sept/Oct 2006. Will be doing it again this year.
The video is entitled Killikratis which surely is a very similar road down to Imbros. However I'm sure it is a video of the track down from Anapoli to Sfakia.
John R
If it's not that road John there's another one very similar.
Did I see the sign for Sweetwater Beach??
I hate that road, but I still do it every year
george g...
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I've just had another look and I don't think this is the road down from Anapolis to Choras, there's too much land before the sea and there was a building up there. IIRC (thanks Chris) there are no buildings on that road!
There again...
I need to find out where it is if it's not! I'm going there...
george g...
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I've just had another look and I don't think this is the road down from Anapolis to Choras, there's too much land before the sea and there was a building up there. IIRC (thanks Chris) there are no buildings on that road!
There again...
I need to find out where it is if it's not! I'm going there...
george g...
If it is the Killikratis road then there is too much sea in view in the background. Memories sometimes deceive one and I would not like to bet my life savings either way. On the drop from Killikratis to Imbros I don't remember as many hairpins (plenty but not that many ??) and I don't remember a prominent sea view in the background - indeed mountains in the background. Most annoying as I have done both trips for most years and would have sworn I knew every pebble on the roads. I think that it is the road from Anapolis to Chora - but newly resurfaced since last Autumn if I am right. :'(
John R
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there was a new(ish) bulldozed road down the side of the kallikratis gorge, looking at the vid i think it's been tarmac'd ( thats where your euros go!)
the gorge ends in a little village just north of francokastelli, can't remember it's name
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there was a new(ish) bulldozed road down the side of the kallikratis gorge, looking at the vid i think it's been tarmac'd ( thats where your euros go!)
the gorge ends in a little village just north of francokastelli, can't remember it's name
Had another look and I think you may be right. That is a must for Sept. Will considerably shorten the distance on my favourite round trip !! We were thinking of walking that as well !!
John R
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Shame on me and sorry! I think I was wrong and told you all some lies...but the feeling of the road was so similar to the one I thougt it would be... The attached picture shows the road from an eye in the sky.
see also: http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-satellite/kallikratis.html (http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-satellite/kallikratis.html)
Yours ashamed
shinaria
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there was a new(ish) bulldozed road down the side of the kallikratis gorge, looking at the vid i think it's been tarmac'd ( thats where your euros go!)
the gorge ends in a little village just north of francokastelli, can't remember it's name
Had another look and I think you may be right. That is a must for Sept. Will considerably shorten the distance on my favourite round trip !! We were thinking of walking that as well !!
John R
That's brilliant! I'm with you John this road is a must for me this year, I didn't even know it was there. I've driven through Skaloti on numerous occations, but have never seen that road.
If you see a bent upturned jeep, stop and have a look, it might be me under there
My new adrenalin rush, thanks shinaria, I'll leave a Mythos in Antonis's for you
george g...
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Thanks for the mythos, George... Always welcome!
Alfred [aka shinaria]
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Shame on me and sorry! I think I was wrong and told you all some lies...but the feeling of the road was so similar to the one I thougt it would be... The attached picture shows the road from an eye in the sky.
see also: [url]http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-satellite/kallikratis.html[/url] ([url]http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-satellite/kallikratis.html[/url])
Yours ashamed
shinaria
Here is a picture of that road. (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/819327)
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That's brilliant! I'm with you John this road is a must for me this year, I didn't even know it was there. I've driven through Skaloti on numerous occations, but have never seen that road.
If you see a bent upturned jeep, stop and have a look, it might be me under there
My new adrenalin rush, thanks shinaria, I'll leave a Mythos in Antonis's for you
george g...
Yes it is obviously a newly tarmaced road towards Skaloti. From the video there is obviously a good tarmac surface from the top (looks very ok to me). However we need to know if the tarmac ends suddenly at the top of an impossibly steep and rough slope with no turning place.
Please George do let us know.
John R
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i'm 99% sure that the road end in Patsiannos ( not skaloti)
(http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/170167697-M.jpg)
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i'm 99% sure that the road end in Patsiannos ( not skaloti)
([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/170167697-M.jpg[/url])
Looking at my nice new Rough Guide map of Crete that would make sense. That Satellite photo posted previously made it look as if it might end at Skaloti which had been marked on that photo. I'm just hoping it is now tarmac all the way (Don't like rough tracks in our hire car).
John R
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(Don't like rough tracks in our hire car).
John R
Arf!! don't try the short cut to Ligres then
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Hi All
My 'Road' map shows very clearly that the road leads directly into Kapsodasos and it seems to run parallel with the Kalikrati Gorge.
I'll definately get back to you John and let you know what it's like.
Thanks for the link Compage that looks really good and it doesn't look tarmaced.
george g...
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[attachment=470:The_Kaps...s_Road_2.JPG]
Proof
george g...
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[attachment=470:The_Kaps...s_Road_2.JPG]
Proof
george g...
Looks very convincing. On my map the track stops just above the top of Kalikrati Gorge.
John R
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[attachment=470:The_Kaps...s_Road_2.JPG]
Proof
george g...
Looks very convincing. On my map the track stops just above the top of Kalikrati Gorge.
John R
Well I'm not going to argue with the Hellenic Army Geographical Service
george g...
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i defy anyone to tell me where Kapsodasos ends and Patsiannos begins!!
i'm sure you're right george, i didn't even know there were two villages there
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i defy anyone to tell me where Kapsodasos ends and Patsiannos begins!!
i'm sure you're right george, i didn't even know there were two villages there
It's one of those odd areas Chris , more often than not most people will take a left just after Skaloti and go down the drag strip past Fata Morgana into Frankokastelli, it's the obvious route .
george g...
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more often than not most people will take a left just after Skaloti and go down the drag strip past Fata Morgana into Frankokastelli, it's the obvious route .
george g...
having walked that road
i avoid it now!!
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more often than not most people will take a left just after Skaloti and go down the drag strip past Fata Morgana into Frankokastelli, it's the obvious route .
george g...
having walked that road
i avoid it now!!
It's a pretty boring road for a walk Chris, but ideal to get the cobwebs out of the car.
george g...
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i'm 99% sure that the road end in Patsiannos ( not skaloti)
([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/170167697-M.jpg[/url])
Looking at my nice new Rough Guide map of Crete that would make sense. That Satellite photo posted previously made it look as if it might end at Skaloti which had been marked on that photo. I'm just hoping it is now tarmac all the way (Don't like rough tracks in our hire car).
John R
Hi John
I remember somewhere that you and Chris 'did' this road last year, all I want to know is were your suspisions that it is now tarmaced confirmed?
I'm going to find it this year, even if I have to go up from Kapsodasos, and then back down again, with or without the goats!
george g...
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it's all tarmac to kallikratis now and is still very interesting!
i'm surprised you missed the discussion about it last year but here is a link to John's pics
jons photos (http://harribobs.smugmug.com/gallery/3626531_yBRcY)
(http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/206565306_NLN3d-M.jpg)
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Hi Chris
I didn't miss it, I just couldn't find it, thanks for the pic. If I don't do anything else this year I'll find that road!!
george g...
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Hi Chris
I didn't miss it, I just couldn't find it, thanks for the pic. If I don't do anything else this year I'll find that road!!
george g...
We've made the same promise to ourselves - let's hope we don't meet, going in opposite directions
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This reminds me of the film 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'. As I said earllier G & K if I don't find it going down I'll do it going up!!
george g...
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it's all tarmac to kallikratis now and is still very interesting!
i'm surprised you missed the discussion about it last year but here is a link to John's pics
jons photos ([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/gallery/3626531_yBRcY[/url])
nb the link to the other pics as well
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it's all tarmac to kallikratis now and is still very interesting!
i'm surprised you missed the discussion about it last year but here is a link to John's pics
jons photos ([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/gallery/3626531_yBRcY[/url])
nb the link to the other pics as well
Saw them all the first day out Chris, it's the thread I couldn't find this time.
george g...
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it's all tarmac to kallikratis now and is still very interesting!
i'm surprised you missed the discussion about it last year but here is a link to John's pics
jons photos ([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/gallery/3626531_yBRcY[/url])
([url]http://harribobs.smugmug.com/photos/206565306_NLN3d-M.jpg[/url])
Sorry - been away for a few days so haven't joined in discussion - thanks Chris for all the info.
Just noticed some very strange beasts on that photo list - must be the Kilikratis Yeti (and friend).
John R
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Sorry - been away for a few days so haven't joined in discussion - thanks Chris for all the info.
Just noticed some very strange beasts on that photo list - must be the Kilikratis Yeti (and friend).
John R