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We parked our bikes and took a few pictures up on the
mountain top near the entrance to the caves. We were pretty excited,
all we knew about the place was that it was formerly used for
cult worship during the Neolithic, Minoan and Archaic periods.
Maybe we'd get to see a torture chamber (or at least a human
sacrifice
altar!!)
just yet!
Fatty, Grant and Chris.
The carved rock steps leading down to the cave entrance.
We were the ONLY tourists there making the experience of descending
down into them even creepier.
Here's a picture of me hanging back near the entrance...
...I claimed I wanted to get a picture of these three on their
way down, but it was really just my sneaky was of getting them
to go first in case there were any ScoobyDoo-esque villians waiting
below.
The main room of the caves from the top of the lower stairs.
Hahaha. Check out my chapped-ass, red "been riding a scooter
in the cold too long" nose. Ouchie.
This photo should give you some perspective on the size of the
main room you descend into. It was breath-taking.
One of the massive stalagmite formations hanging down from the
ceiling.
Another one from underneath.
Here's Fatty with ANOTHER potential JDate photo. This one gets
my vote. Nothing gets those cyber Jewesses hotter than
knowing a man's into spelunking. Awwwww, yeah.
Another pic of some of the ribbon-like stalagmites hanging from
the ceiling.
Grant off to explore one of the smaller side-caves.
Chris raising tha roof.
So apparently there are few attractions in this area of Crete
that aren't related to martyrs of the Turkish occupation. Turns
out that in January of 1834, the Turks invaded the nearby village.
370 men, women and children refused to surrender and sought refuge
in the nearby cave. The Turks found their hiding place, sealed
the entrance with boulders, and then lit a huge fire behind them
at the mouth of the cave. All 370 Cretans inside died of smoke
inhalation. The box you see is a memorial sacrophagus that contains
their bones.
After we were done checking out the caves, we relaxed on the
hill right outside the mouth of the cave and admired the view.
Awesome, right?
Back in the parking lot, Grant snapped a bunch of pics as we
prepared to head back to Rethymnon.
Me and Dave.
Here's us heading down the mountain the caves are on
back into the village of Melidoni.
Back in the village, we stopped for gas and debated if we had
time to do any more sightseeing and still be able to make it
back to the condo before nightfall.
Fatty and Grant.
Chris. Hahahahah.
And me. Someone call your high school photo teacher, I think
what we've got here is a "work of art! " I call this
one "Self-Reflections
of a Helmeted Scooterteer."
In the end we decided that we probably had time to do some more
sightseeing and decided to head back to the coastal town of Bali
and ride around some more on the roads that overlooked the water.
More dangerous, high speed scooter hijinx for the benefit of
the camera.
Back in Bali, we stopped to take pics.
Here's the first inlet you see coming down from the inland mountains.
Then Chris had an idea!
Not completely happy with the shaky, hand-held quality of the
previous "Scootering" footage we'd shot a few days earlier, Chris
strapped
the camera
to the back of my bike so we could film our mountainous ascent
on the coastal backroads. (I'll get around to posting clips of
this someday. Don't worry, with the exception of Grant trying
to brain we while I'm squatting down and talking to the bike-mounted
cam, you're really not missing much).
After fucking around for too long in Bali, we ended up having
to make the 35 minute trip back to our condo at dusk (freezing
our asses off the whole way). After dropping the bikes off and
picking up our car, we headed to a nearby restaurant for an early
dinner.
Hahahah.
That homemade village wine sure has got...
...a kick to it. Hooo-ah!
Back at the condo after dinner, Fatty managed to get off a fairly
decent braining while Grant took a nap. He was about to lean
in closer, but Grant woke up (This kid's so high-strung a mouse
fart'd wake him up).
Being that we were leaving Crete in the morning to head back
to the UK, we decided to take one more trip into Rethymnon to
walk around and get some ice cream.
Oh, and to look at the posters advertising the hugely uni-boobed
woman that we'd apparently missed during our stay. How could
this have happened?
With a fistfulla cone, we bid a last fond-farewell to Rethymnon.
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