Quad Bikes

We certainly have enjoyed our evenings on this holiday.  Its the best all inclusive we have been on, the beer is good, the wine is usually good and the cocktails are strong but a little sweet for my taste.  The food is very consistent and they make a special effort with their presentation.  Since the weather changed for the better on Wednesday, its sunshine all the way and even the evenings are not cold.  We discovered the pool bar on wednesday night because it was Greek night and they held it there.  We have been out with Shane and Holly every night so far; there is usually a few others join us as the night progresses.

The only trouble with the pool bar is that they serve all drinks in plastic cups.  I guess that everyone walks around all day with bare feet so they cant risk broken glass in the area.  By the time we go to that bar we switch to vodka and sprite or orange so you get more for your small cup.  They only let you get two drinks each but you don’t all have to be at the bar so we tell them that there are twice as many of us as there are.  Once a cup is empty we stack them in the middle of the table; last night we counted 50 by the end of the night.  I guess its a good rule that they stop serving free drinks at 11 pm because the night naturally slows down and stops then.  However we do tend to stack a few up ready for the end.  Otherwise we would never get up the next day.  It works for us because we don’t like late nights these days anyway.

Here is one of all the girls together, plus a pink panther?  He is a Romanian guy, he's really good with the kids in the early part of the evening.

Nine o'clock sharp on Friday morning they turned up in a van to take us to get our quad bikes.  There were quite a few people hiring them so one person had to drive a quad bike back for us all to fit in.  That was Shan because both he and Holly have driven them quite a few times.  Because he helped them out they said that we could have their largest 250cc bikes for the same price as the 150cc ones we had hired.  I though that I would take to it like a duck to water because I have been driving all sorts of vehicles all my life and always do when confronted with a new one.  How wrong could I have been, I was hopeless.

I had a little drive around a green before going onto the road but I couldn't steer it.  I wanted to drive it like a bike and lean with it but you cant with 4 wheels, in fact you have to lean the other way if anything.  You just turn the handle bars like a wheel but it was totally unnatural to me.  When we went on the road I followed Shane towards the petrol station but I was so unsure and couldn't seem to get around the corners and went really slow.  Shane stopped to wait for me but as I approached to stop behind him I lost control and drove straight into a parked car.

I decided then that I would put a little petrol in and take it back to the shop and swap it for a motor bike.  I just put €5 in and we turned back to the shop.  The guy was very helpful but seemed reluctant to let me on one of his bikes because I haven't passed my bike license.  He talked me into trying the big blue monster quad as the steering wasn't so heavy and I had another go around the green first and I did find it a little easier.

Once we were off proper I soon picked it up and we were away for the day.  I was a nightmare, both Holly and Shane were experts, I felt like a real fool.  Especially because I had my normal problem; finding a helmet to fit me.  They had dozens in the shop and the lady said that she would find something but after I had tried the Xlarge and the XXlarge she had to resort to the old favorite.  It was more like a First World War pilots hat than a crash helmet, but it did fit.  It had no visor and didn’t go over your head, but it sits on top of your head like a cycle hat.  When the lady first put it on me Claire almost wet herself.  How come everyone else looks really cool in their helmets and I look more like a comedy character than the Steve McQueen I imagine myself.  All that choice of colour and design with helmets like Lois Hamilton and Sebastian Vettle’s and I get the one thats like Billy Bunter goes Biggles.  Shane was doing donuts around a bit of waste ground and Holly drove like a demon;  all I could manage was to crash into the occasional car looking like a numty.  It seemed that everyone we drove past started laughing when they saw me.  Several people on bikes actually fell off laughing.  While we were driving through Kassiopi I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a shop window.  If I hadn’t been on 4 wheels I would have fell off myself.

Anyway we drove west along the north coast as far as Sidari then turned back and stopped for lunch at Junipers in Kassiopi.  Not all the restaurants are open for the season yet so we had limited choice.  However, our choice turned out to be a good one, we all had a two course for €10 each.  Really good value and quality home made food.  Claire had a giant prawn cocktail and we all had mushrooms in garlic and cream sauce.  I ended up with a chicken curry because they recommended it and it was fabulous; first class.  As they made the food fresh you could have it as hot as you like but not at the expense of taste.  The girls had the home made burgers which turned out to be superb but a little too large for Claire to finish.  The best thing was the proper home made chips, I was so pleased I had half and half rice and chips.  Definitely worth a try if your in the area.

The lady told us that there was a huge cave not far away and gave us directions.  The roads went a bit off road but perfect for our quad bikes.  It was right at the top of a mountain so the views just kept getting better.  Once we reached the end of the trail we had to park the bikes up and climb the rest of the way.  Hard going with rugged stones and nettles lining the trail.  Wasps and bees were buzzing all the way down there so Claire turned back and waited for us.  You know what she is like with wasps.

The trip down was worth it the cave was much larger than I had imagined.  We took some photos and headed back but it was far tougher going up hill than down.  Especially if you are my size, it nearly killed me, I couldn’t even talk.  Worth it though for the sights.  Photos never really catch things of this proportion or size but I did my best.

Claire was glad to see us when we got back because she had to keep swatting and running from all the bees.  We headed back down the trail and then stopped at “Ice Dream” for one of their famous home made treats.  All the ice cream is home made and they certainly pulled in the customers.  The lady at Junipers also told us where this was and said that people come from all over the island for one.  They also do home made waffles and other sweets with ice cream; what a great way to finish such a great day off.  All we have to do now is get in the shower and wash of the days dust and sweat and get ourselves back down to that pool bar.