Suffolk Walks--Southwold- Marcus's B'day weekend

The end of last month, (29/30th sep) was Marcus's b'day weekend. 

We bumped into one of his old mate in Waitrose in Sudbury, and he said: "didn't look bad for his age! he's older than me y'know"

He was right, he does look good for his age. First, his diet, secound, qi-gong defo helping for good aging. Nutrients deficiency leads to premature aging, good healthy balanced diet (and custom made) is the key for health and beauty! Hoooray!☺

On Sat eve, we chilled out at mine, on Sunday we went to see Marylin( Marcus's mum) who lives near Southwold.

She cooked lunch. Yummy salads. After our lunch, we went to southwold for quick walk. It was chilly, I could feel autumn was there and winter was on its way! 

Sky was grey, still, looked beautiful.

Even chilly Sunday afternoon, there were quite few people there walking on the pier and eating cakes or chips. (not together though)
I do like English coast, it's not like Greece or La Gomera, but I think they have good character and sometimes it touches my heart.....♥

When I popped back from toilet, I saw Marcus and Marylin together standing next to eachother again. Arrr, bless. I thought it was really sweet✿

It's really lovely to see them like that. I miss my mum! I am hoping to go home some point next year. I want to go for a walk with her, standing next to her like Marcus and Marylin. My mum now walks with a stick, she had hip opperation after falling down from stairs. I'm sure my dad is alright, I sometimes worry about my mum. I sometimes wish I lived near her... I'm used to not having my family around, still, I get homesick...☹

So, it's my goal for next year to visit Japan! 

 

On sunday night, I cooked Marcus's B'day dinner. If we were living in London, I would take him to yummy vegan restarant, but there wasn't nice yummy funky vegan restaurant in Suffolk. So, I cooked.

It was lovely chilled weekend, just how we liked it...✿✿✿

Holiday in Pelion- Kissos, Mouressi & Choreto

It was really really raining and cloudy on our holiday Day 11.

One point, it stopped for a couple of hours, didn't want to stay indoors, so we drove off.

First we drove to Kissos, Moressi, then Chorefto. There wasn't much in Chorefto, but on our way there was fun. We stopped off at this little preserve shop where we bought nik-naks last year. The lady who owned the shop didn't speak much English, I didn't speak no Greek at all, but we communicated well. She makes preserves and picks mountain herbs for tea and sell them at her little shop. This year, she had lots of beautiful looking red apples outside. This place was on the way to Zagora, famous for their apple produce. Anyway, this year we bought a jar of sea herbs in salted water & chestnut honey. The honey had dark colour. It was very different from the honey we bought on our first day. We finished 350ml jar in a few days, this nutty tasted honey was also different from Italian chestnut honey. I really liked it.

This is the lady's dad I think, he showed us "Raki" (I'm not sure the spelling....) he made with his smile, and looked very proud! Bless☺☺ We told him we didn't drink alcohol, he looked a bit disappointed... Anyway, look at those beautiful apples! I could hear "Norie, eat me, eat me!!!"

After we came out of the shop, guess what we found on the road... Walnuts!
So, that made our scrumpings: 2x red apples, grapes, pomegranates, plums, figs, chestnuts and walnuts! We didn't go hungry while we were there. ☺
Really this part of Greece was resourceful wherever we went.
On our way back to Damouchari, we saw a little water fall! How exciting!

Bye the way, Chorefto was small sea side village. Due to off season, it was very quiet when we got there. That was where we found yummy red grapes. I'm sure when it's season, there will be full of people and becomes lively beach...On the way there, we saw apple orchards everywhere. That was where we picked apples from. A bit naughty, but hey, we were on holiday, I wanted some fun experience! ☺

First day I went back to work, I was working in the kitchen in that afternoon. I was hungry and picked up an apple, had a good bite. That was disappointing. Even me, (I eat anything) I couldn't eat it, I had to chuck it away! The apple tasted nothing and texture was hard and horrible. I thought I spoiled myself too much in Greece.... Oooops! ☺

Walk- ✿"Damouchari" to "Mouresi"✿

Day 10 into our holiday in beautiful Pelion. We got up really(?) late, 10am. By then, it stopped raining. Raining all night, our apartment got flooded a bit, water came through under the door, I had to wipe the floor when I got up. All part of fun! ☺ I didn't mind at all.

Anyway, after our smoothies, we left our apartment at 11.15am heading towards small village called "Mouresi". According to the map we had, there was footpath from Damouchari. But where????

We were wondering where exactly the footpath begins, we started walking about 20mins or so, we found the footpath! It was small sign pointed to "Mouresi" (in Greek). 

This footpath, I didn't like it to start off with, it was smelly and dark. Old stone path was really slippy after the rain, it lead us to the woods. 

We followed red mark all the way, it was easy enough walk. And then... we lost it yet again, was it Greek style? or us too busy looking at fig trees??? 

We ended up walking on the road for a while till the vegetable shop on the junction. This little shop had delicious Greek olives for sale, we kept going back to get them during our holiday!.

Anyway, we found red mark next to the shop, it was slightly steep hill to go up, and we saw lovely fruits trees along the way. Then, we walked on the main road a bit, then saw another red mark. This foot path had lovely view of the beach down below. We found grapes! Oh, they were sweet and delicious! Of course, we scrumped a couple, eating them as we walked. We came out to another main road, next to the lion cafe( I'm sure, it had name like this.). opposite the cafe, there was red mark to go up. From there, it was quite good marked up to Mouresi. Still, we got lost. We ended up walking on the road to Mouresi till where the junction with wooden sign was. 

We walked round the village a bit, we found red mark to go down, so we followed. Then we found cute square with big trees. Later, we had our last dinner there. (Please see my other blog, carrot-munch-healthydinner@blogspot.co.uk) 

In the village, quite often people had their own allotment either near by their house or in their garden. growing tomatoes, courgettes, squash, cucumbers, aubergines..... I really wanted to scrump them, but i didn't otherwise, it would be called stealing!!! I'm not that naughty anymore! ☺

This walk, I only took this photo... not sure why I didn't take anymore, I'm stereo type Japanese person, I love taking photos of everything I see, just like my dear dad does. Not as bad as him though...☺

Anyway, from there, we found footpath to Ag.loannis, Papa nero. So we followed. This path took us into beautiful olive grows and houses. And came out on the main road again. One to go up (left), one to go down(right). There, red mark was nowhere to be seen. So we took right. I felt really long time walking this road, but I'm sure it was probably 15mins or so, we saw sign to Papa nero beach. 

Then, we knew where we were. 

we walked up the steep hill,  back to the spring water point, then down to Damouchari. 

I was quite grumpy, tired and hungry....

That evening, we went to Ag. lonnis for dinner. All food we had tasted even better every time we had good walk. 

I'm not sure where we are going next for our holiday, I can't wait to walk beautiful places! ❀❀❀

Big circular walk ✿Damouchari to Tsagkarada✿

Day 6 into our holiday, it was cloudy to start off with, then it got sunny. I couldn't sleep that night, I kept waking up, and in the end, I gave up trying to get some sleep. So, I went outside, there were untold numbers of stars in the dark sky. I could see clear milky way, planets, and star constellations... And I saw shooting stars! I was watching stars, not sure how long, I wanted to take all in, but so many stars, I felt like I had not enough brain capacity to do it...☹ Having say that, when I close my eyes now, I can still see the stars... It was another precious magic moment. ☺

Woke up 7.30am with some noise outside. I quickly got up, went outside. Because, I had funny feeling it was the naughty dog doing something to our shoes. (Previous day, he was trying to steal Marcus's shoes...) And here they were, they chewed our shoes didn't they!

after being washed, saw the damages

We had to wash them, they were muddy! Naughty dogs! They knew they weren't supposed to do that, and I can still see their faces in my head! There were quite few naughty dogs around on Greek beaches. I think lots of them were stray, but kindly, locals were feeding them. Bless☺

Anyway, after being really pissed off, we needed to let go. Then we were ready for our little (?) walks!
We began our walks from the first kiosk, then took right path to walk up to the top kiosk. I suggested Marcus, I thought it might've been easier....?☺ Then took the right path (narrow bushy path), straight up. To the chestnut forest.

Right path to Tsagkarada...

 After the top kiosk, going through the forest... It was very green...

 We came out to a small village...not sure the name. And we saw spring water on the middle of the road. It had good view of the beaches. If we hadn't got carried away looking at the walnut tree, we would've been taking the foot path(quicker), but we missed it. We went straight past the footpath (later on our way back, the red mark was hugely written on the left wall from where we came from.) We carried on walking on the road. Then we found an apple tree! No-one was to be seen, so naughty Marcus scrumped a couple of apples. And they were delicious!

Originally, I wanted to follow walks info/ guide I got from some website, but it wasn't informative, we got lost anyway. (we didn't take map with us, this is Norie & Marcus style ☺) We love adventures, always do walks without map is also a part of holiday fun. And we came to conclusion, it was the best way to find out paths was getting lost (sometimes). We kept walking, turned the corner, and we saw...figs! Initially, we walked past the fig tree, but couldn't help it, we had to go back to pick them. They were ready to get picked up. and delicious! Took a good few of them, put them in our back pack, carried on walking. Then we saw...massive chestnuts! They were huge! And they were everywhere!

Then, there were junctions. Oh, dear... ☹ One to go down (left), one to go up(right), one to go straight. By then, of course, we couldn't find "red marks" anymore. So, we just needed to follow our instinct. So, we went right up to the road. Then we saw red marks. It looked like way-in to the another chestnut forest.

This is the junction.

This is the road to the magic chestnut forest.

We carried on walking, and wondering about Greek foot path signs why they quite often disappeared and how we got lost. Anyway, plants on this particular path there was over grown, confused (me) to follow the path. And we found red mark on the tree! I kind of felt relieved we were on the foot path.

Every time we came across junctions, we wondered...which way shall we go? 

After this junction and forest walk, we came out to big road(asphalt road with another junctions).

It had 3 roads again, left up, straight on, and right down. So we walked straight up, and got lost yet again. Luckily, there was an old-ish guy working on his allotment, so we asked hoping he could speak English. And he did, he told us which road to take from the junction. Took left to go up. 

By this time, sun was up, and it got quite warm, we were sweating. Then I saw a lovely looking hotel called "St.Stephano" I'm sure it had the name like that. 

When we got to this square I knew we were close to Tsagkarada. Also Marcus told me when we walked past really nice looking apartment where he stayed before. Hooray, he remembered the road.

This was cute little square. after this square we walked on the road to the Tsagkarada junction. It didn't take us long to get there. Probably another 15-20mins or so. 

 This is the junction, all sign posted for us to follow! We walked down to the square.

Now, we were entering to the square with massive, beautiful tree.

We had a glass of orange juice. It was delicious, especially after the walk. We wanted to eat some chips, but by the time we got there, we weren't feeling hungry anymore. All fruits we were eating on the way made us feeling full!

On our way back to Damouchari was really easy. we just followed the foot path which was quite clearly sign posted. And it was lovely foot path. It went through St Kyriaki church square and it was cute. By the way, we bumped into our German neighbours again! They were having coffee there. We waved at each other then we separately walked back. I wondered which foot path they took.....

Anyway, didn't take long to get back to the little village where we missed first turn. We had little sit down by the spring water tap.

Look, big red arrow pointed to go there, but we completely missed it! ☺Never mind. We had lots of fun getting lost.

Oh, this footpath took us into woods, and found very old spring water tap. 

This is me with smile on the little bridge. I was thinking about Lay's olive oil crisps...☺

Took us about 1½hours to get back.( approx 2½ hours to get to Tsagkarada from Damouchari including losting time.) It was easy coming back, no problems at all!  I loved it so much, I was looking forward to our next walk...Mouresi!

Walk--Damouchari to Plaka

It was on our day 4 holiday, we were supposed to move into upstairs apartment.(we initially booked upstairs) But Dimitri told us if we waited one more night, we could have the next door(upstairs). Looked like the room which had a balcony and we thought that was better option, so we did.

These are our apartment and view from the balcony. Awesome view and this is where we saw lightenings from. ☺After moving, we were ready for walk.

Now, Damouchari to Plaka was simple walk, all sign posted. As usual, needed to go up and down on very, very steep path. First, we came out to the upstairs car park, walked on the road for about 5 mins. Then we found red mark by the huge tree with a spring water point.

 Usually this fountain had water coming out, but 2 days we didn't see any came out. We thought that was due to water saving or strike??? Sometimes even tap water stopped in early evenings(5-6 pm)  for a few hours or so. We knew that, it happened last year. No one told us. But I think that was Greek style. Just doing things randomly(?), I'm sure there was some logic in that...

Anyway, there was road opposite to this fountain. We went down the steep (very steep) road. Then we saw 2 more kiosks. Kindly, there was a sign posted to the beach. 

Small foot path all the way to Pa Pa Nero was very steep, it was fun walking down. Looked like there were some apartments to let, wow, with good view of the beach.

We did this walk twice to go to beaches. Once we bumped into our German neighbours, they looked like hard-core walking people, and looked very fit and sturdy. I liked them, they were very nice and friendly. People go to Pelion to walk, we found loads of foot path. Plenty out there!!!

Took us only 30mins or so to get to Pa Pa Nero. If we went by car, we had to go up, and down, long way. Defo this path is quick to get down to the beach. From there we just walked along beach to Plaka. Plaka is our favo beach. It's lovely. Apparently, it was nudest beach. We didn't know. Anyway, this year, not many people (and Germans) there, so, it wasn't much of nudest beach.

My foot are in water, I tried to take pics of fish swimming around me. But can't see them.... They were pinching our legs and foot! It was tickling!  When I was in water, I was surrounded by fish. Lots of different fish were there. We saw sea urchins stuck on rocks, long fish, tropical-looking fish, mullet-looking fish, mackerel-looking fish, and small fish.... Sometimes they came and swam round me. Wow! I started little more feeling confident with deeper water, I now could go little further than last year. ( I had bad experience when I was a child in Japan)

On our day 12, we walked up to the little church from Plaka. That was the day very cloudy and we missed heavy rain while we were in the church. In Plaka beach, there was footpath(steep stone path) to upstairs. Once we got up, we just followed the path. We knew this path from last year. It lead to Costas little house and olive grow. Instead of turning right(to Costas), just carrying on walking straight. That took us to the forest. We saw chestnut trees, and walnuts trees! We knew the walnut tree there. I remembered from last year. We picked up one walnuts off the floor. Everyone was so high up, we couldn't reach them. This path, it was very quiet and peaceful, over grown weeds and plants, butterflies and grasshoppers, It was lot longer to walk down than I remembered.

Once we got there, there, spring water! I love this particular water somehow I felt it was more clearer and yummy than Damouchari. Probably it was the same water anyway. But felt like it.

This is the little church. Cute♥

Cutest church in the world!

It stood on the cliff, view from there was wonderful. We love there because sooooo peaceful.  This church was the only church opened. We sat inside and chilling out for a bit. Lit a few candles and I reflected what we'd done so far, my life etc. Just gave me time to think. I love that.

This church people were so trusting, their money box was there with some cash in, and unlocked. Bless, we put some donations too. 

Walking back, we scrumped some grapes and apples along the path, we were a bit naughty to pick them from someone's yard, but they didn't pick them, lots of fruits were on the floor fermenting. Especially figs, they were everywhere fermented on the earth. We tried white ones, they weren't good, but dark ones were delicious! In Waitrose costs fortune to buy good yummy figs, even that, they don't taste as gorgeous as those dark Greek figs! Oh, how many times we missed turns (footpath) and ended up walking looooong way,  too busy looking and picking figs and apples! ☺

When we did good walks, dinner(salads and bits) tasted even more delicious! Felt like I earned it. Thanks to Marcus, I now love walking. At home, I cycle everywhere, but I now walk as well. I can understand now why some outdoor people love walking.

Walk -- Damouchari to Fakistra

On our 3rd day holiday, we strolled off to Fakistra. It was very cute beach with crystal clear (even more!)  water.  If there were 8 people on the beach, it looked full. Usually it's very quiet apart from weekends, Greek people love going down to beaches on weekends. In season, all beaches along there ( Papa nero, Ag, loannis, Plaka, Damouchari and Mylapotamos...) are full of people and also lots of naked Germans!  ☺ This year, due to the end of season, we didn't see many naked Germans, How disappointing! ☹  Anyway, we went to Fakistra twice, both times took us about 1hr & 25mins to get there including pottering time.

It was beautiful walk, started off walking up the steep stone steps to the first kiosk(view point). There was "red mark" to turn left. It was small and narrow path.

We could see this resting point from the downstairs (the beach). Top kiosk was about another 20mins walking up the stone steps.

Once we got there, we took path going down. That was for Fakistra. Also the olive man told us, path went up was leading to Tsagkarada. This path to Fakistra took us an interesting path, we loved it last year as well. Went up and down stones and rocks, woods, and olive grows.... I could smell herbs and plants.

I quite often found grasshoppers jumping around us. They were cute. Almost as if they wanted to go for a stroll with us. When we went through woods, we saw mountain butterflies.

I sometimes found red marks on the ground. We knew how to get to Fakistra, so, we didn't really need to looking for red marks this time, but it was nice to know we were on the right path anyway.

This rocky bits, it was a bit confusing where to walk. Around there didn't look it was proper walking path, but it was much more fun to walk on rocks than flat surface. I could imagine, in season, waterfall running through there. Then we found a cute flower. Even hot day, this little flower blooming on the dry earth. Very strong!

Now, we got to the little church. We were disappointed that was closed. Last year, this little church was open. The key was hanging from the top of door. But this year, key wasn't there either. Maybe it was closed for season?????

After this point, we were walking into woods. Suddenly energy changed and temperature went down a bit, a little bit dark time to time, and could hear the sea... About walking another 20mins or so, the path was opened up to the olive grows. There, we found the orange tree from last year. Marcus scrumping some oranges, and they were delicious! So, when we saw oranges on this tree, we didn't hesitate to scrumping them. We did think they might be a bit funny, due to late season. Anyway, we picked them and had them, but they were very bitter, very wrinkly and dry. After all this trouble, we had to chuck them in the bin.....Oh, dear....☹

Here's Marcus picking some oranges. Close by, there was path to the cave, where the secret school was. It's worth paying visit to this cave. It's wonderful view over looking the Agean sea.

After this point, we started hearing people's voices. Till then, it was very quiet walk, I knew then, Fakistra was close. Carry on walking, soon, I saw cars parked up the end of the path. If there were 4 cars parked up, that meant the beach could be busy. Might not be, lots of people walk from there to Damouchari. Anyway, we still needed to walk down to the beach. Only 5-7mins hiked down the steep stone path. It was worth it. This is the view from the picnic point looking down Fakistra beach.

Isn't beautiful? I haven't been to many beaches, but I know this beach is the most beautiful and un-spoilt paradise in whole Pelion! Or maybe even whole Greece? Defo, this beach is one of my favo beaches.

A man in the rock!

Sound of wave under the rock was awesome! Water was very pleasant temperature, after sweating and walking, jumping into the sea was..OMG, heaven! ☺

By the way, these photos were taken from the cave. This cave had a church, a room and big platform. I wonder, the monk used to live and hide there, what he used to wonder and feeling everyday.... I could almost as if he was still there sitting in the cave meditating...

After spending good 3 hours (maybe more) on the beach, we walked back. This time took us just over 1hour. Not bad. We bumped into an English couple who we saw earlier on the beach. We had a quick chat and exchanged information (as we do when we are away) about holiday and walks. ☺

Then I wondered that evening, how many more beaches like Fakistra were hidden away in Greece... ✿✿✿