Snow and Crocodiles

At Amari Villas with the wonderful Mrs Reumi

We have been staying in the delightful Amari Villas, always caressed by a breeze which carries swallows and huge butterflies through the courtyard.

Manolis, our hospitable landlord, popped by for a glass of raki on our first night. 

“What is there to do around here?” we asked him.

He explained to us that the mountain which dominated the skyline was Mt Ida, where once the goddess Rhea hid her baby Zeus in a cave so that his father Kronos would not eat him.  And look - there, on its flank was a diamond of snow left over from the winter.

In these temperatures? But we goggled at it and nodded credulously.

Then Manolis told us about ancient Byzantine churches and mysterious Minoan archaeological sites and pointed them out on the map. 

“And there,” said Nigel, indicating a reservoir, “–isn’t there supposed to be a good walk?”

Manolis confirmed that there was but said that there might be a problem – a two metre crocodile had been living there, presumably an unwanted pet which had outgrown its tank.

Again we gaped and nodded.

It was only the next day that one of us said “Hold on…”

Snow in Summer, crocodiles in the reservoir – was it possible that Manolis had been having a little joke?

But as we were leaving the wonderful Amari, we saw that a local baker was also celebrating the crocodile.  

Perhaps not a joke then.

But by that time, we had already done the reservoir walk.