One thing that could, just might be, interesting about travel and about hearing what is going on in another part of the world, is that small things can sound a little bit interesting.

After more years than anyone can remember harvesting olives, the road from Souda to the Chania airport turn has been resurfaced.

How boring! Well not so. Not for the many who have visited or tried to leave Crete after a vacation, who will remember the off-road skills that were needed to stay On the road to or from the airport. The massive bumps and cracked craters seemed like a miniature map of the island’s very mountains. How all those rented cars stayed bolted together after this massive auto-vibro-massage of a road, is hard to understand.

So we toast and welcome the new two lane blacktop, the new smooth velvet-surfaced road and hope that other signs sane signs of progress will appear and will show a new consciousness about welcoming visitors to the fabled island.

At last getting to and from Chania’s airport is a reality that no longer bears comment, and a tired bumpy and disgraceful “myth” is buried forever. Buried under the new surface, the surface of the future!

No more traffic signals on the main north coast road in Crete (the New National Road) at Rethymno.
The many months of work on the underpass for the main road at Rethymno have produced the goods and the road is now open.
You can now drive from Kissamos, past Chania and Rethymno without traffic signals until the first post of Red/amber/Green at Heraklion’s junction for the centre of the city (the next one being at the beginning of Agios Nikolaos).

In Heraklion: The new coast sea-front road is now open as far as the olympic stadium.
The significant aesthetic imporvements to Heraklion continue, with a planned change to the concrete-jungle horror of Eleftherias Venizelos square in the centre, becoming softer, greener and to have the addition of many trees….transforming the area into a worthy place to be for a while!

Some change is good.

Easter in Crete as always has attracted some early season visitors and church bells vividly rang with the Epitaph being paraded through villages and towns.
Now those who fasted (some do) can eat all foods again – the traditional roasting of lamb on an open spit was celebrated again on Easter Sunday.

Oh and the road….long awaited and now with a hopeful gaze, the road (almost impassable at present) between Kato Zakros and Xerokambos is due to be partly surfaced by the end of June (we are ever hopeful this date will be met!). With the rest of the road graded (gravel) well enough for cars to make a much shorter journey between these two delightful places in the east.

Kato Zakros is a tiny summer village, but also home to the Palace of Zakros archaeological site. Xerokambos is a thinly scattered group of a handful of houses and splendid quiet beaches.

A neat place to stay for beach and quiet is Akti Rooms in Xerokambos
( http://www.crete-hotels-rooms.com/Reservations/Akti_Rooms.htm )

As a footnote, the weather has become sunny, warm and bright with ideal 22-24 degree daytime maximum…cool evenings and Crete’s sunny disposition confirmed once more!

The New National Road as it passes Heraklion will one day lose the famed traffic signals that cause severe reduction in average traffic speeds on the major artery. (The traffic signals at Rethymno are already a memory, though the overpass for the main road is not yet complete and diversions are still in play)

The new bridge from the traffic signal junction – which is the turn for both Heraklion town centre and for Knossos – is complete. Next stage will be the addition of feeder roads, though progress in this area is moving slowly. The traffic signals are still there, but this is a big step towards realizing a continuous stretch of road from Kissamos in the west to Agios Nikolaos that will be free flowing and closer to being worthy of the name “New National Road”!

On the electricity front, the new power station at Atherinolakos by the coast in south-east Crete is complete. Testing and final commissioning is under way and the power station should be pouring power into the system on a regular basis in the next few months.

Crete’s internal road system has always lacked good roads from the north to the south coast….there are already many such roads but they are mostly narrow and circuitous.

A new North to south road improvement is under way – which when completed (it is hoped this might be numbered in months rather than years as in previous projects…many of which remain uncompleted years after the first road-laying steps) will offer a much improved route from Heraklion to thre south coast .

It is advisable to avoid the area and route via Houdetsi for a few months (until early 2005 perhaps) – if practical (detours are in place – delays and increased journey times can be expected).

The end result will be a positive step forward, helping to make visits and stays on the south coast of Crete more practical and accessible.