Living in Crete: Top Driving Tips in Crete

I apologise in advance, for this may very well be my first proper rant.

While being on Crete I have taken the decision to drive, more through necessity than a driving urge...sorry. I started driving pretty early on and have since driven continuously. Having experienced the roads many a time from the passenger seat I had some confidence regarding the 'rules' and directions before taking to the wheel. Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about writing about it, but after my experience at the weekend I've been angered into writing something.

I drive the road between Heraklion and Rethymno every weekend. It's called The National Road, I would describe it as a main road. It's somewhere between an A road and a dual carriageway without the bit in the middle, but definitely not a motorway. If you are still with me, well done. Anyway, the main reason for this not being a motorway is that it winds through the mountainous landscape along the North coast of Crete, therefore space is of a premium and corners and bends are of a maximum. It is wide enough for two lanes with something akin to a hardshoulder on either side but the road surface doesn't change unlike the UK. This allows cars to use it as an over-taking lane - the slower cars move over to the right to let other cars over-take them. So more often than not most people drive half in and half out both lanes, you are essentially following a racing line. The result of this is you have to drive with one eye in your side mirror. The over-taking technique is, shall we say, not very British-like. It would appear people think it is the slower car's responsibility to move when the faster car comes up behind them. If this doesn't happen they are bullied to the side, a combination of flashing lights and blasting horns follow while they drive literally 30cm from your rear bumper at speeds of 60-70 mph. That in itself is idiotic enough, but what I witnessed at the weekend and have done so several other times is moronic and worthy of a slow painful death. My biggest driving tip to any foreigners, infact, anybody driving on the roads in Crete is to keep as far to the outside of corners and bends as possible because they feel it is absolutely acceptable to over-take on corners. Although there are two lanes they aren't quite wide enough to accomodate two cars comfortably, this results in cars coming over into the other lane. I have twice had to swerve while going round bends to avoid cars over-taking, at ridiculous speeds. There are rules that are supposed to keep people right, but when you witness the police breaking them regularly (that is, when you actually see any police) it doesn't give you much hope.

You might think I'm over reacting a bit, but two weeks ago a Russian family were killed on this very road, a Grandmother, Mother and two children. Whilst, on, literally, every corner, you can see small memorials that look like bird houses. These represent the people who have died on the road.  I am being absolutely truthful when I say every corner. Not all of these will have been caused by other people, there certainly will have been cases of speeding and misjudgement.

Anyway, for what it's worth here are my top driving tips in Crete:

Give yourself plenty of time to slow down before corners and bends, some of them are very deceiving, especially going down hill.

When driving round corners stay as far to the outside (the righ-hand side) as possible, stay away from the centre.

Drive slightly to the right at all times and be vigilant of your wing mirrors at all times. Let idiots pass. The biggest mistake foreigners tend to make is not doing this. It is ok to drive in the hardshoulder here.

Give yourself plenty of breaking distance from other cars, native drives apparantly don't believe in this. They are happy to drive at two feet intervals from each other at 70 mph. And people tend to indicate very late if at all.

When the lines in the middle of the road are solid you can't over take, when they are dotted on your side you can.

There endth the rant. Now, where's my soap box?