Run through the Jungle

Quad bikes on Naxos continued:

Since we’d paid for petrol ourselves we wanted to run the tank dry before returning it the next day. We go exploring the island, through every neighbouring village, over every mountain, through every dirt track. And therein lies our next adventure. We went in the very rural parts of the island. Fields of crop surrounding us on every side. Two way dirt road tracks barely big enough for one way traffic. Deserted.

Oh what’s down there? Let’s check it out. Oh what if we take this turn? Let’s go. Such was the nature of this journey.

The great thing about quads is that we can go wherever we want, stop whenever, and discover some amazing hidden gems and beautiful landscapes the general tourists wouldn’t ever see. That we did. We brought along the guitar and had a recorded afew early versions of original songs, looking over rolling hills and meadows.

We also found abandoned caves and houses, wells, fields, etc. That actually was abit creepy, particularly in the setting sun. And that’s when we realised that we were lost.

No doubt, after so many random turns it was bound to happen. Problem was, there was no view beyond the road we were on. Surrounded on either side by fields of crop taller than 2.5 meters. A labyrinth of vegetation. With the sun setting, and the fuel tank running nearly dry, prospects didn’t look so good in terms of finding our way back home that night.

That’s when disaster struck. The Quad broke down on us – the gear stick came loose and no gear would engage. From the many bumps on these roads, clearly the quad had had enough. We get down, in the middle of a deserted and rapidly darkening dirt road, and check out the damage. Proud to say, I inspected the engine, saw where the problem was and managed to hook back on the gear stick. Surely enough, the gears engaged and on our way we went. Unfortunately it kept getting unhinged with severe bumps on the road so each time I drove over one too many we had to get off and fix the thing again.

Thank God my cousin remembered a particular road we’d come from, because to me they all looked exactly the same.

We found our way back to the main road and got home safe. In time for a quick nap and headed back out on the highway ready to party the night away at a local watering hole.