Crete - Page 3

Samaria gorge

Today we planned the most famous gorge, Samaria. With 17 km it is one of the longest in Europe. Mostly tourists are dropped in the Omalos plateau and move down to the Libyan Sea. We first want to go up from the bottom as far as we can get, then back. I.e. at some point during the ascent the tourist stream of up to 4000 people daily (one reads) will overrun us. The other kind of challenge. For this we first had to take the ferry to Agia Roumeli. One could have also run the E4 along there, but both would be too tight for one day.

But then it was not as bad as expected. Easy to walk on trodden paths, the route is quite varied. The spectrum ranges over wide gravel areas, isolated trees, sometimes even mini-forests of pines, sycamores or cypresses. Much higher than in the Aradena Gorge, the rock walls on the left and on the right grow up to 600 m high. The valley floor is sometimes wider, sometimes narrower, narrowest at the Iron Gate with 3-4 meters. Further up, in the deserted village of Samaria, we were increasingly met by people. Here we also saw the rare wild goats (Kri-Kri). We walked up from there for another half hour and then turned back.

The first stragglers of the crowd coming from above were already transported down by horses or mules. On most of the route, help is accessible for those who are not so good on foot. Entry and exit of the gorge is also documented, so that no one has to spend the night there 🙂. Arrived at the bottom, we still treat ourselves to a home-squeezed orange juice and then wait patiently in the crowd for our ferry. We ended the day fulfilled and thirsty on the beach of Lykos.

Lykos beach - Loutro - Chora Sfakion

Still early, we first walked to Loutro. Manu wanted to stroll through the picturesque town today, so I made myself alone along the E4 to Chora Sfakion. In about 50 m height the path runs along the mountain. One runs through idyllic bays and over lonely pebble beaches. After the beautiful church, Ekklisia Timios Stavros, which stands out white against the dark blue of the sea, you pass Sweet Water Beach. Here, fresh water flows from the sand in several places. In the taverna there, you could have something to eat, but for once I didn't want to. After the next lonely bay, the path leads extremely steeply up to a hiking trail, then to the road.

From there it is only downhill to the beautiful Chora Sfakion. With the ferry I drove back to Loutro and landed after the footpath over the rock again in the hanging chair under the olive tree 🙂. On the last evening we saw on the terrace of the neighboring restaurant still the final of the soccer World Cup. Ciao paradise 😢.