Samaria gorge
We walked the longest gorge in Europe! It starts on a plateau at c1250m then descends c1km in 1.5km via steps of loose stones – hazardous! (How a woman with a baby on her back walked up this bit I’ll never know!).
It was relatively quiet (not peak season yet), had some excellent gnarled trees (kind of Grimms' fairy tale/Lord Of The Rings like), impressive screes (and plenty of signs warning of falling rocks – but they missed us!), funky lizards, a spooky abandoned village, lots of flowers and a small stream to wade through.
Nearly 15km later is Sideroportes (“Iron Gates”) where the walls ascend to c700m and the gap between them shrinks to c3m – an amazing sight. By this time we had suffered blisters, ligament damage (it’s handy having a nurse with you at times like this!) and were running out of water, but we made it the last few km to the beach for a well-deserved swim.
Kourtaliotiko gorge
Having walked down a gorge, we decided to be a bit unconventional by swimming up a gorge!
We put ourselves in the hands of Dive2Gether, a diving school from Plakias. They drove us to the top of the gorge then we walked down what was a real goat path (i.e. very steep and almost unmarked) to the stream. There we stripped off, donned wetsuits (the water was freezing!) and proceeded to wade upstream past steep mossy walls, a vulture nest and wild herbs (including cannabis?).
As the water deepened, we left the weaker swimmers behind with a member of the crew, put snorkels on and swam upstream. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds though – as we approached the top, the current increased and water fell from the springs down the walls into our snorkels.
We made it to the end and were rewarded by a pummelling waterfall shower, the sight of big eels and a wonderful upward view that few tourists see.
Nightlife
Yes, we were forced into a few bars while we were there, too! (OK, we went voluntarily!).
Met some colourful characters from a wide variety of nations – Greek, Czech, German, Dutch, English. The Finikas nightclub/disco wasn’t open and no-one could tell us whether it would be.
Meltemi opened late in the evening and was free to enter and drinks were reasonably priced. It has reasonable sound and light systems and the music was predominantly trance and Greek dance/traditional.
The majority of the people were Greek, probably because it wasn’t the height of the season yet and fortunately there were few signs of antisocial behaviour often associated with resort clubs.
Phaestos
Phaestos was memorable because it was the quieter, unspoilt major Minoan archaeological site. Although it was difficult to visualize what the site would look like in 3D (only a few partial upright remains remained) it was amazing to think that this island was the birthplace of the first great European civilisation in 3000BC, with its advanced technology, commerce and political organisation.
An English-speaking guide is essential and it was really useful to have one who could answer all our questions.
Also interesting was the disc found here which contains hieroglyphics still undeciphered…and the discovery of similar ones in Peru and Russia linking back to Crete could mean that the cradle of global civilisation might turn out to be on this island, not in the Middle East!
Other highlights
The ambient sound of crickets, watching the locals celebrate the birthday of John The Baptist, climbing a rock face to the Roman tombs/hippy caves at Matala, romantic evening walks by the sea, seeing the Milky Way again, the freedom of nude sunbathing, the good quality local house wines at tavernas, very cheap cigarettes, the Roman ruins at Gortyna, the views from mountain tops (especially at Platea restaurant in Myrthios via a short road train journey), reading books, walking the eastern cliff of Plakias Bay, the chilled-out-ness of the area, frisbeeing in the sea (plenty of room to do it safely!), the friendly people, the heat of the sun and our tans, sharing our meals with cats at the tavernas.