Samaria Gorge

[harribobs]

Just an update on the Samaria Gorge openings for 2006 from Erno at the Sphakia Site:-


"Giannis Fasoulakis from Chora Sfakion just informs me that, after he made 2 calls to Agia Roumeli to verify,

The Samaria gorge:

* will open from Agia Roumeli to Portes only (the "Iron Gates", the most narrow part) from after tomorrow, 6th of April

and

* will be open all the way from 15th of April 2006. "


www.chora-sfakion.com



Sphakia message boards

[harribobs]

2007 Samaria Update

from Ekathimerini

GORGE REOPENING

Officials say site in Samaria will accept visitors in some six weeks

One of Crete’s main tourist attractions, the Samaria Gorge, is due to open in about six weeks, officials said yesterday. The forestry service, which is responsible for looking after the national park in southwest Crete where the 18-kilometer-long gorge lies, has been conducting safety tests at the site after some tourists were injured by falling rocks last year. Local officials said they would ask for extra funding so doctors could be posted at the site to treat any injuries sustained by visitors.

[Noopsy]

  Might be a good idea to bring a helmet if you are planning to go...

[harribobs]

 Might be a good idea to bring a helmet if you are planning to go...

One piece of advice I was given was that when walking in any steep sided gorge, if you hear goats above you, take care! they are buggers for dislodging loose rocks but as we know sometimes the rocks just slip down without any help!  

[Graham_and_Karen]

 Might be a good idea to bring a helmet if you are planning to go...

One piece of advice I was given was that when walking in any steep sided gorge, if you hear goats above you, take care! they are buggers for dislodging loose rocks but as we know sometimes the rocks just slip down without any help!  

Another piece of advice - if you hear goats at the same level as you, keep your packed lunch securely tucked away. The ones we met in the Imbros gorge were quite timid while we were walking    but when we stopped for our lunch it was a different matter!    
 

[harribobs]

 how can you resist them??




*this image has been cropped to spare Mandy's blushes*

[Graham_and_Karen]

how can you resist them??

If it's my lunch they're after, very easily   if it's Karen's ...

[Mike G]

how can you resist them??




*this image has been cropped to spare Mandy's blushes*

Pardon my ignorance, but are the vast numbers of goats on Crete kept solely for their milk and thus cheese? You very seldom see goat on a menu, which may be the Greeks' perception of northern Europeans as animal lovers and thus reluctant to eat certain animals. I once had a goat curry in a Caribbean restaurant in England and it was excellent.

Mike

[harribobs]

i'm not really sure Mike, but i have had roasted kid on occasions. I suspect sheep are easier to herd   but goats will live where nothing else seems to

i've often wondered just what they do live on in some places in the mountains

[Mike from Sussex]

Goats

From the number of skins you see stretched on fences they can’t be kept for milk alone. Milk production infers meat consumption anyway.

Tavernas aimed at tourists probably quickly learn that many of their customers can be illogical about food – will eat beef and lamb but not horse or goat. Things are probably different in rural tavernas. When I first visited Greece over 30 years ago, taverna menus were hand written and illegible, but everyone went into the kitchen to see what was available and make their choice. I just picked what smelt best and I have no idea what some of the meals were! Happy days!

I have had goat curry in a Goan cuisine restaurant in London, which was delicious.

[compage]

We've eaten goat in Greece.
Surely we can't be the only ones who've tried Kefelonia meat pie?
We enjoyed it.

Like Mike from Sussex we've occasionally chosen our meal from what was on display in the kitchen and who knows from what animal the meat came?

[George]

I had the goat, sorry I'll rephrase that... There was goat on the menu at the Lysseous in 2005 and it tasted ok to me! It was on the menu as an alternative to the Lamb. A bit different to say the least but I enjoyed it all the same.  

george g...

[harribobs]

you do see some funny things on the BBQ!

[harribobs]

did John mention eating strange meats on Kefalonia?


 )

[Noopsy]

Pity the Greek word from which the translation was made isn't fully visible...