On sudden impulse -- although I'd been mulling it over for several weeks -- I signed up this afternoon for an October one-week trek in Crete. Nothing real adventurous or daring -- we stay in small, family-run hotels (not tents) at night and eat good Greek (not freeze dried) food.
I'm advised by a friend that it may still be hot in October, but after years of hiking in high-elevation cold, that may be a nice change. We hike, of course, for one day through Crete's biggest outdoors tourist draw -- a 12½ mile hike through deep, narrow Samaria Gorge. We climb a couple of peaks -- neither over seven thousand feet in elevation -- at the beginning and at the end of the hike.
That's the strenuous stuff. Other days, we swim on deserted beaches, check out an old Turkish fort, walk on forested paths along cliffs above the sea, check out the spot (marked by a small church) where St. Paul is said to have landed during one of his sea voyages, and hike cross country over mountainous terrain, through tiny picturesque villages. As the itinerary beguilingly puts it, at various points, there will be time for drinks at a simple beach café, before one proceeds to dinner.
Crete to me has always meant Minoan civilization. And it's also meant the British resistance to the German occupation, described brilliantly in W. Stanley Moss's Ill Met by Moonlight. Neither preconception will have much bearing on this trek, limited as it is to the less frequented southern portion of the island.
But it should be an enjoyable week, hiking with a small group of fifteen hikers, predominantly British. It will mark a satisfying conclusion to a year filled with numerous travel experiences.
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