Hiking in Crete

Summit of Mt. Gingilos

The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.¹ 

--Saki

Chania, where my plane from Athens landed, is a town on the north coast of Crete.  It lies in the far western portion of the island, far from Knossos and the Minoan sites about it, far from the island's capital at Iraklion (or Heraklion), far from most of the major events of the British resistance during the war, and far from the more frenzied portions of the tourist traffic.

But Chania is Crete's second largest city, and a sprawling town, whose sprawl is not immediately obvious to the newly-arrived visitor -- he finds his fascination focused on the compact and labyrinthine  "Old Town," clustered about the harbor in front of it, a harbor that sports an unbroken line of cafés and watering holes.  After three days in Athens, Chania gave me a pleasurable taste of the Greek isles, although Crete is by far the largest of those isles.

I had but a night's sleep and a few hours for exploration before meeting up with my hiking group back at the Chania airport -- there were 14 of us, all but me from England.  Our guide, a French native who spoke accent-free English, gathered us together.  We were herded into vans and driven a couple of hours due south into the mountains, to the rural "village" -- just several small hotels -- of Omalos. 

I had told friends repeatedly that I was going on a "Samaria Gorge" hiking vacation in Crete.  But the hiking organization labeled the trip as "The White Mountains of Crete," which was much more accurate.  The gorge walk -- one of those activities like climbing Kilimanjaro that end up on some people's "bucket lists" -- occupied only one day.  The trek as a whole introduced us to the entire White Mountains area of Crete, of which Samaria was but one dramatic feature.

The morning after arriving in Omalos, we began the climb of Mt. Gingilos, a good introduction to the White Mountains -- which are indeed constructed of white limestone -- and the most difficult day of the trek.  All the trails on Crete consist of loose stone.  My hiking boots lost so much tread by the end of the trip that they are now unusable.  We walked up steep, rocky paths -- greeted as we climbed by domestic goats which range free all over the countryside, obediently returning to their homes at the proper time -- and scrambled over carved limestone formations.  By the time we had returned to the trailhead, we knew we had signed up for a trek designed for serious hikers.

The next day, we departed from Omalos for good and began the descent into Samaria Gorge.  The descent was steep, but we were shielded from the sun by lovely evergreen forests.  We stopped for lunch at Samaria village -- a ghost town whose inhabitants had been evicted when the park was created -- where we discovered one of the hazards of hiking Crete in autumn:  hungry hornets.  The hornets were far more interested in our lunches than in us, but we moved on to windier areas where we could eat in greater peace.

After the village, we entered the gorge itself -- certainly beautiful and dramatic, but maybe not that much more dramatic than the similar but shorter and less deep "Narrows" gorge in Zion National Park.  At this time of year, the hike was entirely on dry land, but the creek clearly expands to fill the gorge in wetter seasons.  After ten miles of hiking, we reached the south coast at the small town of Agia Roumeli.  Agia Roumeli has no real history -- it exists to serve tourists.  Its streets and cafés gradually fill to bursting with hikers emerging from the Gorge, until about 5 p.m. when two ferries arrive to haul everyone off to either of two road heads for their return to Chania.  The town's entire character changes once the "day people" have disappeared.  Great views of the sea to the south and the White Mountains to the north.

After a rest day in Agia Roumeli, we headed eastward on a coastal path to the Finix peninsula, where we stayed at a tiny beach hotel just west of, and around the peninsula from, the thriving fishing town, cum hotels and many restaurants, of Loutro.  We stayed three nights at the Finix hotel (named, appropriately, "The Old Phoenix"), from which we climbed Pachnes, the second highest mountain on Crete.  En route, we visited a small chapel, marking the location on the south coast where some believe that St. Paul's ship was blown ashore during a storm while he was being taken to Rome pursuant to his "appeal to Caesar.".

Despite Pachnes's height, it was a far easier climb than Gingilos.  We were loaded into seated pick-up trucks -- similar to "tuk-tuks" in Southeast Asia -- and driven two hours up into the mountains.  We began the drive in heat and humidity, but long before we arrived we had added layers of clothes and even gloves.  From the road head, we hiked about two hours to the summit -- on a far more regular and gentle path than that ascending Gingilos.  Everything within view of the summit was brown, arid, and desolate.  The view has been accurately described as a "moonscape," and certainly had a haunting, other-worldly appearance.

At the summit, about half the group accepted the guide's invitation to wander about and find a more interesting way down.  We more sensible hikers were happy to return the way we had ascended, a decision justified by the grumbling and rolling of eyes by the others as they arrived back at the trucks an hour or so after us.

Finally, we were picked up by a motor launch from our very pleasant harbor hotel and carried about a half hour to a major highway back to Chania.  We there boarded a luxurious bus that seemed like an intruder from an alternative universe.  The rest of the group was taken directly to Chania airport for flights back to the UK, but I had a late flight back to Athens, and time for wandering and lunching at the Old Town's harbor. 

The trek was a fascinating introduction to Crete, and certainly whetted my appetite for more.  Knossos and all things Minoan still await my exploration!
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¹This Saki quote has no relevance whatsoever to anything presented in my post, other than its dealing with Crete.  I just liked it. 

For those interested, here is a link that will let you view my Facebook photos of the trip.  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154652851494602.1073741905.761679601&type=1&l=b1187af3c3