Samaria Gorge

Not one, but two family trips down this most famous of gorges. After my three days in the White Mountains solo, I was really looking forward to showing K and E around after a rest day in Chania. I deliberately saved Samaria for a family outing having looked down on it from all the surrounding peaks, and the Kallergi refuge, but E didn't fancy the standard coach trip with 5am start. So we drove up in our own time on Thursday morning, having a picnic breakfast at Lakkoi and entering the gorge around 10am at Xyloscala. Views were just as perfect and spectacular as they had been when I was here a few days ago, and I warned them both that we were essentially doing a 'hillwalk in reverse', so a certain amount of judgement about when to turn back was in order. The zigzags from Xyloscala descend for 600 metres and must be very hard on the knees for the tourists who come this way. After this, the side gorge comes down from the Gigilos Pass, and the path levels out a bit until the ancient chapel is reached at Ayia Nikolaos, a delightful resting spot. After seeing virtually nobody on all my forays up 14 Cretan summits, it was a novelty to be faced by hundreds of tourists of all shapes and sizes today. After rest and snacks at the chapel, we continued onwards, much gentler now as the walls begin to narrow a bit. The river is crossed multiple times during this section, with views up the walls of Gigilos and Volakias. All the rest stops had water, a crucial factor that makes it feasible for ordinary walkers. Eventually, the gorge opens out again above the abandoned village of Samaria. This is the point at which it really narrows, but unfortunately I also deemed it the best time to turn back as I felt we would be pushing it otherwise. On the long haul back to Xyloscala, we saw two cri cri (agrimi) the endemic Cretan wild goat (I had also seen two or three on my mountain trips) - this was presumably because the gorge was now completely empty, which made for a memorable trip back up, away from the hordes, definitely the way to do it. One kri kri, spotted by E, was a male with horns. E and K coped well with the long climb up, and agreed to go back again, from the bottom this time. So after moving from Maleme to the foothill village of Vafes we drove, two days later, to Hora Sfakion on the south coast and booked ourselves onto the morning ferry to Ayia Roumeli. A wonderful, unforgettable journey ensued, hugging the wild coast en route to the beautiful village of Loutro, the fantasy Greek coastal village with whitewashed houses and tavernas framed below a burnt orange hillside. Docking at Ayia Roumeli, a superb view of Volakias towering above the gorge, looking pretty impressive. A long, hot walk through the village to the exposed, shadeless track that takes some time to reach the lower entrance to Samaria. From here, the walls begin to close in and quite quickly the famous Sidereportes (Iron Gates) are reached, a very narrow section which necessitates a raised traverse above the river. The gorge is not that high at this point, however, and is actually quite a bit more spectacular higher up. After the Gates, we reached the very large rest stop of Christos and took a long break. Too long, in retrospect, as the next section - undoubtedly the most spectacular - is also the longest. We were travelling uphill, opposite to the hordes of tourists, but the views are better this way as the walls soar upwards and the gorge remains tight throughout, the path twisting and turning and often crossing the river. As it opens out before the village, we had to call it a day - not willing to risk missing the return ferry at 5.30pm. Another excellent day - we recuperated with frappe and freshly squeezed juice in Ayia Roumeli before another wonderful boat trip in evening sunshine. Cuttlefish and Sfakian pies in Hora Sfakion in a seaside restaurant as the sun set.