E4 in Greece: General Comments

The E4 in Greece, marked intermittently with yellow and black diamonds or stripes, crosses some diverse landscapes. In the north things are greener, with more trees on the mountains, pines higher up and beech and other deciduous species lower down. In the south things get dryer and dustier, with more prickly Holm oak (after visiting the Natural History museum in Heraklion I now realise I should have distinguished Holm Oak from Kermes Oak both having spiky, holly like leaves and both common in the region). Crete seemed particularly dry and rocky. There also seemed to be more stiff thorny vegetation in the drier, southerly areas, but fewer brambles. In most of mainland Greece it was common to encounter shepherds or goatherds walking with their flocks as they grazed, accompanied by some aggressively barking dogs that required some caution when approaching. In Crete this was not common, as a lot of the land now seems to have been fenced (the Psiloritis mountains being an exception).
Many more people walk the Crete and Peloponnese sections of the E4 than do the more northern sections where I met no other E4 hikers. A shame as I enjoyed my walk through Macedonia, Thessaly and the Pindus mountains every bit as much. Mount Olympus is an exception with large numbers of people following the E4 route from Litochoro to the summit, none seem to continue down the other side.
A noticeable feature of walking the E4 in Greece is the number of small churches you pass, which seem to increase in number the further south you go. These appear in high places, mountain passes and the like. Some are rather beautiful inside with their wall paintings, icons and golden lamps. Some are old going back to the 14th century, some are very recent, although you would probably not realise unless you saw a year from the 1980s or similar displayed in the stonework. There are also small shrines by the roadside, some clearly mass produced but individually cared for. Monasteries are also encountered throughout Greece.
Little cafes, which in mainland Greece were usually found in the square by the church under a plane tree, were excellent places to take a break with a Greek coffee, a Coke or Lemonade. I had a number of coffees or similar generously bought for me in Greece by friendly locals, especially in places less visited by walkers. Maybe I was a bit of a novelty or maybe they were proud that someone from England had visited their little village. There was also suspicion in the north though, with people asking what I was doing, and not just out of curiosity.
The Greek bakeries were a pleasurable place to pick up a snack and there was a lot more variety to Greek food than just mousaka. It helped to take whatever it was they had on the go, although where they spoke no English "Souvlaki", "salata" and "eliniko cafe" generally worked. It also helped to say "fagito?" pronounced "fayito?", which means "food?", as it was sometimes difficult to tell if food was available. I was surprised that I was often offered vegetarian food, something that was rare when I first visited Greece many years ago.
To navigate the E4 through Greece I used a GPS  preloaded with tracks downloaded from the internet or created by myself, and a map on the SD card. The main sources of downloaded tracks were waymarkedtrails.org and traildino.com, I also used e4-peloponnes.info in the Peloponnese and in Crete tracks supplied by the people behind the Cretan Way guidebook. Where I could not find a GPS track for a section I created it from maps published by Anavasi, the main producer of maps suitable for hikers in Greece, or else I constructed one from tracks published on wikiloc.com and using Google Earth. (Update: I have recently discovered Geopsis also produce hiking maps of Greece, check out their site as well as Anavasi's). To help others, in those areas where GPS tracks for the E4 are not available or are incomplete I have loaded my own tracks, based on where I actually walked, onto wikiloc.com and viewranger.com (on MyViewRanger search routes for "johnpon"). I used GPS maps from Navitracks.de, their Balkans map and later their Greek map, which seemed quite similar. By no means complete, and with contouring that was not very detailed they were the best available. I had some digital maps from Anavasi but found these more useful in my preplanning for creating my GPS tracks, than when actually walking the route, as they were not "vectorised" maps and slow to load.
You could get away with using a decent smart phone instead of a dedicated GPS but charging it could be an issue in remote areas. I did find the default Viewranger maps useful on occasion when I needed to divert from my planned route as my phone gave a larger screen than my GPS, and was quicker to zoom and pan. Diversions from the official E4 or my planned routes where needed on a number of occasions whether due to paths being too overgrown or excessive snow.
Although Greece is reasonably well blessed with small hotels, guesthouses and rooms on the E4, there were still days in the mountains when I needed to wild camp. This was not generally a problem except in Crete where its rocky landscape and thorny vegetation did not make good pitches (although you can hide on flatter ground in someone's olive grove).
Including travel from the UK and rest days I spent a total of 90 days crossing Greece on the E4, around 3 months in two separate visits. It may be difficult to do it in one go as either you will encounter excessive heat in the summer or excessive snow on the mountains in winter. Having allocated the time it is not a difficult thing to do and you will be rewarded by many things expected and unexpected....

Links to different parts of my trip:

Start of walk on E4 through Greece
General comments on Macedonian section of E4
General comments on E4 between Florina and Litochoro
General comments on E4 between Mt Olympus and Kalambaka
General comments on E4 in Pindus mountains
General comments on E4 in Peloponnese
General comments on E4 in Crete

The walk through Greece is part of a longer project to walk the E4 from its start in Tarifa in Spain to its end in Cyprus. I have written blogs on various sections. Links are below:

Blog on E4 walk in Hungary from Budapest (prior to Budapest John Hayes provides an inspirational account)
Blog of walking across Serbia on the E4
Blog of crossing Bulgaria on the E4
Blog of crossing Cyprus on the E4

Although not officially part of the E4 you can start the walk from the tip of Portugal, the section from Cape Vincent to Tarifa is blogged here.

Update: Based on my travels on the E4 I have written a book "Six Pairs of Boots: Spain to Cyprus on the E4 Trail" by John Pucknell available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, the Bookdepository.com, lehmanns.de, bookspot.nl, and other good online bookstores.

E4 in Crete: General Comments

The E4 in Crete has at least three different styles of walk: popular coastal walks in the western Chania area passed isolated beaches; walks through gorges, some like the Samaria gorge with lots of people, others you have to yourself, and walks up and down mountains. Crete is a very mountainous island with peaks rising to over 2400 metres. Apart from the coastal sections there are few days when you do not ascend and/or descend over a thousand metres. 

Unlike many other parts of Greece crossed by the E4, Crete is very popular with tourists with lots of infrastructure in place. It also has some of the most popular sections of the E4, with many people walking them, sometimes up to 20 times! This means at least in the popular sections hotels, rooms and guesthouses are available. I was glad as I did not find the wild camping options very attractive. Outside olive groves, vineyards and wheat fields, the slopes were steep, and the ground too full of rocks and thistles to make for good campsites. That said, accommodation on the E4 in the eastern section of Crete was in distinctly short supply.
One of the frustrations in Crete is the number of routes claiming to be the E4, making it difficult to know which the official ones are, which ones should you walk? On the plus side it gives lots of scope for creating your own route. I tried to combine some of the "must walk" parts Crete, such as the Samaria gorge and the coast sections in Chania province, while also avoiding too many needlessly circuitous options. Sometimes the effort made to avoid a bit of tarmac by pushing through undergrowth and over fences is just not justified by the reward.
Fences are the other frustration. Unlike in the rest of Greece there seemed to be an awful lot of fences, invariably made out of "rebar", actually intended to be used in reinforced concrete, and often blocking the path.
Caution is needed where the route follows a "path". In places there are very good paths, especially in the popular stages in the Chania region. In other cases you have to make your own path, pushing through thistles and thorny scrub. Even where a path more or less exists, the rocky nature may result in slow progress, this and time taken to work out where the path goes means that you should not assume you can cover the same number of kilometres in a day that you might if walking in say, Austria. 

The Cretan Way is an invaluable guidebook for the E4 in Crete. Foolishly I left my copy at home to save weight, having made relevant notes. Probably a mistake as some additional guidance would have been helpful, although it describes the route from east to west and I was walking in the opposite direction. In places the route described in the Cretan Way is waymarked by two red stripes, but not always. For GPS tracks I downloaded the ones on waymarkedtrails.org, which needed some parsing and tidying up, and a set supplied by the Cretan Way website. I used a Navitracks map of Greece on my GPS, although I could have done with more detail and precise contouring, in addition I took some paper maps which were helpful, Anavasi's Lasithi map and Harms IC Verlag's West Crete map. Rothers walking guide to Crete was another reference that influenced my choice of route. Blogs on Interkriti.org and section descriptions on Cretanbeaches.com were also useful.

Water can be a concern. A dry climate for much of the year, the limestone rocks and the capturing of springs into black plastic pipes for irrigation can mean there are few opportunities to top up on water, so take plenty. I walked in late May and early June and it was hot. Any later in the summer and it would be really hot. Yet I still had to contend with large patches of snow in the Psiloritis mountains. Maybe autumn is the ideal time to walk the route when last winter's snow has melted but this year's has yet to begin, but you would loose the spring flowers that I enjoyed so much.

Start of my E4 blog on Crete.

Zakros to Home: Day 88 to 90

A return home, stopping for a day at Heraklion to see the sights.
Zakros is not the easiest place to get out of on a Saturday morning, there are no buses so I hired a taxi at 50 euros to take me to Sitia. Cafe Xyloporta's friendly owner kindly booked it for me with his friend. Driving along in an air conditioned, gleaming white Mercedes, the olive groves looked beautiful this morning through the window, if somewhat artificial as until now I had mostly seen them at a slower pace while wiping the sweat away from my eyes. Rather than climbing up to the fortress at Sitia, I had breakfast by the waterfront at one of the many cafes and restaurants.
For the next 3 1/2 hours I was on a bus as it navigated bendy coastal roads to Heraklion. Over 30 years ago I spent a holiday near Agios Nikolaos. Passing through the area again in the bus I was disappointed at the coastal sprawl that now swamped the area: lots of souvenir shops, concrete blocks, tavernas, apartments, hotels and half built buildings, rebar sticking out of their roofs like unruly tufts of hair. It had an air of over-development, yet during my walk on the E4 across Crete, the accomodation and restaurants were localised, picturesque and on a smaller scale, as well as not being exactly full. The tourist sprawl looked like being on a narrow strip of the North coast where I would not wish to spend another holiday, knowing the beauty of the south coast of the Chania region or the grandeur of the mountains.
In Heraklion I stayed at the Atrion hotel, although it could easily have been one of the many others. I did the rounds of the sights, starting with the archeological museum. When I was around 12 I did an essay on the Minoan civilisation and had been impressed by the amazing wall paintings in the books. Men and women leaping over bulls and dolphins frolicking looked so much more interesting than the pictures of Egyptian pharaohs and slaves that my schoolmates chose to write about. I was therefore disappointed to discover they were actually based on just a few original fragments with most of the frescos extrapolated from these.
I also visited: the Natural History museum,  checking the seismograph to see if I had missed an earth tremor overnight; the Venetian fortress that guards the harbour; the History museum, and I walked the length of the Venetian walls around the city. Finally, I bought a few gifts in the one of the many shops that line the mainly pedestrianised streets of the old town.
On Monday it was a bus to the airport, although I was tempted to spend an hour walking there as it is quite near the centre. The airport was overcrowded but all went well and some hours later I was catching the train home from Gatwick.
Now only Cyprus to cross to complete the E4....

Zakros to Kato Zakros on the E4: Day 87

A walk down the "Canyon of the Dead" to Kato Zakros, the sea and the end of the E4 in Crete and Greece.
There was no hurry to get up this morning as just a 7.5 kilometre walk to the sea was needed to complete my walk on the E4 in Greece. The E4 sign pointed down the road, which I followed for a while, but I really wanted to get to Zakros gorge, also called Deads gorge because of ancient Minoan burials somewhere in it. So I turned off the road and followed a track to the entrance to the gorge where the E4 signs promptly reappeared. I later realised that the first E4 sign I saw marked "Kato Zakros" was misleading, the E4 actually starts in the middle of the village.
The walk down the gorge was more adventurous than I expected with a number of stream crossings on stepping stones and some walking over rocks and on a concrete aqueduct among pink flowering shrubs.  Cliffs rose each side of this fairly narrow gorge, with various caves in their walls, some of these were I assumed the burial sites. The walk was popular with people, some of whom stopped to enjoy sitting by the stream. At the bottom there are the remains of a Minoan palace, which had a number of helpful signs about the low walls you are looking at. Without them the site is just a collection of low stone walls.
Having walked down to the sea and so completed my walk on the E4 across Greece I settled down to lunch, watching the people, of various nationalities, ages and sizes enjoying the beach, the sun and in some cases, multiple bottles of beer. I returned up the old Zakros road which has excellent views of the gorge below.
I am now on a rare second beer at the Xyloporta cafe to celebrate finishing the E4 in Greece.

To Kato Zakros and back was a walk of 14 kilometres with a total ascent of 360 metres.

The beach at Kato Zakros, and the end of the E4 in Crete and in Greece

Zakros or Deads gorge

Chrisopigi to Zakros on the E4: Day 86

A mammoth day of walking through a part of Crete rarely seen by tourists.
My night among the olive trees was not disturbed other than by the periodic squeaking of some creature, a bird maybe? Today was windy, although the Cretan Way guidebook warns of wind this is the first day it impacted me. While I was rolling up the tent, the tent's bag disappeared, I assume blown away in a gust of wind. Normally I would weigh it down with something, but today, my last day of camping on this trip, I must have been getting slack. Anyway the bag was starting to show holes, this lightweight gear does not last long.
After a climb I reached the little, half abandoned village of Dafni, with its little alleys characteristic of old Cretan village layouts. Then it was a gradual descent down a valley with bright green vineyards lower down, then olive trees a little higher, often on terraces, then the mountainside with its yellow gorse. After losing much height, the dirt track I was following crossed the river and headed up the other side of the valley. This meant the route did a large dogleg, turning back on itself. During the dogleg the E4 signs were absent. Study of E4 signs I encountered suggested there was a shorter alternative, although I suspected it might involve forcing a way through undergrowth with uncertain navigation (later confirmed by blogs on interkriti.org). In the event the route I took along dirt tracks, based on GPS tracks I had downloaded, was easy to follow and took me past an old church, with faded wall paintings that looked like the ghosts of saints evaluating me.
Climbing up I missed a turning or two so stuck to the tarmac road that led me passed Etia. A desirable outcome as it had: a taverna, where I drank a Coke; a double nave church, each nave with an iconostasis (why bother having two naves I wondered, instead of one large nave); some ruins of abandoned houses (but still with good street lights), and what I took to be the Venetian villa marked on my map. A little later there were remains of old Cretan windmills in the fields, looking sad in their half collapsed state. Some time after I reached Chandras. The Lemon tree taverna which has glowing reports in various blogs and guides was closed and looked unlikely to ever open again, so I continued down the road to Zeros for a pita souvlaka.
After Zeros it was a climb up to the plateau. The path which crosses the plateau for several kilometres was not as bad as I feared. Although rough and stony, it was not overgrown and relatively easy to follow with a variety of waymarks: signs on metal posts; white, yellow and black stripes; yellow stripes and spots, and red spots. Although the map shows it as a straight line it actually wiggles around rock outcrops as it makes it's way through the landscape. It takes you to a church, at the abandoned settlement of Skala, where the Turks massacred a group of Greeks, before it begins its descent.
With sore feet after walking almost 40 kilometres, the interminable descent to Zakros was not pleasant especially with gusts of wind trying to throw me off balance. It was with much relief I picked up the key for my Dimitra apartment. While I waited the owner's mother smiled and gave me a banana. A shower was definitely needed to wash off the congealed sweat. Some wine and food at the nearby Xyloporta cafe also helped improve things, and the Metaxa brandy certainly helped to put me to sleep!

39 kilometres walked today with a 1140 metre total ascent.

Early morning is a beautiful time to walk

An alluvial fan

Derelict windmill

Path over plateau to Zakros

Stavros mountain to Chrisopigi on the E4: Day 85

A long day with lots of ups and downs, but good views in the morning.
I woke to birdsong and the smell of thyme. The sky on the horizon was red, pregnant with the unrisen sun. In Crete the sky often seems to blend into the sea, without a clear horizon being visible, pastel shades predominate at sunrise and sunset.
From my campsite beside Mount Stavros it was downhill on a track twisting right and left on the slope to loose height at a gentle pace. Small vineyards were scattered across the rough mountainside, each with a small building with a black plastic water tank or similar on its roof. Lower down there were olive trees in regular patterns as I approached the broad valley separating two groups of mountains. At the bottom of my track was Vasiliki. The upper part of this village has been abandoned, the buildings falling into disrepair, but nearer the road pots of geraniums show life still exists here, indeed I passed a few older ladies, all dressed in black bent over sticks going about their morning business. There was a cafe, sadly closed.
After crossing the valley with its olive groves, I climbed to the village of Monastiraki with its cute little houses built on top of each other and narrow alleyways. There was a taverna asking for Facebook "likes" and a cafe with a "heart" drawn on its blackboard but both were closed so no "likes" from me.
The next section was a path, and given that E4 "paths" in Crete are often just an invitation to push through the undergrowth, I was a bit concerned. However, it proved a serviceable route, easily followed except for one section of loose stone. As I climbed higher, a view over the valley below opened up, with the village of Pachia Amos in the near distance, and west along the coast to the more distant tourist town of Agios Nikolaos. A large outcrop of rock loomed straight ahead.
Before reaching it the path turned inland above the "Gorge of Ha", which, based on the informative sign, looks a spectacular, narrow gorge with multiple waterfalls that you need to rappel (i.e. abseil) down. Climbers attempting the gorge start at the little St Anna chapel, which was a useful stopping point for me as it had a tap at which I could fill up my water containers. With the heat of the day I was getting through a lot of water, the sweat falling in drops from my face. The chapel has 15th century wall paintings, very much faded. I was struck by how similar they were to modern paintings in Orthodox churches, rather solemn, stern faces with gold halos.
Thripti village was a little further on where I was delighted to find a taverna open for lunch despite the small size of the village. The staff and customers were all shouting at each other. I have noticed this before in Crete and the Peloponnese. Are people really cross with each other, or is Greek in these parts a language you shout, or is it just the culture in which shouty speech is the norm?
After Thripti the track wound around; up, down and up again between the mountains. Eventually the route led me to a "path", one of those non-existent, find a way through the thorny bushes path. At the start there were some steel posts with E4 signs to aim for. Unfortunately these stopped and I was following the route on my GPS, which then took me across a scree slope balancing on goat tracks.
Finally I approached a track but waited while the farmer whistled for his sheep, which surprisingly obeyed, coming to him, if a little slowly grabbing bits of vegetation on the way. I then proceeded, trying not to disturb his carefully corralled flock, although not entirely successfully.
On reaching the village of Chrisopigi I could see no sign of a cafe, shop or taverna which I had been hoping for, not even a closed one. For a top up of water, an old lady in black pointed to the tap used to water the geraniums in the village square. She and (I assume) her husband were just sitting there watching the world go by (which consisted mainly of me going by).
A few kilometres further on and I am hiding in an olive grove as these are areas of flat land suitable for pitching a tent on. I have picked a spot where all the weeds have been chemically killed off so there are no thistles to attack me. With my green tent blending in with the olive trees I am hoping the owner of the trees does not see me and tell me to move on.

35.8 kilometres covered today with a 1300 metre total ascent.

Cretan sea

Olive trees on terraces by E4 track

View across to Agios Nikolaos

15th century wall painting in church of St Anna at Thripti

Gorge of Ha

Males to Stavros mountain on the E4: Day 84

A good day's walk during which my feet much appreciated walking on dirt tracks and roads rather than rough, stony paths, it also meant I could enjoy the scenery rather than looking where I put each foot.
The breakfast served at Villa Mala was sufficiently large and enjoyable (cheese pie, omelette, bread and jam) that I did not feel hungry for the rest of the day. Suitably fortified I climbed the 500 metres out of Males, over 5 kilometres, to join the direct path from Selakano in 1 hour and 15 minutes; pretty good I thought! The track was so steep in places that the rear wheels of a pick up were spinning as they tried to get a grip. After the stony paths of recent days, searching for the route, the dirt tracks and tarmac roads of today felt like a real pleasure. My feet and ankles certainly enjoyed something flatter, with stones less likely to trip me up, roll over or slide as I trod on them, so I was able to look around me.
After climbing passed olives I was walking among pine trees too widely spaced to be called a forest. They gave a clean, fresh smell and pleasant aspect. Unfortunately one area of pines had been burnt. I hope the fire was accidental and not some farmer trying to improve the grazing. A red pick up passed me earlier with a red light, straining up the hill. I assume the local fire service. Looked like they only supplied a pump and you had to find a source of water...
In one area a farmer was using his dogs as gates, attached to chains they guarded the track each side of his fenced enclosure. The chain was just short enough that I could inch past between the barking dog, leaping against his chain, and the fence post.
This morning I could look down from the mountainside on the Libyan sea to the south of Crete, later I could see the Cretan sea to the North of Crete. During the day I walked through pines and olive groves, across the side of the mountains with its low scrubby and thorny vegetation (and in place covered with bright yellow gorse), passed hillside vineyards and rocky outcrops, by a few isolated churches and through two villages, Prina and Meseleri. I stopped for a coffee (and to fill up my water bottle) at a place in Prini, after searching among the alleyways for it. The only customer, the owner was playing games on his phone. Later it was a Coke in Meseleri, while the family chatted to each other.
After the climb out of Males, it was more or less downhill to Prina out of the Dikti mountain range, then uphill to Meseleri and beyond into the next group of mountains and to the Panagia monastery (locked). I am camped on some flat ground near some aerials on the top of Mount Stavros. For some reason it is not only flat but clear of thistles and larger stones, so an unusually good camping spot, except for the flies, which are being a nuisance. It is too hot to hide in my tent from them, I just drip with sweat, so I am eagerly waiting for the sun to drop lower in the sky and the day to cool down, but being June this is taking some time. Around me the goats are snuffling and making discordant tunes with the bells around their necks, some have small high pitched bells and some carry big, oversized, bells sounding bass notes. Standing up I can see the pastel greys of the hills and headlands of the north coast of Crete. I head to bed and sleep long before any stars appear..

31.9 kilometres walked today with a total ascent of 1050 metres.

Lasithi plateau to Males on the E4: Day 83

A big climb out of the Lasithi plateau among high, stony mountains then a big climb down the other side.
The first part of the climb was fairly easy following dirt tracks, with a few sections of a rough path, some of which I missed as the dirt track was easy to walk on even if it was longer as it looped around to reduce the gradient. A number of pick ups passed me, which surprised me until I came over the brow of a hill and saw the Limnakaro plateau, dotted with trees, higher and much smaller than the Lasithi plateau, with a number of farm buildings and the inevitable church.
Leaving the plateau the route was more difficult. A path across stony ground that climbed up a valley, the bare, grey, limestone mountains rising high above. However as I climbed higher I benefited from some beautiful views. The day had started misty with clouds covering the hills, but I had climbed so high that I could look over the clouds, just as you can in an aeroplane but without the distortion of the windows. In the distance the Psiloritis mountains poked above the clouds, I watched them appear and disappear as I ate some biscuits. Crossing the pass I had my first view of the mountains to come in the next few days (a little disappointed as I was hoping for some gentler walking). Sheep were grazing on the high ground but it seemed to me there was very little for them to eat apart from some thorny bushes. Much of the island seemed over grazed to me, but then I know nothing of these things.
The first part of the route down was painful, picking my way through the rocks, trying to avoid slipping on loose stone while also looking out for the waymarks (mainly yellow today) and E4 signs. My ankles were complaining. It was therefore a relief to find a dirt track, and a more moderate path in a small pine forest, a change from the thorny oaks that are more common.
Reaching the collection of houses that constitute Selakano, I stopped at the church to pay my respects, then continued on my way, passing three hikers going the other way, the first I had seen today. A sign on leaving the village had a map of the E4 trails in the Lasithi prefecture. They have been revising and resigning the route, so that the new signs no longer take you to the village of Males. While this makes sense as it cuts out a "dogleg" in the route, I already had a booking at the Villa Mala, so continued down the old route down the valley to the village, with views of the blue Libyan sea in the distance.
My apartment in the Villa Mala has a four poster bed and candles and smooth white pebbles in the bathroom. Very romantic but my wife is far away...
Some spicy meatballs for tea...

25.1 kilometres walked today with a total ascent of 1100 metres.

View over clouds to Psiloritis mountains that I crossed a few days ago

At the pass

Kastelli to Lasithi plateau on the E4: Day 82

A climb up an old mule track to the Lasithi plateau.
Climbing out of Kastelli I had two alternative tracks stored in my GPS, which sometimes followed the same route and sometimes diverged. One point of divergence was after the village of Lyttos. I took the route that followed dirt tracks instead of the road. This took me to a place with two old looking churches. A sign said ancient Likos, but I could not see any ancient remains, and there was no further explanation. Looking at Google maps in satellite mode later, maybe there was an archeological site to the north west of the higher church. A little later I passed a huge thick wall with a hole in, apparently part of an ancient aqueduct.
After a further section of dirt track a fork takes you onto an ancient mule track that climbs to the Lasithi plateau. I missed the junction at first as I was being followed by two puppies who wanted to join me for a walk. I could not make them understand that I did not want to go for a walk with them. Fortunately their owner came for them and pointed out the correct path. The mule track rises up the mountainside by going back and fore in a zigzag pattern. It was a gentle way to gain height, at the expense of taking a long time to get anywhere. Almost imperceptibly I moved from olive groves to holm oak to no trees at all, just rocks, thistles, sage and thorny things. At the top there was a monument to some Turkish criminal being killed, and shortly after a view across the Lasithi plateau.
The plateau was being used for pasture, hay, potatoes and apples. A few cherry trees had ripe fruit on them. Lasithi was famous for its windmills with cloth sails, that pumped water to the surface. Now the only complete examples seem to be for the tourists. As I crossed the plateau some of the tourists passed me on ATVs (all terrain vehicles), as well as the more typical coaches and rental cars. The locals passed in pick ups, some loaded with bales of hay, one with its rear wings so badly rusted they were held on with rope (it had no number plate). In the villages I passed I was seeing an increasing number of older women dressed all in black, usually bent over with a stick, one such lady was tending the grill at a small taverna at Kato Metochi where I stopped for lunch.
Tonight I am staying at the Lasinthos eco park. This is a group of buildings with a cafe, shop, pottery demonstrations, church, raki still, woodworker etc. to illustrate different aspects of Crete. They also have spacious apartments on the hill behind, mine was at the top so a bit of a climb, although I had refreshed myself first with a cold beer. I am now at the nearby village of Agios Georgis having dinner at Maria's. There is a new E4 sign opposite Maria's, by the school where the kids are playing football. According to my GPS routes there should not be, so presumably there has been a rerouting onto quieter roads on the plateau. There is also an E4 sign close by my apartment which means a shortcut I was planning to use to join the E4 is actually the real route!

23.1 kilometres walked today with a total ascent of 950 metres.

Hole in an ancient aqueduct

Ancient Mule path up to Lassithi plateau

First sight of Lassithi plateau

Rest day at Kastelli Day 81

This morning I visited both tourist sites in Kastelli. A Minoan archeological site and a 14th century church (locked). The Minoan site consisted of the base of some walls. An information board would have helped to tell you what you were looking at as the scant remains of a fortress (presumably giving the town its name) was also meant to be at the same location.
That done it was a few chores (visit to a cash machine, washing clothes etc.), a visit to the swimming pool and sitting on my balcony reading my kindle. My room at the Kalliopi hotel is a good one as it overlooks the pool where I watched the antics of the youngsters in the pool, and the changing light illuminating the hills behind.

Minoan remains at Kastelli

Archanes to Kastelli on the E4: Day 80

Another day among vineyards and olive trees, during which I walked over hills, across a steep valley and up a gorge.
After saying goodbye to George, the landlady's little son, I climbed out of Archanes and over a hill. There were some road works, wineries, olive groves and half built buildings with rebar sticking out of the roofs. With all the vineyards I was not surprised to read on a sign that this area produced most of Crete's labelled wines (as opposed I suppose to the wine they pour from plastic bottles originally used for mineral water). As I passed individual fields of vines I often saw a lone person doing a bit of pruning of the new bright green growth, on one occasion accompanied by their dog who rushed after me, teeth bared and barking furiously. The lady called it off after hearing me desperately shouting at the dog to clear off while I pirouted to defeat the dog's planned attack from my rear.
After the village of Kounavi the route was down a very steep dirt track into a narrow valley. At the bottom I clambered down over dirt and grass and rocks to a narrow path at the bottom from which I found a rickety bridge among the bamboo. Without a GPS I doubt I would have located it. After climbing onto a field on the other side I joined a track that led me up a steep slope to Myrtia. This village is home to a Nikos Kazantzakis museum. Many years ago, on my previous visit to Crete, I read "Zorba the Greek" and struggled to finish it or keep a grasp on the plot, so decided against a tour of his museum although a TUI minibus was bringing some visitors.
After Myrtia a dusty dirt track, with a sign saying canyon, descended to the bottom of a valley, a stone bridge and the start of a gorge. On walking down to it, the gorge is almost invisible, hidden by the folds of the landscape. Only at the stone bridge can you look up the gorge, and even then it is longer than it appears. I followed the small path, marked by two red stripes. A stone aqueduct, now devoid  of water, must have once powered a water wheel. Water is now absent from the gorge, maybe piped away for the irrigation used to keep the vines green. At times the path is easy but soon there are difficult sections, overgrown and rocky. Cliffs rise on each side of the path. There are plenty of waymarks, but I still had to try two or three possible routes in places to find the next waymark, pushing past branches and through tall grass, thistles and other plants. After what seemed a lengthy period of struggle the path climbed up the side of the gorge in a gap between cliffs, rising to a viewpoint and then on through olive groves to a road.
Tarmac took me to the Angarathos monastery with its atmospheric church, the light coming through coloured glass in the dome, paintings of saints all over the inside. Some time after this the Cretan Way trail takes you into a field with tall oat grass, thistles and absolutely no sign at all of a path. Having struggled enough with the undergrowth today, I returned to the tarmac and followed an alternative route by road to Kastelli. A lengthy walk, but one shaded by eucalyptus trees after the village of Apostoli. I passed a 14th century church with an unsympathetic concrete roof. Inside it was rather bare compared with many such places, no iconostasis although the usual lectern, lamps etc. are there. Yet as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I begin to see the faint outline of paintings of saints on the wall.
Tonight I am staying at Hotel Kalliopi. It feels as if I have no padding beneath the bones of the ball of my feet, and my right ankle is tender around the Achilles tendon, so I have decided to spend two nights at Kastelli to give them some time to recover. After dinner at one restaurant I ate a large slice of lemon cake with a cappuccino at a second place called "Sweet things". Now I am feeling very fat...

24.9 kilometres walked today (excluding trying to find a path) with a total ascent of 660 metres.

Looking for the path at the bottom of the Karteros gorge

Looking back at the Karteros gorge

Church dome at Angarathos monastery

Road to Kastelli

Kato Asites to Archanes on the E4: Day 79

A walk in the sunshine passed vineyards and olive groves, the low hills hiding some steep slopes.
Looking across the valley while eating my generous breakfast at Asion Lithos it looked like my walk today would be over low hills, however these hid some steep slopes and big climbs. According to my GPS over the day I climbed over a 1000 metres. My walk was through an agricultural area. From a distance the hillsides looked like of jigsaw of fields of vines, olive trees and bare earth, all draped around rocky outcrops. The lines of vines and olive trees had a pleasing regularity bringing order to an unruly landscape. Higher ground had its usual cloak of scrubby vegetation.
I went through a number of villages: Kerasia with its little alleyways, Kiparisos where I enjoyed an ice cream with an old gentleman who was trying to converse with me (he had no English and I had no Greek so not entirely successful) and after the climb to the village of Profitis Ilias I needed a cold drink.
I passed the Palianis Nunnery enroute with its restored church (locked when I was there) and sacred tree, which had silver tokens on, which I presume indicated where people needed some prayers answered. At one point I had to cross a drainage ditch, the water covered with green slime, fortunately I managed to stay on the stepping stones! The 350 metre climb late in the afternoon was hot and sweaty. On one side of the ridge I could see the snow lined peaks of the Psiloritis mountains I had crossed a few days ago, the other side I could see the mountains I would cross in a few days time.
Tonight I am staying in Archanes, a place with an old area with little lanes to get lost in, from before the age of cars. I found the door to the Troullos traditional homes where I am staying. It opened into a courtyard off which there are a couple of rooms and stairs up to a larger courtyard with more rooms. I had a 3 room affair all to myself with old taps and photographs to match the old buildings.

Later, in the village square where I have just finished my meal, people are riding up and down on motorbikes, scooters and ATVs, nobody wearing helmets of course, men and women alike. Kids are doing "wheelies" on their bicycles, tourists wander around wondering which taverna to frequent and a lady opposite is trying (in vain) to encourage some amorous response from her husband(?). He is wearing a Givenchy tee shirt, I look it up on the web and am shocked at the price, but maybe it's not genuine. The fumes from passing cars are not so pleasant but the food is good and they have given me some ice cold raki and desert.

26.3 kilometres walked today and a total ascent of 1050 metres, the owner of my accommodation said I looked tired!

Regular patterns in fields

Psiloritis mountains to Kato Asites on the E4: Day 78

A walk through the mountains ending in a long downhill path.
An avian choir woke me early so I packed up and decamped while the sun was still below the mountain tops. The snow on which I was pitched was soft and crystalline yesterday, this morning it was hard, icy and slippery. The rocks I had placed on the pegs to keep them secure had become iced into position, I used another rock as a hammer to free them. I had to carefully pick my way down the valley over rocks and thorny bushes. High above me a shepherd was already herding his sheep, and they were making faster progress down the mountain than me.
At the bottom of the valley there was a small family church, some informative signs and what might one day be an information centre. Beyond all that was the Nida plateau, a flat area of grazing land. It was here I saw a goat grazing on the top of a tree, the tree's stunted shape, trimmed by the goats, had made climbing up it easier for these animals.
My way led along a dirt road, out of this plateau and into a series of smaller flat areas. Each of these was surrounded by higher ground, the track climbed out of one and descended into the next, there was no river draining them, it was a feature of the limestone landscape. On these flat areas there might be a pick up or two, a small building, a fenced area, and sheep being corralled and put in the back of pick ups.
The dirt track ended and the route followed a "path". As I was beginning to expect, the path was difficult to spot. The one I wanted headed around the mountain. I followed the route on my GPS among the rocks, trees and thorny bushes. It led me to the top of a steep, rocky drop. I needed to get down but it was difficult to see how. I scrambled down the rocks a little but due to the convexity of the slope I was unable to see if there was a sheer drop beneath me or not. Recalling the advice I received on a scrambling course at Plas y Brenin I followed a route marked by brown staining on the rocks. The brown staining on the rocks could have been caused by mud carried on the boots of people before me, or it could have been mud carried by goats. In the event it led me down to the more gentle slope below, however I would not recommend others to come the way I did, although I was always close to the route I downloaded, and a footpath marked on the Greece Navitracks map on my GPS. It may be that the route I had was outdated, as some red markings and a sign I later came across suggested an alternative had been developed from the Nida plateau, to the north of my route on vehicle tracks.
The path joined a dirt track and then a gravel road cut into the rock which took me around a great bowl in the mountains. Above was mainly naked limestone, below, what passes for a forest in Crete  composed mainly of holm oaks. I could see an eagle circling. The E4 route across the Psiloritis mountains that I was following was probably not the most popular. An alternative took you down to Zaros. Both routes joined at a point where a path heads up to a pass at some 1700 metres. Again the word "path" was a misnomer, I just had to pick a way through the rocks, thorn bushes and, lower down, trees, up a valley in the general direction indicated by my GPS. In places steep rock outcrops required some thought on how to get around them. As I climbed higher there were occasional waymarks, red stripes or spots, or E4 signs on posts, usually positioned high up on rocks. At first I thought the path went close by the E4 signs, but in many cases the path was a many metres lower down, the sign cemented into a high rock presumably so it could be spotted from a distance.
On reaching the pass at around 1700 metres I thought I would have enough time to get down the other side to some accommodation at Kato Asites and phoned to make a reservation. I was finding the steep, rocky and thorny slopes of Crete made it difficult to find a good camping spot, making a more conventional bed desirable. However having reserved a room I felt under some pressure to get there at the agreed time. The distance was not great but the path was very, very slow. It involved descending some 1200 metres in a short distance over a rocky landscape. Loose or wobbly stones meant you have to take it slowly and carefully, and my feet were complaining about all the hard work they had been made to do in the last two days. I was glad I had stiff boots as even with these the soles of my feet were feeling the rocks trying to push through my soles into my feet. Towards the bottom I was getting frustrated with the interminable descent. The first milestone was a refuge, but the more gentle slope it occupied did not last long, there was a steeply dropping gorge section ahead, fortunately with some helpful waymarks and a slightly clearer path. While the descent was frustrating, this is not to say that the scenery, the limestone outcrops and flowers were not attractive, even beautiful. I was nevertheless relieved to walk into the village of Ano Asites, and hence to its sister, Kato Asites, where I am staying at the spacious Asion Lithos apartments, where I received a welcome discount for having read about it in the Cretan Way guidebook. A shower, a beer and dinner greatly improved my mood.

29.8 kilometres walked today, with some difficult terrain, and a total ascent of 800 metres, although the total descent of 2250 metres was the more painful.

Nida plateau

Rouvas forest

Rocky path doen to Ano Asites

Fourfouras to the Psiloritis mountains on the E4: Day 77

A massive amount of climbing to reach Timos Stavros, the highest summit in the Psiloritis range and at 2456 metres the highest point in Crete, snow added to the difficulties.
The "Windy Place" taverna kindly made me an early breakfast at 6:45 am, so I could make a start on today's enormous climb in the cool of the morning. Being west facing the mountainside was also in shade as I started, so I made a good start on the 2000 metre or so to the summit, before the sun heated things up. Early on I missed a few turnings on the dirt tracks I was following, as I watched the sun colour the mountain of Kedros on the other side of the valley.
After olive trees, gates and herds of goats on terraced pasture my route headed up a path which rose steeply through stony ground with scattered thorny oaks. I met the Austrian party among the oaks. They pointed out a path to the last spring this side of the summit, where I went to top up my bottle, admiring the views on the way. Not long after we met again at the (locked) mountain refuge. After that it was a steep climb over rocks with the usual low thorny bushes, releasing aromas of thyme and sage as I walked. Waymarking on this popular section was very good, which helped to pick the correct path among the many created by sheep and goats. Patches of snow interrupted my passage, not so easy to negotiate on steep slopes. Most I could walk around. On one large patch, someone had laid out a lengthy fixed rope over the snow, with loops so you had something to hang on to if you slipped. Eventually I arrived at the summit of Timos Stavros, where a small chapel has been built out of the loose stone covering the mountain. I was fortunate there was no cloud, unlike yesterday, so I could see the sea both north and south of Crete, the White mountains to the west, and the remainder of the Psiloritis mountain range to the east. Too hazy though to shoot decent photographs.
Coming down after some lunch and admiring the view, I was following a different path that would take me the length of the mountain range. This traversed the very steep northern slope of the adjacent mountain, called Angathias, and unfortunately the northern side of the mountain was completely covered with snow, despite it being June. It would be far too hazardous to cross. Instead a couple coming from that direction told me they had avoided it by climbing up and down Angathias on snow free areas. So I headed up towards the summit of Angathias and worked my way around to find a snow free ridge down. Not easy as snow often lay out of sight hidden by the convexity of the slope. I continued over higher ground rather than attempt the alternative route down a snow filled valley. I had to cross a few patches of snow but none where the slope was steep. On some patches of snow there were pieces of rock covered with lady birds, their presence here was a bit of a mystery to me. I passed a "mitata", a hut made entirely of loose stone found on the mountain, once used to make cheese by shepherds as it kept longer than milk so allowing time for it to be transported to market, although the hut seem rather small for this purpose.
My legs were tired and I started thinking of where to camp. The Cretan Way guidebook suggests using a certain sheep fold, but it was off my route, and from a distance (and in my mind giving the likely amount of sheep excrement) it did not look appealing. Instead I headed a little way down the valley I would be following tomorrow. Like the rest of the mountain it was not very suitable for camping. Even if I could find a flat area large enough for my small tent numerous rocks and / or thorn bushes prevented me pitching it. Instead (after due consideration of avalanche risks) I flattened a suitable piece of snow and camped on that.

I walked 18.9 kilometres today, not always by the most direct route due to the snow, and climbed an amazing 2245 metres.

Path up Psiloritis range to the highest peak of Timos Stavros

Chapel on top of Timos Stavros, the highest point on Crete

Sheep on the snow

Camping on the snow (in June), at least it has no thorns

Gerakari to Fourfouras on the E4: Day 76

Apart from an overgrown path, an easy day passing through a few villages.
Leaving Hotel Alexander after a good breakfast, I pass one of the old white minis (the car not the dress), a nostalgic exhibit it seems to accompany other diverse artifacts at the hotel, like pictures of different knots. After a walk along a road passed cherry orchards to the sound of a flock of sheep somewhere I soon reach the first village of Elenes. The next section is one of those overgrown paths through low thorny bushes, thistles and sage plants, where I followed red waymarks (somewhat confusing at one place), my GPS track and my nose in an attempt to work out where I should be going until I spot the Austrian group ahead of me. This makes navigation easier (having done the route 20 times must make it easier to find). On reaching a road I pass them on some detour dictated by my GPS which avoids a few hundred metres of road. We meet again while I am having coffee at a cafe in the next settlement of Amari at the bottom of a cobbled path. The bell tower looks impressive but the sign says it was built at the beginning of the century, so not so old.
On my way to the village of Lambiotes I try to follow the detours off the tarmac indicated by my GPS, following dirt tracks among the rocks and bushes. On the first one a padlocked gate, with a sign warning of a guard dog, forces me to return to the road. I am more successful on the second one which delivers me to Lambiotes. I keep passing small Orthodox chapels, each with the same design and interior fittings: an iconostasis (a screen hiding the alter with icons on), a lectern, a place to burn candles, a lamp or two and some icons and maybe wall paintings. The paintings of Jesus, Mary and the saints always look so solemn, today in particular they seemed to be frowning.
After Lambiotes it was down a valley, a tricky water crossing, then uphill to Fourfouras. I passed some old ruins: an arch and a section of aqueduct. A later sign indicated somewhere nearby there were some Byzantine ruins of a Christian church. I reached Fourfouras walking up through an old part of town where the houses were almost built on top of each other. Tonight I am staying at the "Windy Place", the Psiloritis mountain range I hope to cross in the next few days is apparently quite breezy. My GPS gave me the position of the rooms, but when I arrived they were all shut up. I had no phone signal to call the owner so I asked a few people and finally reached the Windy Place taverna which is at a different location to the rooms. My delay in finding the place meant that the Austrian party arrived first and were already enjoying a cold beer. I guess enthusiasm must bow to experience!

17 kilometres walked today with a 460 metre ascent.

Path after Elenes, catching up with the Austrian party

Blocked route

Byzantine remains?

Spili to Gerakari on the E4: Day 75

Up and over a mountain having to make one's own path for much of the way.
A sign on the village said that today's walk would take 7 1/2 hours, so I decided on an early start to enjoy the cool of the day, knowing that much of it would  be uphill. This meant no breakfast at the Heracles rooms as it did not start until 8:30 am, instead it was coffee in the village soon after 7:00, with some pastries with feta cheese inside.
The initial section was a climb uphill on a track away from the main road followed by a walk downhill back to the same road. I passed a couple of men organising their sheep and a pick up full of barking dogs but otherwise it was just a means of avoiding the main road for a while.
A little further on, after a faded E4 sign, a track headed uphill to the village of Kisos. The hillside on the other side of the valley had expanses of yellow from the broom in flower. Kisos had an old church dedicated to St John with 13th and 15th century wall paintings of the saints and the like, faded and a little damaged but still visible once your eyes were accustomed to the darkness of the church. At the church I met a party of E4 walkers from Austria, their leader was walking the E4 in Crete for the 20th time, the second such group I had come across where one of their number was on their 20th trip.
Climbing out of the village the vehicle track ended and the GPS indicated that I should continue on a path. Sadly there was no evidence of any path on the ground. It was a matter of pushing through low thorny bushes in the direction indicated by the GPS. I quickly converted my shorts to trousers to avoid being scratched. The non-path led me to a typical Cretan rebar fence. There was no obvious way through it, a major disassembly would be needed, undoing the wires attaching one section of fence to the next. Instead of this I followed the fence uphill thinking there must be an easier place to break through. There wasn't. Having climbed up so far and there being no visible path on the route indicated by the GPS I decided just to head straight up the side of the mountain to the pass that the path was meant to take me to by a less direct route, but with more gentle gradient. My climb began well crossing a fence where someone had created a low point, and marked it with a red spot. Above that there were piles of stones and old farm terraces. Above them the slope became quite steep. I aimed for an area without cliffs and continued to climb, at times requiring use of my hands. It might have been a pleasant climb among the limestone blocks and vegetation but thistles and other plants equipped with sharp thorns meant my hands were at constant risk of being stabbed. I could see the Austrian party in the distance below me sensibly sticking to the route indicated by my GPS, "making their own path" but I eventually reached the pass on my more unconventional approach.
I continued along the top of the ridge to the west admiring the birds of prey slowly circling and the views opening up before me of the White Mountains, the sea and the route I had walked yesterday. A further fence discouraged me from reaching the high point ahead of me, so I returned to the pass and headed down a track, before turning up a valley where again the mapped path was absent. Near the top of the valley I joined a vehicle track that led me down towards Gerakari. I did not take exactly the route shown on my GPS as large padlocked gates and tall fences topped with barbed wire prevented this, but there were other tracks to walk down.
I stopped at the first cafe in the village for a Coke, hoping to catch the Austrian party as they came passed and ask them some questions about the future route. There were several grey haired, unshaven men arguing about something and drinking raki or white wine. As they had some small plates of food, I asked for some also, but the waitress said it was just for them. Nevertheless after a short while she appeared with some...and then some more, including some cherries for which the area is apparently famous. Then the men started buying me shots of raki! When I left the waitress refused any money for the food, saying it was from her. I was most impressed by the undeserved kindness given to me  especially as there was little opportunity for me to repay it.
I am now at the Hotel Alexander. Its pool had looked very inviting when I arrived, so after checking in I swam a few lengths then lay on a sun lounger. Unfortunately a cold wind made my sun bathing a rather temporary exercise, so instead I checked on the route I took today. It seems that up to four routes have been published for this section. One, on the Cretan beaches website and a sign in the village directs you up to the peak of Analipsis, some 770 metres higher than I reached today...I was a bit disappointed as it looked a good rocky mountain and I had plenty of time.

14.1 kilometres completed today with a 825 metre total ascent.

Wall paintings in 13th to 15th century church of St John

Path near the path where it was more defined

Yellow broom beside the track, the Psiloritis mountains are in the background

Argiroupoli to Spili on the E4: Day 74

Wooded valleys, low mountains and a plain today, a change of scenery compared with recent days.
As I was planning a longish day I started out at 7:00 am, walking in the cooler morning light up and down wooded valleys on roads and dirt tracks. Of special interest was the abandoned village of Nisi. As I climbed up the hill approaching it I noticed the old terraces, constructed with big white boulders to trap the meagre, dry earth. The terraces, constructed with much effort, now used only for goats, the abandoned olive trees competing with holm oak and other species. Aside from a small building roofed with corrugated steel, there were no houses still complete, only walls and piles of masonry. Some of the old entrances had arches, making it appear that their owners were once wealthy. Now the village was occupied by goats who stared at me, and a flock of sheep, heading along the track to some appointment, unguided by any shepherd or sheepdog, and only slightly hesitant about my presence.
A cobbled path led me up to the village of Mountros where I stopped for my breakfast cup of coffee, served with some sesame coated shortbread. After the village I climbed out of the valleys, through some olive groves and onto hills, which were either covered with the typical low scrub of Crete or by farmed patches of wheat, draped over the landscape. Thistles in purple bloom lined my track.
The Cretan Way, the guide to the E4 in Crete and the source of many of the GPS tracks I was following, takes you to Agios Ioanis and Kanevos, however as I wanted to reach Spili today, I took the shorter E4 route shown on the Harms IC Verlag map of Western Crete which goes via Agouseliana, rejoining the Cretan Way route at Koxare. E4 waymarks had become very rare since Hora Sfakion so one has to rely on maps, GPS's and guides, although the Cretan Way route is at times marked by two red stripes. On my route via Agouseliana I actually spotted two rare E4 waymarks. The road I was following was very quiet, only a couple of pick ups and a flock of sheep being herded by a man on a moped busy talking on his phone.
After the village of Koxare there was a brief period on a busy road so I was glad when my GPS indicated to turn off onto a path. Sadly, calling it a path was too generous a description. I pushed through tall grass to where the "path" crossed a small river. I found a place upstream that I could cross without flooding my boots but it was a struggle to get to the farm track that formed the next part of the route, a Cretan rebar fence not helping. After Agouseliana I had been walking mainly through olive groves. Some of the trees had been left unattended, and without pruning had grown to a considerable height.
After lunch at a cafe at Mixorouma, it was only a few kilometres more to reach Spili, on a route desperately trying to avoid the main road. I am staying at the Heracles rooms just off the main street of the town. There are lots of tourist shops, tavernas and cafes. Although tempted by a cold beer, I was very good and had a No. 4 smoothie at one (I had a beer later!).

29.2 kilometres walked today, with a total ascent of 930 metres.

A house at the abandonned village of Nisi

Goats at Nisi indicating it was now their village

Old cobbled path up to Mountros

Hay or Wheat fields