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.
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.
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| Looking for the path at the bottom of the Karteros gorge |
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| Looking back at the Karteros gorge |
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| Church dome at Angarathos monastery |
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| Road to Kastelli |
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