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| SAMARIA GORGE |
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| FRAGILE BRIDGE |
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| THE GATES |
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| KRI KRI AT SAMARIA VILLAGE |
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| BEAST OF BURDON AT SAMARIA VILLAGE |
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| SHALLOW CAVE IN SAMARIA GORGE |
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| ROUTE TOWARDS GIGILOS |
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| ROCK ARCH ON WAY TO GIGILOS |
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| ME ON THE SUMMIT OF GIGILOS |
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| LAST FEW STEPS DOWN |
George, the owner of the Neos Omalos Hotel, drove us the short distance to the Samaria National Park ticket office, where, for €5 each, we were permitted to enter the park and start our descent of the gorge.
For the first couple of hours this involved a long zig-zag path that took us down the side of the gorge to the stream bed. From there on we were constantly crossing from one side of the stream to the other on stepping stones. Sometime after midday we reached Samaria Village where we ate our lunch. It was hot so we drank plenty and refilled our bottles before continuing on our way.
The terrain was much flatter thereafter. Crude wooden bridges began to appear as an alternative to stepping stones when stream crossings were necessary. Eventually we reached 'The Gates', the narrowest section of the gorge where the 300m high gorge walls are just 3m apart.
We exited the National Park after 13km of walking. There was a bar immediately outside the park where we enjoyed refreshing drinks before continuing the last two km to the village of Agia Roumeli on the southern coast of Crete. We had booked into the Agia Roumeli Hotel, so after checking in, we changed into our swimsuits so that we could bathe in the Libyan Sea. Although early in the season the water wasn't too cold.
We ate at the Hotel and then wandered around the village, picking up food for the following day from the local mini-markets.
The next day involved walking all the way back up the Samaria Gorge again. Since most people start from the top, as we did on the preceding day, we saw very few people on the way up until we reached the half-way point at Samaria Village. As before, we ate our picnic lunch here. Rubi teased a Kri Kri (a Cretan Goat) in an attempt to get a good photograph and was nearly rewarded with a head butting.
After then, the upward climb became more strenuous, with the final couple of km being extremely steep. We had climbed over 1,200m to get back to the start.
Unable to walk much further, Rubi called George, the Hotel owner, for a lift and within a short while we were enjoying a shower in our hotel room.
In the evening we were were joined by German couple Albert and Sandra and found plenty to chat about as we consumed a couple of glasses of Ouzo each.
On Sunday, our last full day in Omalos, the plan was to climb Gigolos, an intimidating looking mountain of hard grey rock, nearly 2,000m high. It was a tough climb on stoney paths with precipitous edges. It took us over 4 hours to get to the top, the last sections requiring hands as well as feet. It rained a little as we stopped for lunch by the summit, but fortunately this cleared by the time we needed to descend. The rocky paths and the scree made the descent slow and laborious, but happily George was able to pick us up again when we got back to the start.
On our last night in Omalos, we reflected on how varied our walks in the area had been. In the morning we would be catching the bus back to Chania for some well deserved rest.