Walking The Kourtalloti Gorge
Sunset over fisher folk.
Oddly today we woke up without much in the way of a clue as to what we were going to do today. We knew that we wanted to find a beach somewhere, and eat some Greek food, but that was about the extent of our plan. After the beautifully cooked rabbit I enjoyed last night I knew that I needed to walk somewhere this morning. So earlyish we rose and walked along the water front of Plakias, the small town where we are laying our heads for a couple of nights. A nice place, but seemingly well known to the German tourists.
We stopped at the bakery and picked up some nice fresh pastries for breakfast and then finally decided it was time to hit the road. We'd heard about a monastery called Pisso Moni Preveli which had some interesting history, and deciding that this would be a good place to begin we headed in that direction. Turns out that it is a fairly key place in this part of Crete having played a huge roll historically in the development of Christianity in these parts. Somewhat more recently the monastery played a very important part during WW II. I took these photos for our Aussie mates.
As I said, lots of recent history, and we have seen rememberance squares all over Crete with the names of so many who lost their lives at that time. The Reverend Father was apparently safely evacuated before he was captured. The story would make a good movie. After several days of wandering these shores, I have to say that the fighting here would have been equally gruesome for both invader and defender. It's so very rugged and hot. However, all that is history and we moved on to see the monastery.
Annemarie with an unlikely friend. She attracts them like the strays they are!
At the monastery museum we learned that there was a good bridge in the area constructed during the Turkish occupation in the 1800's. Always up for a good bridge (right Rob?) and knowing that Neil and Sarah collect photos of these types of structures, we decided to try and find it. And we did!
By chance it crosses the only surface water on Crete that flows year round. They call it a river, but really, by Canadian standards you might call it a good stream:) While there Annemarie remembered reading that there is a good hiking trail along the stream, er, river. So we decided to wander along it in spite of the heat to see if it would take us down to the promised beach at the mouth of the river. We'd read about this beach at home, but because we didn't plan any of our sight seeing ahead of time, we didn't realize that this was the same beach. We didn't even know we were in the right area of Crete! Luck of Irish eh Paul?! So off we went beginning somewhere in the green belt to the left of this photo.
Now you might think that we'd be walking along in this beautiful green belt. We certainly did. But nope, we ended up climbing up into the hot, very hot, dry scrub. Hot and dusty!
Neil and Sarah and Barbara would have felt right at home, well except there weren't any kangaroos, poisonous snakes, echidnas or dingos here!
The green belt was to our right and quickly became smaller and smaller as we moved downstream towards the Med. The climb ahead as we walked just above the 'river'.
At some point we missed the trail. I saw it and intuitively I knew it was the right way to go, but there were other opinions proposed so we went onwards...
...but it quickly became apparent that we were going the way of the sheep! We decided to press on any way and see where our feet took us. A very free way to walk, without trail and constraints. Love it! At this point they were still smiling...a good thing:)
But it became a bit tougher in the heat...but still they slogged onwards.
At some point the ladies told me to go ahead and see what the summit told me. It really was screaming hot out there, so off I trucked. Amazingly I cut the original trail and found this view.
The trail down from here pretty much dropped off this cliff.
So knowing my trekking crew, I decided that this just wasn't going to happen this day, and of course I was right! So we followed the actual trail back, thus providing ourselves with the better part of a circular route.
We passed by one of about 15 small churches in the greater area that were supported by the main monastery. Look closely to the right centre. What a rough life they must have lived. Real dedication.
A resting, down and out sheep on the way out!
After a long hot day, we found our way to another beach with a simple tavern and some cold refreshing drinks and salad. Don't feel too badly for us as this was our view!
And we ended up spending the remainder of our afternoon here cooling off in the turquoise soothing waters of the Med!
Tomorrow we move on up to the north coast. Wonder what's happening there? Cool temperatures in the high 20's predicted...that's cool after the last three days!
