Sfakia

What a hike! Today we tackled the longest gorge hike in Europe - the Samaria gorge.

Pick up was at 6 am 😴 and we were bused to the top of the trail in the middle of Crete. We were promptly sternly warned about how difficult the hike was and that it was hell on the knees (worried glances at Igor ensued). But... No turning back now!

We made it to the gorge and had a quick breakfast stop with some tasty pastries, hard boiled eggs, and coffee. Also with bonus appearance from an adorable all black shepherd/retriever!

At the top of the trail Ams and Igs rented some hiking poles to help with the knees and off we went! First up, 100s of switchbacks down the mountain. It was luckily nice and early so the trail wasn't crowded, it was nice and cool out, and the view was stunning. Igor's reported knee operating power: 8% ... Uh oh.

Finally after about two hours of descent we made it to river and more varied trail through the forest. The trees offered great shade and a wonderful scent of pine and fresh spring water. I loved the rock crossings we had to do back and forth across the crystal clear river, it was fun to balance and hop around!

We took our time and stopped to relax, eat some trail mix and fruit, and enjoy the journey. Around half way (3-4 hours in) we made it to the Samaria village and entrance to the actual gorge. Here there wasn't much of a village, more a remnant of a village that once was. I expect it wasn't an easy place to live given how remote and challenging it is to get to. We did see a cute donkey looking unphased by the heat and heavy load he was carrying.

After a break we headed into the gorge, it was around noon now and full sun. Good thing we loaded up on sunscreen! We walked through a lot of river bed and back and forth over the river flowing through the center of the gorge. It was probably 10 meters wide for most of the gorge with high walls and big polished stone throughout.

Many bridges and rock crossings abound much to my excitement! We hiked for another long while until we made it to the "Iron gate" where the gorge narrows to around 3 meters. A beautiful spot but a bit crowded as people bunch up to take pictures and gawk at the view.

6-7 hours in we reached the end of the national park and promptly downed liters of beer and ice cream. Best news: everyone's knees made it! The same cannot be said for all the hiking posts, RIP.

Now this was 13 kms of hiking we'd accomplished, yay! However it was still another 3 km to town. We picked our sweaty selves up from our beer stop and headed into town. The town of Roumeli is only accessible on foot (the hike we just did) or by ferry! We wandered through and quickly grabbed a seat for lunch. Everyone got chicken gyros expect me who decided a burger would be great.... Well surprise, burgers do not translate the same in Crete as America and I received 2 (actually quite delicious) lamb/beef patties, no buns. Whoops haha

To wrap up our adventures, we went to the beach and had a quick swim in the sea. So refreshing after sweating all day. Then on to the ferry we went (after a few more beers of course), back to the bus, and back to our hotel.

If you made it this far into my post, congrats - it, like the hike, is a long one :)Read more