Plakias to Paleohora – the not so easy way.
Sat 14th November.
Up before the sun and walk along the coast beyond Rodakino to Akrotiri Kastellos. Legs and feet feeling good but the shoulders are complaining about all the food I am carrying.
Deserted beach and sunshine so I relax in the hammock for the afternoon. It gets dark, it gets cold. Cook a meal, light a fire on the beach which only lasts one and a half hours. What to do for the next ten and a half hours of cold and dark? Don’t answer that! An uncomfortable night – not fun. Time to rethink plan A.
Sun 15th November
Walk to Frangokastelo. Shop for a few bits and pieces in the supermarket and ask the guy about rooms to rent. One phone call and a lift in his pick-up and I’m at a wonderful room right on the beach and with a taverna below. A much better plan! A good evening meal with a bunch of locals who watch what seems like the same news over and over again on different channels.
Mon 16th November
Up at first light with just a day pack. Walk up the Kalikratis Gorge, through the mountains to Asfendou and back to the room down the Asfendou Gorge. A spectacular day with blue skies the whole time. All in all 10 hours of walking most of which is over ankle twisting terrain, no mobile phone reception and just sheep for company.
I did get lost for nearly an hour but then is it surprising? The map I am using for the day is about the size of a large postage stamp, out of date and inaccurate! There is even a brand new road where nothing is marked on the map. How do I know it is brand new? None of the road signs have bullet holes!
Tues 17th November
I take the only bus to Sfakia at 6.15am. No, I don’t feel like this is cheating; there is no coastal path so it would be a 3 hour trudge along roads. Anyway I may be able to save staying a night in Sfakia and push on along the coast; this great weather cannot continue forever!
Fried brekkie in Sfakia, leave my big bag at the taverna and decide not to wait for the 11am bus to the top of the Imbros Gorge, I’ll hitch. Good call, easy lift and by 9.30 I’m walking down the gorge. Easy walking, interesting landscape and then a 1 hour road walk back to Sfakia. Lunch and then set off along the uphill road to my first trek along the E4 south coast route. My first impressions are correct: an unmaintained, eroded and dangerous goat track; and it gets worse! A while later it is just a narrow shelf cut in the vertical cliff face one hundred metres plus above the sea and with no guard rails. I wish I had worn my brown trousers, one slip and it would be ‘kali nikta’!
Half way down to
I push on as the sun is dipping in the sky and approach Loutro at dusk. As I do so I am wondering why no lights are coming on. When I get there it’s obvious that Loutro is closed. Not a cold beer to be had, not even a warm one! No shops or tavernas open, not even a kafenion for the old guys! It takes a while to find a room.
Wed 18th November
Seriously blue skies, hot and sunny – it’s only 7.30am and I’m in lightweight trousers and a t shirt on my way up to Anopoli; I’m still too hot! After an hour and a half of climbing I come to a big fence blocking the path shouting “we have had enough of bl**dy walkers in the summer, now F off”. The detour means walking off the edge of the map; follow my nose time. No problem and soon I am sitting in a café in the square at Anopoli knowing exactly where I am again. Only 45 minutes later an am at the top of the Aradhena Gorge; the most diffcult but also the most spectacular of all the gorges I walk. Over 2 hours of gorgeous(!) scenery . . . and sheep.
The way back to Loutro from
I get to thinking that my packs are too heavy for the next 2 days journey. Probably over 16 hours in the 2 days over rough terrain. This presents some dilemmas as the next 2 villages are smaller than Loutro and what if they are completely closed as well:-
a. Do I continue with wet weather gear or dump it?
b. Do I need the hammock and sleeping bag if there are rooms? What if there are no rooms?
c. The most difficult – food and water – do I take enough for 3 days – a lot of weight!
Walkers in the season do not have these sorts of problems.
4pm back at the room in Loutro.
Suddenly these dilemmas are unimportant. I take off my boots and find my socks soaked in blood. The hot weather caused sweating which caused chaffing at my heels. I then go to make a cup of tea and find that my new camping stove has given up the ghost – what – after only 4 days. If I can’t get a replacement here then I really can’t continue – NO TEA – no hard boiled eggs – no evening meal of instant noodles, chopped tomato and a tin of fish. I’ll go talk to my landlady. And it has been such a great day.
No chance of getting a new stove here. The next boat back to Sfakia is in 2 days. To walk or to await the boat; decision time in the morning. But at least the landlady gave me a bottle of local wine.
Thurs 19th November
My body cries ‘no more walking today’. I listen. This must be the laziest day I have had in years. I finish the book, finish the writing, take some sun, sit on a dock of a bay, watch the sunset and stare at the blank wall.
My little adventure is over but I am a happy bunny. No regrets that I am not walking on to Paleohora. It is a challenge I may do one day but not carrying 3 days worth of supplies. I set out to walk the Imbros and Aradhena Gorges and to walk the E4 coastal path as I had heard so much about them. I achieved that and, as a bonus, walked 2 other gorges.
Fri 20th November
The 11am boat arrives at 12.30. I find that the last bus out of Sfakia is at 11am! I have lunch whilst I ponder the options. I want to go home so I hitch out of Sfakia, again. A good lift through to Vrisses and a half wait for the bus to Rethymno. Arriving at 6pm and far too late for the last Plakias bus I head to the hostel. I’ll be home by 9.30 tomorrow.
Rats, I realize I have left my phone in Sfakia. Oh well, that problem can wait until tomorrow.
