Sunday 21st June 2009

Just for a change, we started early, and bought tickets for the ridiculously overpriced ferry (€16 – €2 more than was expected). After a relaxing 50 minute journey, and believing the walk to be a breeze compared to the Ilingas gorge, we took a brief walk through Agia Roumelli, which we could see to be far more tourist orientated compared to the other villages we had visited. We wasted no time in travelling up to the Samaria gorge which we discovered to also be a National Park. We made notes of signs of management strategies that had been implemented, such as the cobbled footpath, multiple bins, toilets and two café’s, which could cash in on the crowds of tourists (the majority of which appeared to have walked down the gorge after being dropped off by coaches at the top). After lunch, we ploughed ahead, feeling refreshed and invigorated. We unknowingly reached our destination of the “iron gates” around 1:30pm …but continued to walk up the gorge. We carried on due to our determination to reach them before Alan Howard et al before asking some locals with a donkey how far we had to go, and then realised we had passed them 2 hours earlier! We had been misled by both an expectation of their prominence and the idea that they were at 300m altitude (in fact, the gorge walls at that point were 300m high and the altitude was only 110m…). By this time, it was 3pm and the panic set in when we realised we had only 2 and a half hours to walk back down the gorge – which had taken us 3. We therefore set off down the gorge at a pace that would make the Marines proud, denying each other of water breaks more than 20 seconds long! This resulted in Lucy attempting to have a drink whilst continuing to walk – meaning she was abruptly soaked but, alas, not rehydrated..

We were much laughed at by the locals when we overtook them, but we even impressed ourselves by the rate at which we had descended the gorge, cutting the journey to an hour and a half. When we passed what we had finally realised was the iron gates, we discovered the epicness of our mistake – it was only a third of the way we had travelled! We arrived back in the village with 45 minutes to spare before the 5:30 ferry – just enough time to buy ice creams for the girls and celebratory straw hats for the boys (or men, as they like to think). The ferry was a welcome relief, as it was a chance to sit down in the shade and rest our tired and dusty feet.

We ended the day with our last group meal at the Taverna above the village beach, finished with watermelon and raki. Cheers!

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