Making Our Own Trail

After running around and freaking out like a total nerd over Minoan ruins I'd read about my whole life (I am a huge greek myth geek...did you know that the plane tree next to the Gortys Law Code is supposed to be where Zeus had his affair with Europa? The tree didn't look really old to me, but it was pretty...)



Anyway, so after a few days of ruin exploration, we took a bus to a tiny town called Omalos just a short bus ride away from the Samaria Gorge. The Samaria Gorge is 16 kilometers long, an amazingly dramatic gorge and a must-do for hikers. But Omalos, the town where we stayed beforehand, was tiny--there were two hotels along one road and a few other municipal buildings, surrounded by the stunning Cretan highlands. Mostly these were given over to farmland--goat grazing and oilve trees. MJ and I arrived at our hotel in the afternoon and decided to take a walk.

The walk turned into deciding to climb one of the enormous, towering hills around us...without a trail.

We started by hiking down a random trail that led past what looked like an abandoned farmhouse, a field of domesticated bee hives, and some goat pastures. Once we got to the hill, the going was both tougher and easier than it looked. Tougher, because all the ground vegetation was pointy and sharp--and if you got caught in it, you could get scraped up pretty badly. (Did I mention MJ was in shorts?) Easier, though, because there were goat paths everywhere--and if you followed them up, you could more or less avoid the prickly plants.

We climbed for hours, surrounded on all sides by the sound of bells--goats all around us on the highlands, grazing and running around. Domesticated goats are everywhere in the pastoral highlands; Crete's endemic wild goats, the kri-kris, are still around, too, but they're rare. I swear I saw one on our hike but MJ is skeptical.

Anyway, so the going was so steep that our hike sometimes veered into rock-climbing territory. Eventually we made it past the rise that we thought was the top of the hill--only to see that we had about half a mountain more to go. The sun was setting, so we sat down there to enjoy a spectacular view of a broad highland valley stretching over to another mountain range. We rushed the hike down to avoid getting stuck on the mountain in the dark--and made it back just as the sun was setting. Close call :-)