Crete 2017
Day 1 17/09/2019
Day 1 17/09/2019
Day 1
From some airport to Chania to Kallergi Refuge.
( No gilling on the mountain. )
So trying to remember 2 years on and so many Guinness, drops of Poitin, big hills and then there are the BIG BLoody HillS ( let's call some of them mountains ), non world changing events that possibly were world changing to someone somewhere, well they all get in the way.
What I do recall most of all about this first days holiday was the Giggle Sisters I had to endure on a night flight and the big hill that really wanted to be a mountain that I had to climb to get to my bed. On the plus side I was in Crete.....if you have ever being to this land you will understand .......if you have never being....you might understand then again you may not.
So flew from Knock Airport to Gatwick, hung around a few hours and got a midnight flight from Gatwick to Chania. ( The flewing part involved me being within the confines of an aeroplane, just in case you were wondering on the mode of transportation, I was not self propelled.)
Strange thing: I am boarding the Gatwick flight and Norwegian Air are playing the song Drops of Jupiter by Train, about 5 hours later I arrive in Chania Central Bus Station and same song is being played....a few more minutes and more hours on....say 2 and a half days I arrive in Agia Roumeli and what is playing in the taverna where I'm staying....if you say Swiss Yodelling you would be so wrong...if you said Traditional Greek Music then you would be may right....but obviously on a totally different time line than the one I was on....it was Train and Drops of Jupiter.
I realise this is a total coincidence and nothing more...
So for the flight from London to Chania I had reserved the back window seat as I hoped to grab a couple of hours sleep, I might have managed this but for the aforementioned giggle sisters. They end up occupying the adjoining seats. Two young lads, mid to early twenties from somewhere in the Balkans. They obviously loved their childhood so much that they had decided for this flight to relive all their tickling and tittering times from when there were somewhere between 6 and a half and 9. I am sure somewhere within me I was happy for them being happy but was so tired that that somewhere was afraid to show itself to the rest of me. I kid you not when I tell you that on three occasions when one went off the the toilets the other sat in their seat. upon returning the one lad sat on his friends knee and a tickling match ensued. Still they were happy & I do remember twice dozing off for about 5 - 10 minutes each time.
Got the bus from the airport to Chania and a connecting one on to Omalos. Omalos is as plateau and possibly most widely known as the kicking off point for those hiking the Samaria Gorge. Around 50 or so people occupy the area the year around, most of those living and working in the likewise named village. I say village but it is more a collection of hotels / tavernas ( and a few houses ) there are 3 on the main round and perhaps another 3-4 within a 1km ) offering those ascending the gorge, and other walkers / visitors to the area the chance to stock up on sandwiches / rolls etc. Other than water there is no refreshments available within the gorge. I got off the bus a further 4km on, where the road ends and the trail head begins.
I had breakfast here, there are another couple of tavernas here, and decided, rather unwisely, that as it was the first day of my holidays I would wash down my food with a beer and then, after no consideration whatsoever, another.
There was a reason for this indulgence ; I had booked myself into Kallergi for my first couple of nights, a mountain refuge that sits atop of 1,680 meters of earth, of which I had to hike 560 of those meters along a near shadeless trail in 25 + /- of heat. So obviously there is some part of me that is not over fond of the rest of me so by letting myself indulge in a couple of beers I wanted to reassure that part of me that there is some part of me that does....well....like other parts of me.
As it was in the mid 20's, centigrade that is, and feeling my lack of sleep I thought it would be the better option to stick to the dirt road, there is an option of hiking on a trail for a while. Bad mistake. By avoiding the trail I had just added nearly 3km to my hike and as I discovered over the next couple of days the trail offered such loving shade at times. The dirt road starts off very rough, even walking it you can find it a trial to continuously avoid the larger stones, it does become a tad easier with each passing kilometre. I am about 200 meters along and come across what appears to be a fairly new rental car that looks like it had decided, possibly without the consent of the driver, that it preferred to exit the road quick sharply and seek the shade of the off road olive trees than go any further up ( more on that car later ) to make discourage the driver further it appears to have let the air out of one of its rear tyres. So an hour and a half later and I am lying outside the refuge grateful that there was light all around me, if there was a tunnel of the stuff, light that is, I would not have had the energy to walk towards it.
From some airport to Chania to Kallergi Refuge.
( No gilling on the mountain. )
So trying to remember 2 years on and so many Guinness, drops of Poitin, big hills and then there are the BIG BLoody HillS ( let's call some of them mountains ), non world changing events that possibly were world changing to someone somewhere, well they all get in the way.
What I do recall most of all about this first days holiday was the Giggle Sisters I had to endure on a night flight and the big hill that really wanted to be a mountain that I had to climb to get to my bed. On the plus side I was in Crete.....if you have ever being to this land you will understand .......if you have never being....you might understand then again you may not.
So flew from Knock Airport to Gatwick, hung around a few hours and got a midnight flight from Gatwick to Chania. ( The flewing part involved me being within the confines of an aeroplane, just in case you were wondering on the mode of transportation, I was not self propelled.)
Strange thing: I am boarding the Gatwick flight and Norwegian Air are playing the song Drops of Jupiter by Train, about 5 hours later I arrive in Chania Central Bus Station and same song is being played....a few more minutes and more hours on....say 2 and a half days I arrive in Agia Roumeli and what is playing in the taverna where I'm staying....if you say Swiss Yodelling you would be so wrong...if you said Traditional Greek Music then you would be may right....but obviously on a totally different time line than the one I was on....it was Train and Drops of Jupiter.
I realise this is a total coincidence and nothing more...
So for the flight from London to Chania I had reserved the back window seat as I hoped to grab a couple of hours sleep, I might have managed this but for the aforementioned giggle sisters. They end up occupying the adjoining seats. Two young lads, mid to early twenties from somewhere in the Balkans. They obviously loved their childhood so much that they had decided for this flight to relive all their tickling and tittering times from when there were somewhere between 6 and a half and 9. I am sure somewhere within me I was happy for them being happy but was so tired that that somewhere was afraid to show itself to the rest of me. I kid you not when I tell you that on three occasions when one went off the the toilets the other sat in their seat. upon returning the one lad sat on his friends knee and a tickling match ensued. Still they were happy & I do remember twice dozing off for about 5 - 10 minutes each time.
Got the bus from the airport to Chania and a connecting one on to Omalos. Omalos is as plateau and possibly most widely known as the kicking off point for those hiking the Samaria Gorge. Around 50 or so people occupy the area the year around, most of those living and working in the likewise named village. I say village but it is more a collection of hotels / tavernas ( and a few houses ) there are 3 on the main round and perhaps another 3-4 within a 1km ) offering those ascending the gorge, and other walkers / visitors to the area the chance to stock up on sandwiches / rolls etc. Other than water there is no refreshments available within the gorge. I got off the bus a further 4km on, where the road ends and the trail head begins.
I had breakfast here, there are another couple of tavernas here, and decided, rather unwisely, that as it was the first day of my holidays I would wash down my food with a beer and then, after no consideration whatsoever, another.
There was a reason for this indulgence ; I had booked myself into Kallergi for my first couple of nights, a mountain refuge that sits atop of 1,680 meters of earth, of which I had to hike 560 of those meters along a near shadeless trail in 25 + /- of heat. So obviously there is some part of me that is not over fond of the rest of me so by letting myself indulge in a couple of beers I wanted to reassure that part of me that there is some part of me that does....well....like other parts of me.
As it was in the mid 20's, centigrade that is, and feeling my lack of sleep I thought it would be the better option to stick to the dirt road, there is an option of hiking on a trail for a while. Bad mistake. By avoiding the trail I had just added nearly 3km to my hike and as I discovered over the next couple of days the trail offered such loving shade at times. The dirt road starts off very rough, even walking it you can find it a trial to continuously avoid the larger stones, it does become a tad easier with each passing kilometre. I am about 200 meters along and come across what appears to be a fairly new rental car that looks like it had decided, possibly without the consent of the driver, that it preferred to exit the road quick sharply and seek the shade of the off road olive trees than go any further up ( more on that car later ) to make discourage the driver further it appears to have let the air out of one of its rear tyres. So an hour and a half later and I am lying outside the refuge grateful that there was light all around me, if there was a tunnel of the stuff, light that is, I would not have had the energy to walk towards it.
The refuge is that and more. Manned the year round it accommodates 40+ plus bodies in a mix of bunk beds and benches in varied sized range of rooms that also includes the dining / living / reception area. When I stayed there it was €26 per night per bed and that included Breakfast and Dinner. Breakfast was more or less continental and plenty of it. For dinner you had a choice......take it or leave it.......I took it both nights.
Christoforos, the manager, cook, barman and holder of the title of whatever else needed to be done, welcomed me and set me up in a room for 5. After opening my rucksack and realising I really did not need anything out of it I was back outside in about 5 minutes. It was around noon at this stage, 30 degrees plus a little, but this beautiful breeze. I will tell you about the views tomorrow.....for now I found a nice cushioned bench in the shade of the veranda, I placed my water and a beer on the ground beside me and with not a giggling sister for miles around I slept soundly for around 3 hours. Heaven.
I woke up with a group of about a dozen hikers relaxing around me. As I stirred I was greeted with well.....greetings. I had glasses, bottles of water, cups of coffee raised to me......I raised my now warm beer to them...Slainte.....I got mainly Prost's back to me.....so Germans or Austrians or possibly some other nationality that likes to say Prost. ( It turned out that they were German ) They had being around me for around half an hour. Obviously admiring this sleeping beauty that I appeared to be to them and to add to that I feel I need to inform you that woke up all on my own.....nobody kissed me....or at least no one owned up to doing so. However if they had being tempted I would not have blamed them....being mere mortals as they were.
Not long after they went off down to Omalos for the night and I decided that I needed to stretch my legs so went off along the dirt road past the refuge. It runs through the Northern Section of the Central Section of the White Mountains. I am hoping to use this road again within the near future either as an access or exit point for Panches which is the highest peak in this range and I think the second highest on Crete. Though I had being pretty frazzled earlier the sleep, the mountain air, this place that is Crete, all managed to invigorate me and before I knew it I had walked for nearly an hour, time to do a uturn. It is near sunset when I arrive back in Kallergi, just in time to have another beer before dinner.
Now dinner was some sort of wonderful soup that I suspect gets made up with whatever is available in the kitchen followed by spaghetti bolognese that was beautiful. There was only two others here for dinner, Greek ladies, regular hikers n the area they set off for Omalos after dinner.
After dinner, about 9:30 ish, I sat outside for a short spell appreciating the solitude of the location. The lights in the refuge were minimal so once you kept your back to the building the only twinkles you could see were the stars.......I remembering giving off to myself for not staying out longer but I was fairly shattered and had a couple of days hiking ahead.
10pm and I am falling asleep....I am definitely getting old.
Christoforos, the manager, cook, barman and holder of the title of whatever else needed to be done, welcomed me and set me up in a room for 5. After opening my rucksack and realising I really did not need anything out of it I was back outside in about 5 minutes. It was around noon at this stage, 30 degrees plus a little, but this beautiful breeze. I will tell you about the views tomorrow.....for now I found a nice cushioned bench in the shade of the veranda, I placed my water and a beer on the ground beside me and with not a giggling sister for miles around I slept soundly for around 3 hours. Heaven.
I woke up with a group of about a dozen hikers relaxing around me. As I stirred I was greeted with well.....greetings. I had glasses, bottles of water, cups of coffee raised to me......I raised my now warm beer to them...Slainte.....I got mainly Prost's back to me.....so Germans or Austrians or possibly some other nationality that likes to say Prost. ( It turned out that they were German ) They had being around me for around half an hour. Obviously admiring this sleeping beauty that I appeared to be to them and to add to that I feel I need to inform you that woke up all on my own.....nobody kissed me....or at least no one owned up to doing so. However if they had being tempted I would not have blamed them....being mere mortals as they were.
Not long after they went off down to Omalos for the night and I decided that I needed to stretch my legs so went off along the dirt road past the refuge. It runs through the Northern Section of the Central Section of the White Mountains. I am hoping to use this road again within the near future either as an access or exit point for Panches which is the highest peak in this range and I think the second highest on Crete. Though I had being pretty frazzled earlier the sleep, the mountain air, this place that is Crete, all managed to invigorate me and before I knew it I had walked for nearly an hour, time to do a uturn. It is near sunset when I arrive back in Kallergi, just in time to have another beer before dinner.
Now dinner was some sort of wonderful soup that I suspect gets made up with whatever is available in the kitchen followed by spaghetti bolognese that was beautiful. There was only two others here for dinner, Greek ladies, regular hikers n the area they set off for Omalos after dinner.
After dinner, about 9:30 ish, I sat outside for a short spell appreciating the solitude of the location. The lights in the refuge were minimal so once you kept your back to the building the only twinkles you could see were the stars.......I remembering giving off to myself for not staying out longer but I was fairly shattered and had a couple of days hiking ahead.
10pm and I am falling asleep....I am definitely getting old.
Day 2 18/09/2019
Gingilos Saddle
( Down...Up...Down again slower......Up again slooower )
( Down...Up...Down again slower......Up again slooower )
