Another day and another gorge. We made our way by boat to Aradena Gorge which begins a couple of hundred metres from the shoreline. As we headed up the gorge it became steeper and steeper. We had to clamber over the fallen rocks and boulders, hoist ourselves up. Sometimes I used my walking sticks and at other times grabbing the rocks to get more purchase.
The gorge widens and narrows as you progress along and then opens out into a large amphitheatre. High above us circle Griffin Vultures. At one point the acrid smell of a dead sheep penetrates the atmosphere. The carcass has been stripped bare of meat and only the bones and maggots hang around.
We stop under the shade of a cliff and Jonathan reads another of his messages of the day, an extract written by Patrick Leigh Fermor about a local Cretan from the book Cretan Runner. I sit there thinking how lucky I am to be part of this holiday and the time in these barren hills. We soon make it to the top and begin our descent. On the way down we come across Taverna Livaniana. It sat on the hillside but had no staff just an honesty box. We guessed at the price of the beer and drinks in the fridge because we couldn’t find a proper price list. There we recovered some of the liquid we had lost on our climb and looked down on the sea below.
Our route now took us to a small tavern in Phoenix. While everyone waited for our lunch of lentil soup and Cretan salad I changed into my swimming gear and climbed into the sea from the jetty. The Cretan salad was a success with the fresh tomatoes, cucumber and the delicious mizithra cheese. The lentil soup didn’t go down so well.
The walk back to Loutro was relatively easy compared with the morning hike and took us about 40 minutes, but the blazing sun makes even a short climb harder.
In the evening we ate at the hotel and I listened to the Everton v Arsenal match on the radio. Arsenal won 1-0. Later we watched the first half of England struggle against Japan in the rugby World Cup.
Day 6, our day off.
Maggi and I took advantage of our day off and spent a relaxing day in and around the hotel, sitting outside a nearby chapel talking to other walkers as they passed by, and generally doing nothing.
The rest of the party hiked along the coast where there was no shelter in the hot sun. They said the walk was tricky in patches, narrow with a long drop to the sea.
They returned around 3:30 and Helen, Fiona, Maggi and I had a swim together in the clear blue water just near the hotel.