Short Trip to Omalos, Sugia, and Almost to Lisos

The Omalos Plateau is about 2/3 of the way across Crete south from Chania and a bit west from Chania. It reminded me of a miniature North Park in the Colorado Rockies (from a distance). Up close it is a bit drier and is a big goat and sheep pasture. The south edge of the Omalos plateau is the head of the Samaria Gorge. You can hike the rest of the 1/3 across Crete all the way to the Libyan Sea down this gorge. I say YOU can. We did not! We are thinking that we may be able to put off hiking down the gorge until it closes at the end of September, then it's likely to be too hot for us to go when it opens again in April, or maybe it will be too windy. One can only hope. But I'm thinking we are likely to hike down the gorge or be called wimps (which we are).

On the way to the Omalos Plateau we stopped at Laki where they have invisible hand rails. The village is on a lovely hillside, the statue and the platia are in Laki.

The incredible craggy mountains are at the beginning of the trail down the Samaria Gorge and late in the day the shadows were very pretty. We went for a short hike farther west along the edge of the beginning of the gorge trail, that's where the natural bonsai tree pictures were taken.

We stayed overnight in Omalos. It was wonderfully chilly in the mountains and we got to use blankets at night! This was so encouraging to us that we decided to hike to ancient Lisos the next day. To do this hike you drive to Sougia, which is on the south coast a bit farther west and then hike up the Lisos Gorge over a headland and then down to sea level in the next inlet west of Sougia. Both Sougia and Lisos were originally Minoan Settlements. Nowadays Lisos is an abandoned city other wise know as an archeological site. And Sougia is still a lively small port and summer time beach resort. We started out in Omalos very excited and energetic thinking about the hike, but as we lost elevation and gained temperature we turned into our usual wimpy selves. So we sat on the beach and took naps in St. Lucy. Then at about 5:00 PM we suddenly got energetic again and decided to go for the hike (it got cooler). So you will see pictures of the Lisos Gorge where we thought we had suddenly been transported to somewhere in the canyon lands in Utah or New Mexico. Except they don't paint Greek flags on the canyon walls in New Mexico. We did not make it to Lisos, but we did make it to the cliff edge looking down into Lisos. We are thinking of taking the water taxi from Sougia to Lisos next time and then spending our day hiking around in Lisos and maybe hike back. So, come see us and you can come along. You don't have to hike, you can take the water taxi both ways!

By the time we finished our hike it was getting along towards afternoon (7:00 PM) and we started the drive back across the mountains. We took a different route home because we saw on the map that it was a red road. This means that it is not a yellow road (we don't take yellow roads any longer unless under duress). But as we found out not all red roads are equal. This road was not equal. Actually I am exaggerating a little, part of the road had recently been redone. There were even some nice wide straight stretches along the road where new bridges had been built over some of the larger gullies. At each of these nice straight wide bridges there were extremely tall bright lights along each side of the road and then it got pitch black again on the remaining narrow curvy parts. We stopped for dinner at about 10:00 PM in Kolumbari at Grier's favorite restaurant. Then home by 1:00 AM.

Such a beautiful place and always something unexpected.

Some sad news. St. Lucy had her first (and I hope only) run in with a stone wall on my way home from work on Monday. It was one of those tiny windy roads, with double parking, two cars coming head on, and three following me, and a pedestrian. I chose the wall. Next time I will just stop. We were all going slowly enough, I could have. :(

St. Lucy has also developed a suspicious rattle coming from underneath. And I think there is also a new peculiar smell, although I haven't told Grier yet. But, he'll find out when he reads this Blog adventure. On a happy note St. Lucy got a bath on Friday. The Seabees are earning money for the Seabee Ball by doing car washes. They did a great job. The scratch on her side doesn't show up as much as it did when she was dirty.

Tonight the cats will get baths too. I hope you like the pictures.