Travels with Saint Lucy: Crete Walks (3)

In the past two weeks we have taken three interesting and varied walks: a walk up the Ayia Irini Gorge, North of Souyia, a small town on the South coast of Crete, a walk from Souyia to the ancient town of Lissos, and a walk up to a small stone church at the base of the White Mountains, the Lefka Ori, Southeast of Hania.

The Ayia Irini Gorge is located to the West of the world famous Samaria Gorge and is reached by heading the same way out of Hania, but taking a right turn past Ayia to Souyia, instead of a left turn to Omalos. The road climbs, crosses the White Mountains near a PPC (the Greek electric power company) wind farm, and heads down toward the coast. We parked at the end of the gorge and walked in about a kilometer. The shortness of our hike was due to two factors: we were not sure of our own hiking abilities and this was the first hike for our dog, Thassa. Thassa was intimidated by the first big rock along the trail, backing out of her harness and heading for the van, but was soon making the climbs quicker than we could keep up with her.

Here are a few photos in the gorge:

After our walk, we headed to Souyia on the South coast. Souyia is a popular tourist town in the Summer, attracting naturalists and naturists, but this time of the year is still nearly deserted. But we were able to find a place to park and camp along the beach and a good taverna that welcomed dogs.

Our meal included artichokes and "small beans", which, you can see, were fresh peas, and grilled feta in a foil swan.

Our campsite on the beach, looking East.

And the sunset, which includes the foil swan, now miraculously transformed into a cloud.

The next day we hiked from Souyia to the site of the ancient town of Lissos. It is a 4 km hike, first through a short gorge, up to a level headland, then down into the valley where the ruins of the town are located.

The first two photos show our first look into the Lissos valley and a cave along the descent.

During the time of Greek settlement, Lissos was the location of a sanctuary of Asklepios, a god of health. Here is what Costis Davaras has to say about the sanctuary in his excellent book "Guide to Cretan Antiquities": 'In the sanctuaries of Asklepios, patients entered the temple and "incubated," after purifying themselves and offering sacrifices. The god appeared to them in their sleep or in a vision and recommended treatment or healed the disease. Numerous inscriptions contain the sincere thanksgivings of healed patients. The attribute of Asklepios was the snake. This symbol still survives today in the caduceus, emblem of the medical profession."

After exploring the sanctuary, we all relaxed, and maybe "incubated", on the small, rocky beach.

There are also two small Byzantine era churches at Lissos. Here are photos, outside and inside, of one. You can see that the builders took advantage of whatever material was handy.

Some photos of the return hike.

4 goats

1 old goat & 1 dog

The final hike was more along the lines of a Lenten pilgrimage up to the church of Saints Peter and Paul in a mountain valley, high above the small town of Kares. The walk was along a road which was surfaced most of the way, rock and gravel otherwise, and we suspect it is drivable, but the goal was to see if it was walkable.

The hike starts at the Kares platia, with its venerable platan, and rapidly ascends into the foothills of the White Mountians. Further up, the road follows the West side of a river canyon, which eventually opens to the mountain valley, the location of the church and some stone shepherd's huts. Unfortunately, the camera batteries ran out before we could take pictures of the huts. The walk up took about 3 hrs and the distance was 8, maybe 10 km. We visited the church, the door held shut by a piece of wire, as is often the case with these old churches, payed our respects to the Saints, left a remembrance, and headed back.