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Chania – Omalos plateau – Samaria Gorge – Ayia Roumeli – Chora Sfakion – Frangokastello – Vryses – Part 1

We head south from Chania along the most popular itinerary in Crete, one which involves a walk of 6-8 hours down the most beautiful gorge anywhere in Europe.

The itinerary can be covered in a single day. However, note that private transport is not convenient for those wishing to walk down the gorge; it is in any case hard to walk back up again, and the return trip certainly cannot be done in a single day.

We head out of Chania along the Omalos road, in a southerly direction. We first pass through the Keritis valley. From Fourne, a pretty village set about with orange groves in the Keritis valley, the road climbs onto the White Mountains.

The route between here and Xyloskalo, where we enter the Samaria Gorge, is one of the greatest beauty. The only village along the way is Lakki, a historic place whose position high in the mountains helped it play an important part in the Cretan struggle for freedom.

The part of the road from Lakki to the highest point on the route – from which the Omalos plateau is visible – is the Mousouri road, known to all Greeks from songs about the freedom-fighters of Crete. At the entrance to the plateau are the house and tomb of Hadzimichalis Yannaris, one of the leaders of the struggle for liberty. The road passes along the west side of the plateau and ends at Xyloskalo, a position of strategic importance throughout all the fighting in Crete.

Nowadays, the steps down into the gorge are out of rock and descent is easy. Once, however a staircase made of tree trunks served both those descending and those ascending, and gave its name to the whole area (‘Xyloskala’ = ‘wooden staircase’). At the top of the gorge is a small hostel with a superb view.

Shortly before Xyloskalo, a minor road leads up the ski centre at Kallergi, where the altitude is 1690 meters. The footpath into the gorge starts at Xyloskalo. The Samaria Gorge is the longest in Europe: 18 kilometers, of which visitors walk 14. It has been scheduled as a national park as to preserve the flora, fauna and avifauna which live in the area, and the Cretan wild goat in particular.

It is only permitted to walk through the Gorge from early May to late October. In the winter months, the water in the stream-bed flows rapidly, and landslides across the path are not unknown.

As we walk through the gorge we pass the chapel of St Nicholas, where there are tall cypress trees and cool springs. Nearby was the site of the Doric city of Caino. Here we are at the bottom of the gorge, with mountains rising to 2000 meters on either side of us.