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

After this point the walking becomes easier, and smaller ravines open out to the left and right of the ‘Faranga’, as the Samaria Gorge is locally known. Halfway along is the old village of Samaria; now it is uninhabited, as the few people who used to live there moved out when the area was made into a national park.

There is a Byzantine chapel of the fourteenth century dedicated to the Blessed Mary of Egypt – whose Greek name (‘Osia Maria’) was gradually corrupted into ‘Sia Maria’ and thus ‘Samaria’, coming to denote the entire area. This is a good place to stop and snack on what we have brought with us.

We now come to Portes (‘doors’), so called because at this point the walls of the gorge come so close together as to give the impression that there is no way forwards at all. Little by little, however, the gorge widens out, reaching the abandoned upper village of Ayia Roumeli.

A little way further on is the new village of Ayia Roumeli, in an isolated spot by the sea some 1.5km from the mouth of the gorges. There is no way to reach Ayia Roumeli by road from the rest of the Prefecture. The only way to enter or leave (apart form the gorge) is by launch to the west, to Souyia and Palaiochora (buses to Chania), or to the east, to Loutro and Chora Sfakion.

Loutro stands behind a little beach among the arms of the mountain as they sweep down to the sea. Sfakia (or Chora Sfakion) is a historic village in a rocky and arid region which is difficult to approach either by land or by sea.

Its name comes from the word sphax, meaning a chasm in the ground: this, then, is the land of ravines. As a result of its position, the Cretan revolts centered on it. It has been the scene of fierce fighting throughout its history.

We can now return directly to Chania. Alternatively, we could visit the village of Anopoli, up in the mountains, the Venetian castle of Frangokastello (with a square ground plan and towers at each corner), and the village of Vryses on the banks of the Vrysianos river.

From Vryses, the old main road from Chania to Rethymno will take us back to our starting point.