Ayio Gorge

One thing we had hoped to do out here was hike down a gorge. Crete is famous for them, and its not every "mountain" hike that can end up at the sea, as several here do. So we looked at a few options that were relatively easy to drive to and weren't too arduous. (The famous Samaria gorge basically takes all day and you need to get transport arranged there and back.)

In the end we plumped for  the Ayio Gorge on the south side of the island, giving us a glimpse of some of the mountains on the drive down. 

The road over was surprisingly good, but became unpaved after the Moni Odhiyirias. We didn't actually take the opportunity to visit the monastery, so saw nothing more than its gate.

However, here it was that we parked and took the unpaved road down. Everyone else seemed to be willing to risk the drive down to a further car park.

Basically that is where we were heading on the road

This was a boys only trip, just Dave, Kit and I made it. An interesting handicap "race" with Kit super fit compared to Dave and certainly me, but he doesn't take the heat whereas that doesn't bother me. Anyway, Kit clearly "won", but was worn out for the rest of the day. I was last but made it, which is surely the aim at my age!

The catch with this trip is that it was all down on the way out, and all up on the way back. Unfortunately a looped trail isn't viable for a gorge. Very much an up and down job.

It certainly was reasonably warm, high twenties at least. And as Kit pointed out, this tree was the first bit of shade we came across. There was very little more.

But after about an hour we finally made it to the gorge itself. Scenic, and at this point a very easy stroll.

Dave and Kit taking advantage of another little patch of shade

Bizarrely in the middle of the gorge is the tiny church of Ayios Andonios. Evidently 15th century planning laws were not up to much. I suppose in truth it is quite picturesque, and offers a little distraction to passing tourists. There is no one around to form a congregation.

You don't need an elaborate bell to call the faithful when there are no faithful to call.

And then finally the gorge opens up to the sea.

 The beach is attractive enough. I had hoped we would have it largely to ourselves, but there were a fair few cars at the car park, plus several jeep loads from some package travel company called "Cretan Safaris". Slightly spoils the effect when you can even get the equivalent of small coaches down here. If everyone had been made to do the hike we had done there would not have been more than a handful of folk. Although I doubt that would have put off the German nudists!

In any event, after our picnic lunch and I had done a photo tour of the beach (ignoring the German nudists), Kit and I got changed and went into the sea for a dip. Was blissfully cool. The sea was significantly warmer than our villa pool. Just bobbing up and down in the waves was heavenly.

But then it was time to head back. Another two hours to get to the car. At least for me!