We are still in our wonderful little place in the mountains known as Milia, on the island of Crete.Yesterday, we decided to take a day hike through the gorge to the villages above us. It was a beautiful, sunny day with blue skies and the promise of being quite warm . In fact we questioned before we left whether or not to wear hiking shorts. We decided to continue in long pants with a layering of clothes on the top to adjust to the temperature.
We left at 11:00 after the usual breakfast which we previously described. We had our hand drawn map and the written instructions, also previously described. Our trail took us down into the valley, through several gates used to manage livestock and into a large olive grove. We took a lovely break under the olive trees before proceeding up the other side to a village called Lower Kalathenes.
We found a coffee shop there which was closed because it was afternoon (the Spaniards call it siesta – not sure what the Greeks call if but it means the same thing). We knew if we sat at one of the tables outside the café someone may come to open it; and sure enough a nice lady came and sold us some drinks and cookies. It was quite funny from our perspective as the man across the street looked out, went in and called a young man, who drove over and got the woman who owned the store to open up. We enjoyed our soft drinks marveling at how nice it felt to sit down and drink it!
After we left Lower Kalathenes, we walked up the road to Upper Kalathenes. These two villages were described as the most active in the area, although we hardly saw anybody and only an occasional vehicle. This was on the road that would eventually take us through another small settlement, Kioliana, where we would find a trail going through the mountains that would take us back to Milia. As we arrived in Upper Kalathenes, the skies began to darken and then it began to rain.
We sat on a log, using an olive tree as shelter; hoping this would just be a cloud that would soon pass. After a while, we surveyed the skies and decided this was not a temporary condition. We didn’t have an umbrella in our backpack but we did have two small “emergency ponchos” which we slipped on. We made the decision to continue on our planned course through Kioliana (about a mile and a half) to the trailhead. The ponchos worked well for the parts that they covered, so we walked in the rain through a beautiful area.
After a mile or so, a car approached, and Nancy stopped him to ask how much further to the trailhead. You understand that hand drawn maps are just that – hand drawn, with no particular scale and as we would later find out, no particular accuracy. The man driving the car was a very nice man who spoke some English. He was driving children home from school which is apparently one of his jobs. He dropped a child off and returned to drive us to the trailhead.
We started on the trail and were happy to see some landmarks that matched the map, plus Milia had an occasional paint mark on a rock to guide the way. It was still raining but we thought we were doing pretty good, until the paint marks and a bent sign took us to an absolute dead end. The only thing left was an “extreme rated” goat trail, which in the rain we decided was not wise. We backtracked and found a couple of more likely trails which turned out not to be good either. So we decided to return to Lower Kalathenes and take the trail home that we came on in the morning, knowing that was an easy and familiar trail.
When we were almost back to Upper Kalathenes, we saw in the distance, a small church and cemetery which were listed on the map as landmarks for the trail back to Milia. After two attempts to get to the church, we gave up and decided to continue on to Lower Kalathenes as originally planned. It was now after 5:00 and we knew we would lose light in about an hour. When we got to Upper Kalathenes, we ran into a small group of men. One was a young man named Yanni, who spoke English. He told us the fastest way back was by the church/cemetery and he and a friend took us there to show us the way. He said, “you see that mountain over there with the three big boulders on it, you want to go over that”. We were sure he was pointing to Turkey, it looked so far away! But on we went.
We estimated the light and knew if all went well we would arrive before total dark. Plus at that point it had stopped raining so we left confident that we would make it. Of course as we descended into the valley of olive groves, the light was began to slip fast. But we found the trail that we had been on that morning and headed for home, walking in the moonlight; which provided a modicum of light. We followed what looked like the main trail, but it took us through a gate that we didn’t recognize. We continued on because it was heading in the right direction. Then we came to another gate that was locked with a padlock which meant we were on the wrong road and couldn’t go on. The one thing we failed to bring in our backpack was a flashlight. Next time we will have one no matter what time we leave. We knew where we were and we even knew we were close but without light, we didn’t want to attempt to find the trail. So we made the decision to return to Upper Kalathenes and pay someone to drive us around the mountain to Milia. At no time were we in danger because we knew this trail going in that direction very well. As we returned, we sang songs, and had a good time.
After an hour, we made it back to Upper Kalathenes and with our very limited Greek, and the help of sign language, we were told we could find Yanni at the local café. When we approached the café much to our delight we could see him through the plate glass windows. He was sitting with all the men in the village enjoying conversation, cigarettes, and beverages. You should have seen the look on his face when we walked in.
He said “you are back, what happened?”. Actually you should have seen the look on all of their faces when we walked in because only men are there by tradition. Several of them came out with Yanni and we were treated very nice. He said they would call the local taxi (there is only one) and we could see if he would take us to Milia.
When the taxi came, the driver was none other than the man who gave us a ride earlier to the trailhead! After two o’clock, when he is done taking the school kids home, he runs a taxi service for the locals. He agreed to drive us to Mila for 17 Euros and we took him up on his offer.
We arrived at our place around 8:30, looking wet, tired, and very happy. We enjoyed a Greek salad and some wonderful, warm bean soup and bread. We had actually walked for over nine hours and had a wonderful adventure. We woke up this morning, feeling no worse for wear and have had a good laugh over the circumstances of the day before.
There's no place like home!
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