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Samaria Gorge The sheep and goats grazing nearby bleated up a storm-our wake up call. With all the mountainous terrain, sheep and goats were the only grazing animals we saw. Almost the entire island had been terraced to grow olive trees and the sheep grazed amongst the olive trees on what little foliage could eke out an existence in the rocky soil. I went off for a quick jog down the gorge since I had been so lazy the night before. There was no rain, but there were plenty of hills again and I was constantly damp from sweat. Our little gorge had just been a warmup as we made our way to the famous Samaria Gorge on the winding mountain roads traversing asphalt, gravel, new pavement, then gravel mixed with large rocks and finally back to hardtop. The Cretans had an interesting "technique" (as three Bostonians we met at the gorge described it) of constructing wonderful new roads in the middle of nowhere. We made it to the gorge after going on a gravel road that midway through turned to perfect new asphalt. I bet it kept the majority of tourists off the road until it was finished. They saw the gravel road and said: "We don't want to go down that thing." Partway, the perfect new asphalt abruptly ended and we were onto a rocky shepherd's route. After a hard struggle we finally made it to the gorge. It was closed. Samaria Gorge looked impressive but we weren't allowed to hike into it. A sign near the warden's hut read: "We did not inherit the earth from our parents; we borrowed it from our children. Forbidden to entrance." We couldn't figure out why. Maybe it wasn't crowded enough or hot enough so they closed it. They didn't want anyone to actually enjoy it. An old ranger kept post making sure we didn't sneak down for a peek. We had to content ourselves with peering over the fence. Three American guys pulled up in a rental car. "Is the gorge closed?" one asked. "No," the guard replied. "It's okay if I go down for a look then?" the American followed up. "No," the sentry replied again. I guessed that was the extent of the lookout's English. Whoever hired him must have said: "Okay, all you have to know for this job is one word: 'No.' Got that? All right then, go to it!" One American was formerly from Greece. So, in Greek, he asked the sentinel if he spoke Greek. The old timer replied "No." "The old guy must just be a shepherd and doesn't really work here," the American said. But he did. No gorge hike, so we made our own. We went to the top of a mountain-with our bikes. Our reward was a spectacular view of two valleys on either side of us. We set up our tent in a circle of rocks at 1250 meters. The surrounding mountains looked small below us. We watched as a shaft of sunlight continually altered the appearance of mountains and distant coastline. The sunset turned into a soft pink glow. |
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