Europe's longest gorge at 16 km is the Samariá Gorge in Crete - we decided we would pay it a visit on one of the cooler days this week. It's a brilliant drive up to the gorge - lots of hairpin bends and stunning views. At the start of the path leading down to the gorge we looked down at the incredible depth with some trepidation. There were lots of other people there, all a lot younger than us. Most people seem to walk the entire gorge (5 to 7 hours), and get a boat and bus back. We had decided that we would only do a short bit and turn around. We soon found that while walking down the path to the gorge was quite easy - coming back would be a lot more difficult. The further we went down, the tougher it would be. There's no shame in admitting that we felt that we would not be up to the return trip, and we abandoned it after just a few hundred metres.
On way back from the mountains we stopped off at the lovely Crete Botanical Gardens. We got a nice hike in here as it is a 2 km walk down and up the side of a mountain. September is not the best time of year to see the gardens in all their glory as most flowering plants had shed their flowers. There was still lots of fruit and tropical plants from all over the world to see.
76 olives? In the Olive Tree restaurant at the end of the gardens we had lunch. I had a dish called "Walk to the Village" which was a tomato and olive fried dish. Delicious, but I never had so many olives on one plate. I had to count them - 76 in total. |
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