21/9/17 Day out with our Hosts

Having a drink with our hosts they told us they were with a friend heading out for a day to try and walk up a dry river bed and gorge as far as they could and then take their jeep high up dirt tracks of Mountain range Psiloritis. We joined them as this was our kind of day! We took along another couple and headed out. It wasn't the most spectacular walk but it was fun clambering our way and up and over large boulders. Russ was determined to go further but our hosts were nervous I think feeling responsible for his guest's welfare so when the boulders were just too big to navigate we returned. Amazingly in a tiny pool of water under a large boulder I found a frog!

Returning to our car we drove towards the Psiloritis range stopping off at a mountain village for lunch. This was quite comical as there were a group of local men, workers on their break and we arrived, you could tell they were not used to 'tourist's! Though our hosts were not tourists of course but then they weren't Greek either! One of the gents helped who spoke broken English and our hosts who spoke some Greek. We ordered from what they explained the lovely lady could cook us and a freshly made banquet arrived about 45 mins later. Stuffed to say the least!!

We then continued to the road to start climbing the enormous mountain starting just south of the highest part.

The road turned form tarmac to a dirt track, single way of course, not that we met any other loonies ascending up this track! How we didn't damage the hire car I have no idea! I was of course petrified nearly all the way! We eventually came to a stop at 4900 feet. I have never been so happy to get out of a car.

From here we trekked up to about 6000 feet. We really wanted to get to the top but it was getting late and it was not sensible thing to do without the right gear. The views were just incredible, looking across central Crete and down at lower mountain ranges, truly magical