In the countryside dogs are regarded as useful tools for guarding premises or livestock. Their need for affection is ignored. Dogs chained up for most of their lives, sometimes out of sight even of stimulating diversions, quite naturally become demented. Therefore, if you feed these dogs (they usually need it) or give them water, take care not to turn your back on them, for some (but not all) will bite you if they can. By law, dogs are inoculated against rabies and other relevant diseases.
Lone women walkers
In Greece there is great respect for the family and, therefore, the role women play within the family. Cretan (and especially Sfakiot) society is very ‘macho’, but lone women travellers and walkers are as safe in Crete as anywhere.
However, women travelling on their own for pleasure, curiosity or interest should be aware that this could be misconstrued. It has not been a normal part of the local culture, although all such ideas are changing nowadays. In particular, the high pastures of the Lefka Ori are traditionally a men-only workplace. In the other mountain ranges, where either the conditions, or the customs, are a bit different, you may see whole families working together. Cretan women of the countryside have observed visiting foreign women for many years, so they are well aware of what they miss out on or gain in comparison. In the mountains, you could meet the culture halfway by creating an impression of community patronage – give the name of an accommodation destination, as every family-run business in a particular locality is known.
Manners
For both sexes, quiet, considerate good manners are noticed and appreciated. Young Cretans tend not to display affection in public.
General information
Public holidays
Orthodox Easter weekend (April or May, dates vary each year) is the most important holiday in Greece. All public transport is crowded as people visit relatives around the country, including the islands. Other holidays include Independence Day on 25 March (town parades) and 1 May, 15 August and 28 October. Main route bus services will operate except on Easter Sunday and Monday. Tourist shops and village shops will stay open.
Time difference
Greece is on Eastern European Time.
Summer: GMT plus 3hrs
Winter: GMT plus 2hrs
The ‘language barrier’
Like all Greeks, Cretans communicate easily with foreigners. Older people involved in the tourism business have learnt foreign words and phrases by ear. Nowadays English is seen as important for getting on in life and is taught in schools and widely spoken at least by the younger generation as well as by returnee emigrants from the US, Canada and Australia.
For travellers, prices are what really matter. Shopkeepers not fluent in foreign languages will write down price totals for tourists. To avoid misunderstandings use a notebook and pen for this purpose. Almost all place names are written in both Greek and English. A small dictionary is useful if you are travelling in the countryside.
Foreign workers
Many thousands of workers from North Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent now live in Greece; even the smallest village may have two or three in temporary residence and a modest cottage, or the old schoolhouse, may be turned into a dormitory for them. In the towns, workers wait at certain spots each day to be hired in accordance with government-directed day rates and conditions. They work in agriculture, construction, in restaurants, as shop assistants and as carers for the elderly, especially in inland villages. Skilled stonemasons, from Albania and Romania particularly, find a rich source of work in the limestone areas. In the mountains some shepherding may be done by non-local men, especially if the place is remote from village amenities. If this is the case bear in mind the information under ‘Lone women walkers’, below, as the ‘meet the culture’ approach might not be so applicable. Cretans firmly encourage foreign workers to stay out of trouble – which they mostly do.
Shelter
Mitata
Shepherds’ huts, variously called mitata or koumi, are a feature of the Cretan mountains. Pre-1950s huts are made of drystone walling and corbelling. These workstation complexes look like piles of rocks in the landscape, or on the skyline, as they are often located overlooking views of the trail. Some mitata are still used during the grazing season (about mid-June to mid-October) as shepherds’ overnight shelters, or fodder storage huts. Off-season, with no desirable possessions inside – old tools, old clothes and perhaps old food – they used to be left unlocked (and some still are) perhaps in case passers-by needed shelter. After a winter under snow, interiors are a real mess, but if necessary they can be cleaned up and left in a better state.
Note that disused mitata may be structurally unsound; approach these interiors with care. Mitata are usually (but not always) near a water supply. Whether abandoned or not, they remain the property of the families, or the descendants, of those who built them. Most grazing areas are now accessed by road, but the old huts may still be used at times, especially as shelter from the midday heat in summer.
Caves
Potholes are more common than caves; there are few accessible open-sided caves that provide shelter. As a rule, those that do exist are much used by (flea-ridden) sheep and goats eager for shade. Visit the EOS website (see Appendix D) for information on cave exploration.
Photography
Greece is famous for the quality of its light; photographically speaking, there is ‘light in the shadows’. However, there are variations: light is crisp and contrasty early in the year, but in summer a haze develops. In the autumn, as if compensating for the absence of greenery, the haze clears and mellows attractively, offering a wider exposure latitude. In particular, the Madares (Treks 1–9) look their best at this time, but shadows are denser at high altitude. In general, soft early morning light is gone by 0830 but evenings, after 1800, offer more scope.
Water
Thanks to winter snowfall in the mountains, towns and villages throughout Crete are supplied with good water from underground sources. Tap water is normally safe to drink, although it may come via a rooftop tank rather than the mains supply. Town supplies are chlorinated. Bottled water is widely available. Route notes in this guide mention shepherds’ cisterns, many of which hold palatable water. In the high mountains, after snow has thawed, nothing is more important than the whereabouts of cisterns and springs, and it is useful to learn how to find and take care of this water. You may also be able to collect a litre or two on a waterproof sheet when it rains – helpful if you are delayed by mist.
Thanks to the specialist skills of those who made them, many very old well shafts and cisterns still function throughout Crete, despite earth tremors and the ravages of time. An old cistern may be topped with stone vaulting, or just a wooden log, blending so well into the surroundings that you may miss it as you pass by. This type is most often sited on small flat plains of alluvial soil (dolines), which provide a run-off for rain and snowmelt. Modern cisterns are of reinforced concrete with or without a cover (which may be locked), and the most recent are large concrete-aproned constructions, blasted into the hillsides. For clean water a concrete run-off, or an open cistern, should be fenced-off from animals. The Psiloritis and Lassithi ranges have more freshwater springs than the Lefka Ori, where man-made cisterns for collecting rainwater have been built to substitute.
Aravanes spring in autumn (Walk P8)
Drawing up water
Always carry 5m of lightweight nylon line and, ideally, a camping pan that doubles as a bucket. Remove your sunglasses or spectacles to a safe place (never on the ground – someone will step on them) and secure the line to your hand or foot before you drop the bucket (especially if you are using the shepherds’ bucket.) Some cisterns are very deep and it may be impossible to retrieve anything dropped in (a large fish hook, obtainable in coastal resorts, could be your only chance). Up-end the bucket and let it