principle two pairs of socks, perhaps one soft loop stitch and one loose weave, are best for perspiration wicking and cushioning. However, modern hiking boots are designed for a correct fit with one pair of socks. Cotton has a place, but for walking it soon becomes saturated, which causes chafing. High-wool content socks may work better than the synthetics – skin that causes no trouble at home may react quite differently in the heat. On a first venture bring a variety of sock types, including cotton. Heat rash around the ankles just needs a good re-airing. Long socks that can be pulled up against thorns are useful if you wear shorts. Canvas gaiters are a better idea, especially on northern footpaths – walkers soon appreciate why knee-high leather boots are part of traditional Cretan dress.
Xyloscala, near the top of the Samaria Gorge (Walks 2, 49)
Ultra-light clothing alternatives
In the mountains, where storms can occur at any time of year, function-specific clothing is needed in winter, spring and autumn. In summer you must also have a shell jacket and an effective warm layer, but other minimum-weight ‘just in case’ items could be:
sew an elastic chinstrap onto your sunhat so that it stays on in wind and provides warmth; wear a plastic bag under it (or over it) if it rains.
cotton or silk scarves are useful and versatile; bring at least two.
for the hands, latex gloves are windproof.
a ring made out of spare socks (toes inside ankles) makes a warm hat. Spare socks can also be used as gloves.
nylon tights make effective long johns.
polythene bags can be formed into boot-top gaiters.
as a last resort, a large polythene dustbin bag worn next to the skin, under wet clothes, acts as a vapour barrier, helping to conserve body heat (this is for overnight camp – remove it when you move).
For all packing think carefully about reducing weight as you may need to carry lots of water on some routes, at 840g (2.4lb) per litre.
Mobile phones/telephones
Cosmote and Vodafone phone shops, with English-speaking staff, can be found in towns throughout Greece. In Greece a mobile phone is called a ‘kinny-toe’. Your phone will work in many places in the Cretan mountains, but not all; you will certainly be out of contact when in a gorge. Greece has two-pin EU-style socket outlets. Suitable charger leads (weight 5oz) are obtainable from phone shops. Taverna owners are usually pleased to allow you to plug in during your visit.
The National Telephone service (land line) is called ‘OTE’. Phone booths, dwindling in number now, use phone cards, and these can be bought at some newsagents and pavement kiosks. Alternatively, If you expect to make many local calls a Greek SIM card costs about €20.
Compass, altimeter and GPS
In Crete, magnetic declination in 2015 varied between +4.1E in Western Crete and +4.7E in Central Crete. Contour maps, other than the Anavasi series, are small-scale and are usually inaccurate in their coverage of roads and paths. You will need the additional aid of a compass – preferably a sighting compass – for taking bearings off identifiable mountain summits, passes or plains, and to check the direction of valleys, ravines and paths. Note that some of the altitude measurements in the route notes are approximate, as they were taken when it was not possible to reset the device to a particular landmark; a GPS will do better. Maps published by Anavasi (see below) incorporate the metric grid Greek Geodetic Reference System (GGRS 87), which can be added to a GPS as set out in the box. (The WGS84 grid is also marked in the margins.)
GEODETIC REFERENCES
| User Grid | |
| Longitude of origin | +24.00000E |
| Scale factor | 0.9996 |
| False easting | +500000 |
| False northing | +0.0 |
| User Map Datum | |
| Dx | -200 |
| Dy | 74 |
| Dz | 246 |
| Da | 0 |
| Df | 0 |
For final route planning, note the daylight hours as soon as you arrive. By the end of October (when clocks go back) there are 10hrs of daylight.
Nida: ‘the Partisan of Peace’, photographed in 1992
Maps
Part of the challenge of mountain walking in Crete used to be that you had to work with small-scale maps, and this is still the case in some areas. However, since 2006, Anavasi of Athens has been producing – and this work is ongoing – large scale GNSS-compatible maps of all the best walking regions of Greece, including the Cretan mountains. Relevant to this guidebook there are four separate maps covering the White Mountains, one of Psiloritis (Mount Ida) and one of Lassithi.
Visit the Anavasi website for the latest information, including local stockists. Distribution has been good but even so it may be prudent to buy the maps you want (about £8 each) before your trip, either direct from Anavasi, or, in the UK, from Stanfords (see Appendix D). Digital versions of the maps for mapping receiver GPS users are available via the Anavasi website. These include newly researched paths and roads sooner than the paper maps are available. However, a basic GPS, adjusted to suit, will give you a grid reference – easier too, if you draw on the grid lines from the margins. Useful comments on the walking routes, including timings that are usually faster than those listed in this book, are found on the reverse side of each map.
Footpaths marked on maps
Starting from scratch with the new technology (rather than just copying footpaths from older maps) the Anavasi management, and volunteer helpers, do as much ground research themselves as time allows. Therefore some of the paths described in this book may not yet be shown on these maps – each new edition adds more – while others shown may not be described here. (There are lots of paths in the mountains, both old and new.) Members of the Cretan EOS have also modernised footpath research by depositing gpx/kml files on relevant databases and these have been used, along with Google Earth, to recheck the location of some of the old paths.
Traditional main mule track routes are marked on most small-scale maps, giving an indication of their existence (somewhere) even though trailheads may be hard to find.
Goatherds’ hut near Asfendami spring (May) (Walk L5)
Whether old or new, maps do not indicate the great cliffs and crags that are so characteristic of these limestone mountains. Where the researcher’s description says ‘difficult path’ you can be sure it means just that – such as rugged rocks and/or loose gravel. And any named gorge that looks like a valley on the map will indeed be a cliff-bound gorge. Google Earth will give you a preview of what to expect, although it can also make the topography look more daunting than it actually is.
To date the maps are:
The White Mountains, at scale 1:25,000:
Lefka Ori (White Mountains)–Sfakia/Pachnes (11.11/11.12), ed. 2012
Samaria–Sougia–Paleochora (11.13), ed. 2014
Frangokastelo–Plakias (11.17), ed. 2013