challenging linear route – and is readily accessible by public bus – a few day-walks from the plain (which is very large) are best reached by car. Lassithi has several important Neolithic and Bronze Age sites that attract visitors; villages on the plain offer facilities during the tourist season.
Plants, trees and flowers
Privation due to less high-yield agricultural methods, especially after World War II, is remembered throughout Greece, and ‘food for free’ is still popular with many people in Crete. In the countryside various edible wild greens are gathered in the spring. Snails are also collected in spring (and during Lent), especially after rain.
Crete’s geological history and location in the eastern Mediterranean, equidistant from Europe, Asia and Africa, renders the island of great interest to botanists. Below 1000m (3280ft), varying between the south (earlier) and the north coasts, late April and early May are usually the best time for a profusion of spring flowers. In the high mountains carpets of crocii, chionodoxa, Cretan tulip and others bloom with the retreating snow. Autumn flowers appear in October, with the first rains of the seasonal change. The most commonly seen plants and trees are largely those that taste bad to goats. Cretan plants have adapted in various ways to survive the long dry summers. They may be geophytes (earth plants) with sustaining bulbs, corms, or tubers unsuited to well-watered ground, or sclerophylls (hard-leaved) shrubs or trees with long roots and drought-resistant leaves, or thorns. Deep gorges orientated north–south get shade for part of the day, and their sheer walls are a safe haven for many species of chasmophyte (gorge plants).
The limit of the treeline varies: northern slopes about 1450m (4760ft), and southern slopes about 1600m (5250ft). Common mountain trees are Cretan cypress, often contorted by winter winds, but living to a very great age, juniper, evergreen maple, prickly oak and Holm oak, and Cretan pine (similar to Calabrian pine). Mid-level trees include (apart from olive trees) carob, with its big black pods, wild pear, deciduous oaks, oriental plane (watercourses, village squares), walnut and the fast-growing pollarded mulberry. At the seashore, juniper and tamarisk are common. Tamarisk is usefully fast-growing but despised for the windblown dust (that can land on the dinner table) retained in its foliage. Chestnut groves flourish in places where the type of rock allows a constant water supply.
On the hillsides there are three main types of vegetation. In the mountain ranges they grow side-by-side, depending on water supply, orientation and altitude.
Maquis
Tall, long-lived, woody shrubs classed as trees. This includes prickly oak when it is chronically stunted by browsing goats. Maquis is kept down where mature trees monopolise the available water supply.
Phrygana
Phrygana (‘friggan-na’) includes heathland plants such as oregano, thyme and spiny spurge (the ‘wire-netting’ plant), and woody shrubs such as spiny broom, spiny burnet and Jerusalem sage. In late summer shepherds burn areas of phrygana to promote regeneration of plants palatable to sheep and goats. If this operation is unlucky, or misjudged, high winds spread the fire. On reaching a ridgetop this type of fire should go out, or at worst ‘jump’ to elsewhere rather than descend the other side of the ridge. Phrygana in flower causes hay fever in the spring. Pharmacies stock remedies for this allergy (called the ‘aller-yee-a’). Use your cotton scarf as a mask, particularly when passing Jerusalem sage. (If you take up the work of clearing footpaths, use a builder’s mask.) Fortunately, goats can at least nibble the pods of this tough plant, which chokes so many old trails.
Steppe
This is comprised of plants that grow, for example, on the exposed dry rocky terrain of the south coast escarpment, including white asphodel (spring), maritime squill (autumn) and the weird-looking dragon arum or stink lily. Steppe also includes the long-rooted, nutritious (for sheep) low-profile endemics of the Madares. Several species adapted to the shadeless, barren terrain, date from geo-historical times, indicating that the high mountains were never tree-covered.
Wildlife and hunting
The agrimi wild goat – the ‘kri-kri’ – of the Samaria Gorge is a valuable rare breed of animal, and one that is seriously protected from hunting. This is accepted by the gorge community, but pure-bred kri-kri leaving the gorge are, unfortunately, still at risk. The recent decline of goat herding as a profession has inevitably increased the population of feral goats in the mountains. Female ferals interbreed with male agrimi so that where once domestic goats were kept out of the gorge, nowadays it is common to see half-breeds tramping about in the lower section. These half-breeds are supposed to be culled in the winter months, but this measure has limited success, as goats live in inaccessible places. However, thanks to the female kri-kri’s habit of refusing to interbreed, it is hoped that pure-breds – being superb rock-climbers – will sustain at least in the higher reaches of the Samaria Gorge (information from Andreas Stavroudakis of Ay. Roumeli, 2005).
Vultures and eagles are officially protected from hunting, but they, too, remain at risk. The hunting season starts in mid-September. The standard prey is chukar (a type of partridge that nests in rocky terrain mostly above 1600m/5250ft) and mountain hare. To the regret of the locals (who hunt), hares are now quite rare. New access roads and off-road vehicles have exacerbated the situation. Shepherds driving up to their work stations after dark may floodlight the road to catch a hare’s eyes in the light. If you are camping in the mountains and hear lots of shooting from the roads this is probably what is going on.
Hunters pause at Roussies cistern
You may be asked if you saw a hare or heard chukars (a chattering chorus in the early morning) on your trek. A threat to chickens, and killed at any time, are stone martins and weasels. Hunting dogs kill badgers. There are various rodents, bats, hedgehogs, frogs and harmless lizards. There are four different snakes but they are not dangerous to humans and it is quite unusual to see one. There are small scorpions but they are not a great threat. Centipedes sometimes get into boots overnight – it is worth checking in the morning.
Getting there
There are two ways of getting to Crete by air:
by direct charter flight to a Cretan airport, and
by scheduled flight (or charter flight) to Athens International Airport, followed by an internal (domestic) flight to Crete, or a ferryboat from Piraeus (the port of Athens) to a Cretan port.
At busy periods you may not be able to book the travel route or method of your choice. The following information should help to simplify arrival procedures and reduce the time it takes to get to the trailhead, but be aware that arrangements can change at any time.
From Athens
By air
Athens Eleutherios Venizelos International Airport, with bus and train connections to Athens city and the port of Piraeus, was fully completed by 2004, the year of the Olympic Games. It is located 20km north of the city. Olympic Airways (and possibly other airline partnerships) will send your luggage right through to destination if you are transferring at Athens onto an ongoing internal flight. Note Internal flights are quite often delayed because of bad weather in the Aegean, causing, for example, strong winds at the destination airport; if you have accommodation booked, telephone ahead to advise of your late arrival. All the Greek islands are served by regular ‘domestic’ flights that tend to be very busy, but seats, if available, can be booked at short notice at the airport.
Heading towards the Eligias Gorge (Walk 48)
Before you travel, visit ‘Arriving in Athens’ websites (see Appendix D) for detailed information about all ongoing transport options, fares, where to buy your tickets and so on. Websites can warn of strikes or maintenance works that might upset your plans, especially if you are aiming for a particular ferryboat from Piraeus, the port of Athens.
Timetable leaflets and maps are also available from racks in the airport’s thoroughfares