Crete
What to say about Crete? Is is Greece? Is it its own place? More to the point, is it still its own place now that half the population is tourists?
Those questions are unanswerable, but it is certain that Crete is a place with tremendous history still visible on the land and that the landscape itself provides ample scope for challenging exploration.
We got there by taking an afternoon ferry from Santorini to Rethymno, on which we were entertained by a musical ensemble of ferry staff playing traditional Greek instruments.
We were collected by Kyriakis, our Welcome Pickups driver, who gave us multiple tips about what to do and eat in Chania and western Crete. We carried out each one of his suggestions and were glad we did.
From sunny, beachy Chania, we traveled to Omalos in the center of the White Mountains, once again finding ourselves in autumn. We hiked up a mountain and through two gorges.
The Samaria Gorge spit us out on the south coast, where we discovered that most transportation is by water.
Having walked east, we sailed back west past familiar terrain and on past to Sougia, where we were joined by Yannis, our first and only Trekking Hellas guide. He shepherded us through our last coastal treks: through an ancient asclepion, past high-altitude lammergeier ossuaries, and down to the pink sand of Elafonisi.
We collected our last rental car in Chania and drove back east to the town of Kavousi. There we spent our last week in a lovely stone house.
We used Kavousi as a base to visit old favorites—the Kastro and Tholos Beach—as well as new sites such as the Cave of Zeus and Kato Zakros.
We spent an evening in Ierapetra, where we hooked up with Amy’s old friend Manolis.
And that was that.