Crete White Mountains and Coastal Trail, September 12–19, 2024
— Amy G. Hackney Blackwell, with Christopher Blackwell
In mid-October, we went to Crete.
We spent our first ten days or so in western Crete, hiking in the mountains and along the southern coastline.
We combined two of Trekking Hellas’s itineraries to maximize our coverage of southwest Crete. First, we did the Hiking in the White Mountains (Self-Guided) trek. Then we added on the last two days of Coastal treks in Crete (E4). That gave us a really good sense of the geography of the area.
Short version: Crete is rocky and rough! Crete is also kind of scary.
If any geological feature distinguishes Crete, it is the gorge. The entire island appears to be in the process of breaking apart into a dozen separate pieces, with gorges forming the breaks between them. Gorges have very steep sides.
I do not do well with exposure—not “exposure” in the sense of “being cold and wet”, but in the sense of standing near sheer drops on one side of a trail. I especially hate exposure combined with narrow, dusty trails that are angled downhill. Crete is the only place in Greece where exposure was an issue for us. It’s a steep place!
Also: southern Crete is hard to navigate. When we booked our trip, we had no idea that certain portions of the transport would have to be by boat. Sections of the south coast have no roads. Certain towns are served entirely by ferry boats that sail east and west. The mountain roads themselves are no picnic to drive. This definitely adds to the cost of travel there.
That being said, we love Crete. It’s beautiful, the food is great, and the people are both friendly and chill.