{"id":3670,"date":"2021-12-05T11:18:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T11:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/?p=3670"},"modified":"2021-12-08T14:09:42","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T14:09:42","slug":"hiking-samaria-gorge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/hiking-samaria-gorge\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiking Samaria Gorge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Samaria Gorge \u2013 Crete\u2019s most famous hiking route \u2013 is a magnet for tens of thousands of visitors each year, and the most popular months \u2013 July and August \u2013 witness a thousand people a day filing down the 12.8km gorge.<\/p>\n

The whole walk is 16km, including the last leg to\u00a0the village of Aghia Roumeli, and takes five to six hours.<\/p>\n

Before you start, make sure you\u2019re prepared. You\u2019ll need good footwear; a water bottle, to be refilled regularly along the route; some snacks, to keep your energy up; a hat or cap for when the shade disappears; sunscreen; and a small first aid kit, just in case.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a good idea to bring a lightweight jacket because it\u2019s often quite cool at the start of the trek high on the mountain in the morning.Your starting point is\u00a0Xyloskalo, more than\u00a01200 meters above sea level; it\u2019s the northern entrance to the National Park of Samaria.<\/p>\n

The first leg of the trail \u2013 a steep descent on a rocky stone path \u2013 is the most demanding. It can be punishing on the knees, but the wooden handrail will help.Take care, since going down may appear easier than it really is, and a lot of the accidents in the gorge occur on this opening two-kilometer stretch.<\/p>\n

The first designated resting spot and water source is Neroutsiko, 1.7km from the start. (Trail markers appear at one-kilometer intervals and are useful for tracking your progress.<\/p>\n

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A little further and you\u2019ve reached the bottom of the valley, where the trail crisscrosses the riverbed for a few kilometers. The river, not much more than a stream in summer, is called the Tarraios; it\u2019s named after the ancient city of Tarra, which was located near modern-day Aghia Roumeli.<\/p>\n

Eventually, you\u2019ll arrive at Aghios Nikolaos, which has a water source and toilets.<\/p>\n

The next rest stop comes after 3.7km, at the abandoned village of Samaria.<\/p>\n

The halfway point along the route, this village was first settled in Byzantine times and is today the main resting place for hikers. Continuously inhabited until 1962, (when the National Park was created and the last villagers relocated), it was home for centuries to a community that relied on logging activity in the surrounding cypress forests.<\/p>\n

Loaded onto ships at Aghia Roumeli, timber from Samaria was exported as far away as Egypt and Turkey. Keep an eye out for the endangered wild goats known as\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>kri-kri,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0a symbol of the<\/p>\n

untamed Cretan spirit.<\/p>\n

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Re-crossing the bridge out of Samaria, you\u2019ll soon be back in the riverbed, and this is where the gorge really begins.<\/p>\n

Take note of the sign warning you about falling rocks \u2013 it\u2019s a real threat, particularly after rain or in high winds, and it\u2019s better not to stop for long under the nearly vertical cliffs.<\/p>\n

Depending on your pace, it will take an hour or two to traverse this most impressive part of the walk, crossing the river on stones or makeshift bridges.<\/p>\n

At the 11km mark, it\u2019s a good idea to pause at the shaded clearing known as Christos, at the last spring where you\u2019ll be able to refill your water bottle. Next up is the gorge\u2019s most famous section,\u00a0the \u201cGates,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0the narrowest and most dramatic point; the sheer stone sides of the gorge, just four meters apart, soar 300 meters straight up.<\/p>\n

As you pass through this ancient portal, give a thought to those who, across the millennia, have trodden here, too.<\/p>\n

With the Gates behind you, the gorge widens and, 2km later, the National Park ends. You\u2019ve walked the gorge. From there on, the path is easy.<\/p>\n

The footing is good, but there\u2019s no shade. In high summer, exiting the gorge between noon and 15:00 will usually mean walking in extreme heat under a strong sun.<\/p>\n

A minibus shuttle operates between the gorge\u2019s official exit point and Aghia Roumeli if you need it. But hey, you\u2019ve just walked 13 km<\/strong>. What\u2019s another three?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Samaria Gorge \u2013 Crete\u2019s most famous hiking route \u2013 is a magnet for tens of thousands of visitors each year, and the most popular months \u2013 July and August \u2013 witness a thousand people a day filing down the 12.8km gorge. The whole walk is 16km, including the last leg to\u00a0the village of Aghia […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3670"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3685,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions\/3685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sergiani.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}