We traveled by ferry from Paros to Heraklion Crete. It was a pleasant and comfortable ferry ride where we traveled past other islands that hopefully we can one day get back to. Santorini looked particularly beautiful but it was well beyond our budget on this trip.
We rented a car and drove up to our new home for the next 2 weeks. It would be our first ‘resort’ of this trip and we were all very excited. It was exactly how it looked in the pictures. Beautiful pool and restaurant overlooking the sea. It was nice to start off with a couple of days of relaxation by the pool and restaurant dinners. The place was run by a family – first built in the 80’s by the parents and now managed by two of the sons. They were such a nice family – it really felt good to be supporting a nice family run business.
We did shockingly little exploring from our place. I think we just really wanted to enjoy a reprieve from the non-stop exploring and take advantage of staying at a place designed for relaxation. We did go visit Knossos – a Minoan palace just about 30 minutes from our place. We all felt a bit disappointed with that site. A lot of it was reconstructed by a team led by a British archaeologist that apparently used a lot of artistic license in the reconstruction. Experts now believe the restored areas do not resemble the original structure. It was also hard to figure out what was original and what was part of the reconstruction. In any event, it was a day out and a chance to learn a little bit about the Minoans.
The rest of our stay on Crete was a mix of relaxation and a number of beautiful hikes. We climbed up Mount Stroumbaoulas one day. It’s a very striking peak that you can see from Heraklion. It was a very, very hot day. The kids did amazing and the view from the top was fabulous.
Next came the biggest and most unforgettable hike we’ve done on this trip so far; the Samaria Gorge. Crete is huge, and the gorge was about a 4 hour drive from us so the plan was to pack up and head out for two days to overnight closer to the trail the night before and the night after.
In the days leading up to the hike, we had noticed that Riley was getting more and more of what we thought were mosquito bites all over her arms, legs, and face. She got a lot more of these bites overnight on the night before leaving for the Samaria Gorge. Iain had a few bites on one arm but none of us had anything like the number riley had and she was so itchy. It was driving her crazy. We were putting anti-itch cream on but it wasn’t helping. We started getting concerned that maybe it was chicken pox. Many of them were bleeding from all of her scratching and were starting to scab over so they looked a lot like pox.
We took her to the hospital to get looked at. It was not chicken pox, thankfully, and they were in fact bug bites – possibly BED BUGS!!! We tore the beds apart and low and behold, we found two bed bugs. Of all the places we’d stayed on this trip, this was one of the most pricy and upscale. There were a few places along the way that I wouldn’t have been surprised if there were bed bugs…this was not one of them.
We ended up switching rooms, even though switching hotels would have been better. It’s amazing how much I’m learning to ‘go with the flow’ on this trip. A year ago, I would have completely lost my shit with bedbugs and probably would have thrown out all of our clothes. This time I was somehow satisfied with moving to the room next door.
Back to the hike….we booked a hotel near the trailhead on the first night, then an Airbnb in Chania for the second night. I arranged with the Airbnb host in Chania to leave our car at her place the first night and we would bus in to Omalos (near the trailhead). As we got closer to Chania I realized that I’d misunderstood the bus schedule and there was no bus that day for Omalos. Thankfully our Airbnb host offered to arrange a taxi for us to take us on the 1 hr drive to Omalos. It was a ~USD100 mistake on my part but probably turned out for the best. We were driven in a nice van by a cautious driver who took the cliffside hairpin turns slowly. If we were in a bus, I may have had an anxiety attack on that journey. After seeing the terrain, we actually opted for a return taxi ride (which ended up being a luxury limo van – so welcome after our hike).
The Samaria gorge is the longest gorge in Europe and was described as ‘epic’ in many of the blogs I’d read. It is ~20 km of mostly downhill challenging terrain. We got there early and were the second people there just before the trail opened at 7:30.
The man who was already there – Dave – told us that he’d hiked the trail 35 years ago and had come back to do it again. The first 2 km of the trail were the steepest descent and the most anxiety-ridden for us since there were cliffs at the side of the trail with no protective barrier to prevent falling off. Our kids have gotten so good at hiking and scrambling by this point but one mistake would mean death so we clung to their hands and went slow. With two of us and three of them, that meant Ronan had to do it without a hand. He was more than capable – our biggest problem was trying to stop him from running ahead.
I will say that this hike was a bit of a nightmare for someone like me that evaluates rock stability and rockfall hazards for a living. It was a full day of walking my children past hazards that were far worse than most of what I see in my professional life. I had to just accept the risks were there and let go of the fear to enjoy the day.
The scenery on the hike was spectactular. The pictures do not do it justice at all. Steep canyon walls, amazing rock formations, beautiful vistas, small chapels, etc. We were nervous that the kids would struggle with a challenging trail over such a long distance. Most of the posts I read said that they wouldn’t recommend the trail for children. I’m not sure we really saw more than a handful of other children on the hike. They did amazingly well – they had lots of fun, asked lots of questions, and were in a great mood up until the last 2-3 km. By that point, everyone was aching a bit and Iain really had to go to the bathroom. He refused to go outside and when we eventually reached a toilet, it was a squat toilet. He was horrified. He opted to wait and walk the final 2km to the nearest town (beside running water in a creek, no less).
All told, the hike was about 21 km long and more challenging than we expected. Iain was super proud of hitting a new record of steps (that we are unlikely to beat – 43000 steps).
At the end of the hike, we checked out the black sand and dipped our feet in the Libyan sea before getting our ferry to Sfakia where the taxi driver would pick us up. We were so happy to see the luxury taxi van for the ~1 hour and 20 minute ride back to Chania.
We got back to the Airbnb where we had left our car two nights before and it was fantastic. It had more bedrooms than we could use, and all the amenities we needed including 2 bathrooms (a great luxury for our family of 5). That was not the best part. Our host, knowing that we would be arriving late, had made us Moussaka for dinner and left it in the oven to keep warm!!!!! She also baked us a cake!!!! Absolutely amazing hospitality from an unbelievably kind and thoughtful host. Maria is a large part of why we will leave Greece with such wonderful memories of not only the beautiful places we went but of the warm and welcoming people everywhere we went.
After a nice rest, we packed up and were planning on heading into the center of Chania for a day of exploring. Just before we left, I managed to hit my toe so hard on a hard post at the bottom of the sofa that I pulled the nail right back. It was bloody and excruciating. I ended up limping around Chania for a few hours but it wasn’t the day we had planned. It’s over a month later and my toe still hurts.
The rest of our stay on Crete was pleasant and relaxing. October was a good choice for our visit – it was still warm but there were not many tourists. Two weeks was definitely enough time. We were very excited to continue on our journey.
Onward to Jordan!!