From Lakki to Sougia (via Poria, Gigilos, Achladha and Koustogherako)
Chania – Lakki – Poria – Kalerghi Refuge – Xyloskalo – summit of Gigilos – summit of Strifomadhi – Achladha – Koustogherako– Sougia
October 2009
1st day (SUN 13/10) – Departure of bus Chania - Lakki at 14:00. A journey for about 30 min. In Lakki, first to take a photo of a valley from the terrace around a statue; hamlets of Meskla and Zourva are in the view down. Then to go to the church (nice outlook) to see if there is a possibility to get down into the ravine. Mission impossible from this place. Thus, to go back up to the turning of the approaching tarmac road and then to go on using the Lorain Wilson’s book guide (The High Mountains of Crete, 2nd edition), what means to find the beginning of a lane under Nikolas’ tavern. It is easy to find it because stairs with a wooden railing are indeed beside the tavern. The lane runs down alongside a stone wall to a building with hooks hanging from its ceiling. This building is probably used for skinning and eviscerating of animals from time to time. According to Lorain’s book guide, it is necessary to branch left before this building but recently it is not possible due to trees and shrubs. A waymark (an orange-red arrow) is on the corner of this building. Further to follow the path and waymarks as far as a track. The track goes past houses. Here, it turns into rather a small road with the concrete surface, however, in a while the road changes into a track again with the sandy-stone surface. The gorge is on the left hand but it is not possible to get down into it because of fencing. The shepherd’s road descends gradually at the bed of the valley and continues along this bed on the opposite side. Very dirty and in desolate state barns and pens for goats and sheep are on the right side. Then the road starts to ascend and divides itself: one branch winds up in switchbacks and ends in front of a goats' barn, whereas the second one follows the bed but it ends in front of an animal’s barn as well. Therefore I had to return to Lakki almost as far as to the building with hooks. In a short distance in face of it there is probably a former way coming from above and heading directly down into the ravine, so I tried this possibility. Recently, they have laid down a conduit into this footpath but the water washed out a chuckhole along it and demanded the path into this way. Nevertheless, it is possible to walk alongside it using a small footpath. At the beginning of this path, there is a fence with an opening part. One has to open it (and to close it again!!) and continue down through an informal dumping ground. After this unpleasant part, the path comes under tall leafy trees and another fence appears. Once again to open and close a piece of the fence and suddenly, there is the old and quite wide track again. A single young cypress tree appears among leafy ones and just behind it, there is a low rock with the orange-red arrow pointing to the left – necessary to follow it for about 100 – 150m. Now the waymark points to the right and up into a side ravine which is ending here. This is the right way meeting a shepherd’s road in mountains which links the main bitumen road between Lakki and Omalos plain on one side and the place called Poria (on the E4 route from Kalerghi to Katsiveli Refuges) deeply inside the mountains on the second one. No so far from that end of this side ravine, I found a place for overnight.
2nd day (MON 14/10) – It was quite warm and mainly wet ait during the night (high humidity) but the morning was sunny. The path is quite well marked and distinct enough and soon it gets out from under trees and oleander shrubs. Now it runs on the slope. Ruins of a large mitato appear on the opposite slope and in a short distance from it the footpath crosses the bed of a ravine and continues on the opposite side. The path is very comfortable in this part and well-marked, now also with bright blue patches (the former orange-red colour got pale already). Results of fire are visible around. As soon as the path descends into the bed of the valley (a streambed) after going for a certain distance and continues on huge pebbles and stones, walking is much worse. The bed is full of cypress trees and shrubs. As soon as the path goes out on slopes, the former footpath is overgrown partly by Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) (no prickly) and partly by thorny barberries often in high of thighs. Light trousers are very suitable and almost necessary here. On a spot, where the ravine turns into the rather wide valley, the valley forks there. There is in the middle a rock with a blue spot. The right way is to turn just before this rock to the left following the path. A dark range with a cutting of a road on its slope appears above the head of the valley. The footpath is good always, with blue marks, and climbs up on the road alongside the big stone water reservoir. To the right, the road goes slightly down and a possible spot for overnight can be next to a solitary tree growing in the lowest part under the road. On the other side (left) the road ascends making a sharp turning to the right and down. Now a quite deep gorge with trees is on the left hand. When the shepherd’s road ascends again another water reservoir is staying beside the road. Water was usable for cooking only. Then one comes to a place where a mitato with a damaged roof is visible under its bend on a small flat spot and many nice sites for camping are around/behind it. Approximately at the altitude of about 1000m, a range with an indistinctly apparent cutting of a road is in sight for the first time very far above the head of the valley. This is the road linking the Kalerghi Refuge and the Poria saddle. I spent the quite windy night on a short branch of the road at the altitude of about 1100 m. Because gusts of the wind had certainly a power of a gale I had to support my shelter from inside not to fly it away, so sleeping was not very pleasant.
3rd day (TUE 15/10) – However, the morning was nice sunny and almost quiet. The gorge on the left is nice green and full of trees and even grass has hue of green which is not common in this part of the year. The gorge bed and the road approach gradually each other and on the spot where they come together, a stone house is hidden left overhead among leafy trees with large animal’s pens around. The road crosses the valley-bed and goes on for slightly for more than 100m where a crossroad is: upward and right the road branches terminating near another stone house, which is a quite important detail due to a pipe with cold and good drinkable water sticking out from a wall creating its bottom part. Nevertheless, the right way for me is to the left and firstly slightly down from this crossing into the bed. Near this spot, a nice place for the night is on the branch of the road. The road makes several serpentines winding uphill and afterwards, it levels off and runs in an easy-gradient as far as to the Poria saddle. This area is unbelievably green, with an ugly concrete water tank and the old mitato. The road comes together with the “main” road on “second floor” where the E4 sign is standing among growth of bracken. And on the highest floor of this saddle with Gigilos and Volakias summits in its background, another stone house is standing just above slopes falling down into the Samaria Gorge. The house was utterly locked and only WC was open - with a pipe with drinkable water outside next its door. Near this house, there is a big stone water reservoir. The road from Poria toward the Kalerghi Refuge is rather banal, perhaps views back at the Poria saddle and down into the valley from Melissitis (from which I’ve come) are worth to look at them. The road climbs up and when it achieves the next saddle, the Kalerghi Refuge is in view again hanging high on the crag. A shortcut to left branches as soon as the road starts going up again. The shortcut (an E4 mark pointing at this footpath) is winding uphill the steep slope and it terminates on the dirt road again not so far from the refuge. Large sandy plain is to the right under the road which is possible to overnight here on. Now along the road as far as to the crossing and here I had to turn to the left for getting to Kalerghi. As one walk to the refuge, he passes the nice “highest” toilet in Europe stuck on the rim of the almost vertical slope falling down into the Samaria gorge. Views from the terrace of the refuge are spectacular. Following the road towards the crossing one can descent along this road on the Omalos upland plain. The very rough dirt road winds down and in its 4th turning on left side there is the beginning of a footpath – a shortcut towards Xyloskalo (the mark - red arrow on a table, openable part of a fence), where is an entrance into the Samaria Gorge. Café and bends of the bitumen road in front of the entrance, as well as the ascending path towards Gigilos, are in view. After refreshment in a snack bar, I took a nice preselect site where I camped, with exclusive views on the highest parts of Levka Ori – the massif of Páchnes.
4th day (WED 16/10) – The morning was the same as the last one – sunny and nice. The rough stone path winding up the steep slope is well-built. As soon as it gets on the lower spine, the path levels off and heads into the dry and precipitous valley under Gigilos. This part of the path even goes slightly down, to get on the site where there are more amount of splitted paths turning sharply right up. This spot is quite important because if one would like to get upwards the Strifomadhi summit, it is possible (almost necessary) to leave the E4 footpath here and start climbing uphill using goats' paths. However, E4 goes on through a spectacular rock gate and it comes along pinnacles of strange shapes as far as the Linoseli spring with very good and cold water during whole season. The footpath starts ascent again from this point winding on the left side of the valley clear of the scree slopes on which there are visible several animal’s paths heading toward crags on the northern (right) side of the valley. As soon as the footpath gets up to the saddle (at about 1750m) nice views into the wild Tripiti Gorge, the very remote sea, the Volakias summit and next features around appears. The E4 route leads to the right down and after several tens meters, it turns to head upward to the right. Very important note: the E4 route DOES NOT get on the summit of Strifomadhi as it is drawn on the ANAVASI map!! The E4 veers to left again and continues above slopes of Tripiti to come and appear again at the rim of the saddle southward under Strifomadhi. The footpath uphill to the Gigilos summit runs to the left from the col winding up (marked by the red or yellow marks or cairns), then passes a deep and the dangerous fenced pothole. Beside it, there is a cross with names of people who died falling down. The path runs here slightly to the left and above slopes of valley with scree-slopes. A flat but stony site with the place for bivouacking is on the right hand. The path climbs always up and in this part of the ascent, both hands are sometimes usable. The steeper part ends and in front of me a big summit cairn appears but this summit is not the highest one. The really highest summit is in some distance from here. To get here, one has to use a path running slightly to the left and down (along small cairns and red spots) to right, then left…crossing big rocks. The way here is very rocky and one has to climb frequently using both hands again. Remains of a cross (only its vertical part) and a small case similar to an iconostasis under it are here. It is one of the best lookout points in the mountains: whole Omalos Plain is under you, as well as the panorama of the highest peaks of Levka Ori over the depth of the Samaria Gorge, Volakias summit southward and mounts towered westward behind Tripiti gorge. To get back in the saddle is better to use the same path. I decided to get to Strifomadhi using some of the animal’s paths running through scree-field, the most upper one of them. Therefore I went a little bit down along the E4 like toward the Linoseli Spring and after several turnings, I branched and went on through scree. I tried to head toward a cave which was distinct from the Gigilos because it seemed near there is also a hollow through which it would be possible to climb up to margins of cliffs. This way was not proper as the rocks were covered by brash what was very dangerous because slippery. And in addition, it emerged this way is not passable due to the vertical rocks for which ropes and next climbing equipment would be necessary. Therefore I had to traverse these rocks to the left quite high above scree-field, then to climb up and finally to step up the rim of cliffs. Now the path heads upward in the easy-gradient following the margin of cliffs along the poles of former fencing. As soon as it comes on the ridge of Strifomadhi it turns right and the ascent is always in the same easy gradient up to the summit with a small cairn. The summit is more likely the flat ridge composed from several humps. To get down to join the E4 path two ways are possible, either to descent southwards first on the small flat place or to use the gorge between summits of Strifomadhi and Psilafi. The first way seemed to be better as the gorge looks like to be impassable. The E4 route running down was well-built and well-marked footpath going down in a nice gradient on the side of the Achladha gorge which is quite deep in places. The footpath meets the bed of the gorge at a place near the rock with a window to climb uphill again. First trees (cypresses) appear shortly behind this spot. The way goes on a suddenly open valley overgrown with low shrubs (mostly barberries). Several remains of former buildings are here. Black-yellow E4 mark is drawn at the beginning of this flat valley on the corner of such former building. I placed my mosquito net inside a former animal’s pen to overnight here.
5th day (THU 17/10) – Although my camp-site was at altitude of about 1600 m temperature during the night was quite pleasant. The way downhill is well-marked and sometimes a lookout down to “civilization” opens. Several buildings of a different conditions (both a “mitato” and water reservoirs) are beside the footpath but either there is not possible to get water or water is very poor. Then the footpath goes through open woodland of cypress trees and yet lower, pine trees appear. The gorge turns into the wide valley with a riverbed on its bottom. Not so far (and lower) from the flat spot on the right side (from which Agia Irini Gorge mouths is visible deeply down) called Olysma, the E4 footpath follows the valley bed makes two or three turnings to turn upward left (stairs) to leave the gorge along a “kalderimi” – an old and well-built “mule-track” climbing uphill. As soon as it gets over its top some ruins of a cobbled building are distinct down standing among sparse trees. The rubble road from below is ending here. Not so far from these ruins, there is a newly built chapel with an arbour standing beside it, and with a water trough, too. E4 joins this road to follow it for perhaps 100 – 200 m where it turns right down to “cut” a bend of the road. It is a stony path downward mouthing on the road again. After next 150 – 200 m the E4 turns to the right for the last time going through open pine woodland as far as to the road again. Now the E4 route goes only along it as far as the village of Koustogherako. Not so far from the village, there is a water source on the left side – a pipe (with running drinkable water) outstanding from a stone wall. This place used to be probably as a former laundry because remains of an old washboard are in front of the wall. The E4 route finishes in the village. And here, two ways how to get to Sougia on the sea coast are available. The first possibility of how to get to Sougia is to turn just at the beginning of the village to the left next to the first house. This track leads to the Panagia church (see on the map ANAVASI – Sougia) and keeping roughly southern direction (to a mast) as far as the top of a ridge eastward above Sougia where the E4 marks appear again and follow them toward Sougia. But if you turn to the left lower (between two houses) you can get following the marked path on the bitumen road at the beginning of Livadas village and following it to get on the coast. However, there is still another possibility (concerning this way) how to get to the sea – not to turn to the left and going down to Livadas along the old connection but to follow the bitumen road across the village square (a statue standing in a small park is on the left hand) and then to turn left (and the third possibility - as I could see one year later - is an old pavement starting just beside the first tavern - see text for 2010). O tackled the way on the road. After several hundred meters, out of the village, there is a memorial in a sharp turning of the road which could be used also as a church. The road winds downslope to come to the next village – Livadas. The beginning of a marked old connection is across the road from the curiously placed road sign of Livadas. I went along the main road as far as to its sharp turning (almost backward direction) where an uncovered road branches. Following this road roughly southward one can get in Sougia, too (after about 1,5 km). In Sougia, I overnight at my favourite camp-site in the ravine approaching the Lissos valley.
Preview of picture in folder Lakki-Poria-Kalerghi-Xyloskalo-Gigilos-Achladha-Sougia
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