Therisso – Poria – Kallerghi Refuge - Xyloskalo
September 2010
1st day Departure of the bus Chania – Therisso according to the timetable in the waiting room at 1415 (although according to the timetable available in a paper form there at 1430) – attention on that discrepancy!! In Therisso, first, we went down from the asphalt road again (as already twice previously) just behind the village to the left, along a path contouring the slope, which is here and there a little bit ruined, heading always southward towards the mountains. Keeping the same slope, the path runs on a place under goats' pen and barn, and in a little bit is on the tarmac road again. About 200 m along it, slightly down. On the turn to the bridge, turn to the right and go through an opening part of a fence (close it again!!). Continuing in former course of the way. The path is rather overgrown at times. Sometimes, it runs also by remains of an old track and even it is overgrown, it is well distinct. One has to go also through two fences: first passing is simply a gap and the second one is created by the opening part of the fence. Next fence is without the opening part in its lower part, thus one has to go upward along it as far as the bitumen road (from Therisso to Zourva and Meskla) where an opening part can be found. Next, there is another opening wicket behind which the track continues along a track as far as to another pans for sheep and goats. Here to veer slightly to the right and up to a small rocky knoll to join a path running here just above a conduit and ending in Alyakes spring (to get over next fence without any gate is necessary here). We overnight here, under a huge plane-tree just outside the spring. According to the GPS, an altitude is 830 m.
2nd day Continuing along shepherd’s unpaved road winding in rather an easy gradient always upward. After about 5-10min there is a branch to the former Venizelos headquarters from the times of Therissians riot at the beginning of 20th century of which he was the leader. There is nothing interesting here only remains of a small stony house but what is very splendid is the view down into the country around Therisso and as far as to the northern coast. In the fork of the road, we kept the right and then walked down through a rather dense cypress forest to the sharp bend where there is also a spring, unfortunately not rather fruitful. At the end of the road on left under a coniferous tree, there is a crevice in a rock which one has to pass through to get on the old and in places well-preserved track winding zigzag down on the bed of the gorge. It goes on zigzag again upward the opposite slope however some conspicuous marks appear on stones and rocks now. This well-marked path ends under the huge plane-tree where there is also a system of iron-plate water troughs with running water. Farther, we hiked among bigger stones always up but here the path is a little bit indistinct. However, the good track on the slope appears again within a short time. Beyond and crossways on the opposite slope and a little bit higher than the path one can see some white rectangle of unclean determination; we could see later, it is a large plastic sheet stuck on the rock and covered “mitato” – in this case only a mere shelter under an overhanging rock. In the ANAVASI map, this spot is called Pighadaki.
Unfortunately, we did not keep the direction into which GPS pointed – a rather very good path allured us, we thought it would veer into the right direction after somewhen. From concrete water troughs in front of mitato, it contours under trees, first only slightly upwards but then it climbs steeply. However, as soon as it comes into an open terrain on the slope, it petered out gradually. Therefore, we left it, turned back and started climbing up on the small ridge to respect the GPS’ arrow. The right way from mitato was apparent from the top of the ridge now. (To go along the right way from the Pighadaki shelter, there is necessary to go from the water troughs in front of shelter straight up and always to turn to the right.) To join the right path, there was necessary to traverse the slope. As soon as we did it, GPS pointed us to leave just found way and go to the left directly uphill through very rocky terrain as far as the saddle above. Under it, there was so a nice small plain for spending the night!! A small path runs on the flat plain-bed to the left to a quite large mitato which is evidently still in use and which is not in the map ANAVASI!! The GPS showed an altitude of 1480 m. We overnight here.
3rd day Along the small valley with the sandy bed we continued roughly southwards. At the end of the path, there is a hedge of barberries through which we passed to the right. Now for the descent into the ravine, it is useful to contour the slope always slightly down because the bed itself is overgrown by prickly shrubs. On the bottom, there is a quite large flat spot with ruins of once very large mitato. The track runs past it and then starts climbing upward to left, first using the animal’s path and then through the rough rocky terrain up to the saddle. From this point, there is well visible next way through terrain: we had to descend down into the gorge and uphill the steep slope again on the top of a hill, and from here is also well distinct the shepherd’s road coming from the Poria saddle and the Kallerghi refuge – it seems to be it almost within grasp. The way from the top of the last hill runs down to a very small flat place but immediately climbs upwards to the end of a branch of the main road. Back view from the top of this hill shows that from a previous viewpoint (the saddle above ruins of the large mitato) some distinct path runs askew down and right into the bed of the gorge (not visible from that point) and perhaps climbs up to the end of the main road. WE kept then the main road, walking along it is simply and easy. First, the road a little bit ascends to the highest spot of the whole part of the road from the Poria saddle (1583 m) with a meteorological station on the slope to the left, and then descends to Poria. It passes a circled open picnic shelter opposite which, on the other side of the road, there is the beginning of the climb of the E4 route going through whole Levka Ori between two plains - the Omalos plain on the west and Askifou plain to the east. From Poria, the road runs as far as to Kallerghi refuge without any important landmarks. The dirt road down from Kallerghi is rough and in its 4th bench there is necessary to turn through the gate in a fence (well-marked) to get on the path running down as far as to the Xyloskalo – not so far from the entrance to the gorge of Samaria.
