Map showing the 8 day Crete hike
Waiting at the Prague airport for our flight to Athens
The bar on the ferry. I had my own food, some bread strapped to the back of my backpack
The first day was extremely windy. Ziggi almost lost his sleeping pad. We filled our tanks with water here.
Goats and fences. Everywhere we went.
At the beginning of the hike on this day I was giving us only a 60% chance of success. I feared that we would reach a point where we would have to return.
The Pontikonisi island in the West accompanied us through the whole day
Spring time and the first flowers
At some points we climbed as low as the sea level and then back up
Finally the golden sands of Balos beach
Day 2
Well defined east coast path to Kastelli
Filmik z Krety. Polskie napisy. Najlepiej najpierw zbuforować
Unpacking our packs that we rapped in cellophane
Mythos beer on board
By the way, quite a nice pad. It weighs just a bit over 400g. Ziggy claimed it was quite comfortable, except for the cold night (-1C), the insulation just wasn't enough.
At this spot we met an old man, who tried to talk to us in Greek. We had no idea what he wanted to say and hoped he did mean that reaching Balos via this alternative west route was impossible.
Our tent sheltered from the huge wind
Collecting rain water
First night on the south coast just outside of Paleochora
Paleochora
Trailer
First gyros. Despite some desperate craving for gyros on the way, the next one we ate was in Plakias on the last day.
Day 1 After arriving (at 5am) on Crete we took the bus to the west to Kastelli and from there a taxi to Piperiana. This is where the hike begins, a west coast track to Balos beach.
On the way to Ancient Falassarna
The clouds added to the drama of the scenery.
This scree was not that hard to handle, later we would climb places with much smaller rocks that would slide beneath us making it hard to move forward
The highest mountain of the range is the Geroskinos with a height of 762m
This part turned out to be much easier than it looked
Last view of the Balos beach
Day 3
Czech Airlines (7:30 Kraków - Prague, 11:25 Prague - Athens)
Position 3. 21:00 'Lato' ferry to Souda http://www.anek.gr/
The first view of the west coast. Falassarna below
The mountain range blocked us from the East. The only way to Balos was between the sea and the range.
Closer and closer to Balos and the Gramvousa islands
Going to the other side of the peninsula
Sunrise on day 3
