Lissos.
25 October.
Today was beautiful in every way. No sign of a storm at all except for quite big seas and still no ferry arriving into the village harbour. After a good breakfast in the bar overlooking the beach,
we donned our walking shoes and set off for Lissos, One of the major Greco Roman sites on the island. The Rough Guide had described it as a short 30 minute walk to the top of the gorge, but we think he must have been talking about mountain goats,
as we took considerably longer than that! However, the gorge was most attractive.
We followed a winding path through gigantic boulders, and saw lots of birds and goats.
Once down amongst the ruins, we had a great time wondering how they had lived their lives. There was evidence of Roman habitation everywhere.
Greco Roman dwellings
Being out of season, most signs had been removed but there was still a spring to drink from, and a stunning cove.
Everywhere we go, there is talk of the earthquake of 365AD when a lot of Crete was flattened. This corner of the island has risen about 5 meters and you can see quite clearly the dark stain on the
cliffs where the water line used to be.
See the black horizontal line about 5 meters above the sea level.
People joke about how if all Cretans moved from one end of the island to the other, it would be flat again. Apparently the eastern end is still sinking. The earthquake was so strong, a tsunami went all the way to the Nile delta.
After all this climbing and descending we were boiled and of course had not bought our swimming things. A large group of young German hikers had also just arrived from walking the E4 hiking route which runs along most of the island, they too had forgotten their trunks so just stripped off happily, and dived in. As did Alec. Unfortunately beside us on the beach there was another lady my age, wearing a very matronly swim suit. I just didn't think it was appropriate for me to strip off too, so I refrained from swimming. Thus Alec enjoyed his day more than me!
Our lunch was a banana and half a cheese pie, and restored once more we climbed back up the cliff
and back down the gorge. Climbing down takes far longer than climbing up.
Dinner was dreadful as we inadvertently found ourselves in a taverna where they were having a 'last night of the season' party. They welcomed us with open arms kindly but had almost run out of food, the owner was thoroughly over excited and set off fire crackers under the tables every few minutes, followed by yet another toast of raki (for himself) and for a change we were well behind everyone else on the drinking stakes! We slunk off to a quiet bar as soon as we decently could.
25 October.
Today was beautiful in every way. No sign of a storm at all except for quite big seas and still no ferry arriving into the village harbour. After a good breakfast in the bar overlooking the beach,
we donned our walking shoes and set off for Lissos, One of the major Greco Roman sites on the island. The Rough Guide had described it as a short 30 minute walk to the top of the gorge, but we think he must have been talking about mountain goats,
as we took considerably longer than that! However, the gorge was most attractive.
We followed a winding path through gigantic boulders, and saw lots of birds and goats.
We felt quite pleased with ourselves when we arrived at the top, overlooking Lissos valley.
The view was stunning, and cyclamen plants and others were appearing almost as you looked, after all the rain.
Cyclamen growing wild.
Floor of the temple of Asklepios where offerings are still left.
View from the top down into the valley
Greco Roman dwellings
Being out of season, most signs had been removed but there was still a spring to drink from, and a stunning cove.
Everywhere we go, there is talk of the earthquake of 365AD when a lot of Crete was flattened. This corner of the island has risen about 5 meters and you can see quite clearly the dark stain on the
cliffs where the water line used to be.
See the black horizontal line about 5 meters above the sea level.
People joke about how if all Cretans moved from one end of the island to the other, it would be flat again. Apparently the eastern end is still sinking. The earthquake was so strong, a tsunami went all the way to the Nile delta.
After all this climbing and descending we were boiled and of course had not bought our swimming things. A large group of young German hikers had also just arrived from walking the E4 hiking route which runs along most of the island, they too had forgotten their trunks so just stripped off happily, and dived in. As did Alec. Unfortunately beside us on the beach there was another lady my age, wearing a very matronly swim suit. I just didn't think it was appropriate for me to strip off too, so I refrained from swimming. Thus Alec enjoyed his day more than me!
Our lunch was a banana and half a cheese pie, and restored once more we climbed back up the cliff
and back down the gorge. Climbing down takes far longer than climbing up.
Dinner was dreadful as we inadvertently found ourselves in a taverna where they were having a 'last night of the season' party. They welcomed us with open arms kindly but had almost run out of food, the owner was thoroughly over excited and set off fire crackers under the tables every few minutes, followed by yet another toast of raki (for himself) and for a change we were well behind everyone else on the drinking stakes! We slunk off to a quiet bar as soon as we decently could.
No comments:
Post a Comment