Greece - Day 4: Wind, mountains and lots of orchids

Today was very windy again and it was not nice to walk up nearly 700 m altitude, fighting against the wind. But it was spectacular, the sun came out in the late afternoon and apart from two trailless bits, it was relatively easy hiking. I passed through a few villages with water, climbed over two fences, got my feet wet during stream crossing and enjoyed taking tons of pictures from all the orchids I found - it's the best season for that! I just hope I don't continue with my small injuries, because then I need more bandages ;) All in all a nice day, but I still need to get stronger!

Greece - Day 3: A rough coast, a cave and the valley of the dead

I took the bus at 7 am and arrived in Sitia 3h later. It is incredible, how much snow there is in the mountains! Bur today, it is mainly windy and overcast.

In Sitia, I managed to hitch to Palekastro, the first 2 km with a French guy, the rest with an Albanian guy. It was super quick and the people were so friendly, although we had some language barriers ;)

I walked over some dirt roads to Skinias Beach and then there were marked paths, some better, some not so good along the rough coast. But since the weather was very windy, I didn't stop ln the few beaches along the way.

I had a look at the gigantic Pelekita cave with its stalagtites and then it was basically cruising on a nice path to Kato Zakros. But man, am I done. I'm not used to hiking anymore plus the paths were really rocky.

Nevertheless, I continued up into the valley of the death, after talking to a German tourist, who was asking about trsil to the cave. There is quite a big stream in the valley and I tried to keep my feet dry, whenever the path crossed the stream. I found a nice campspot next to an olive tree, before leaving the valley and entering civilization again. I am a little pinched between the trail, an olive tree and stone, but I tried to get a relatively flat, stone free and windfree spot - I really tried,  but at least the view is good :) I wonder if I will ever have a night without stones pocking me in my back... and goats or sheep around me.

Greece - Day 2: Walking to the sea

I woke up late, had a proper look into the cave with stalagtites and stalagnites and then descended to the impressive ruins of Moni Katholiko. The path followed up a gorge, went over a little pass and down to the sea. From  there on, I walked mainly on roads but also managed to put my feet into the sea. Since I was early in Chania and it looked a bit like rain, I decided to take the bus to Heraklion and sleep one night in a hostel. This way I can take an early bus to Sitia tomorrow and then hitch hike or hike the 20 km to Palaekastron, where I want to start my traverse of Crete.

Good morning!

Bear cave

Moni Katholiko

White mountains with lots of snow

Relaxing on the beach

Greece - Day 1: Warm and green Crete

My first day on Crete was pleasantly warm and green. Everything is in flower but the "white mountains" are REALLY white at the moment! I managed to walk from Chania airport a few kilometer north, passing two monasteries, before I camped in front of the so called "bear cave"

Monastery Agia Triada

Bear cave

Can you see my tent?

Another journey begins on Crete

It is getting warmer and thus it is time to go hiking. Since I bought a new backpack and tent, I'm ready for another adventure. 

From Tuesday on, I will explore a new country: Greece - more precisely, I will start on the island of Crete.

Roughly, I want to follow the European long distance trail E4 for a bit, crossing Crete and heading to the North through Greece, then make my way further North through Albania, potentially going East to Macedonia and Bulgaria. But it all depends on how fast I will be within the next 3 months, which mountain chains I want to follow and how I like different places. Thus I did not prepare a fixed route. To be honest, I don't even have ANY route laid out after Albania, as there seem to be so many options of drawing a route...

Already on the small island of Crete I couldn't decide if I want to follow the E4, walk my own trail along the coast or make some detours through the many canyons! Whatever exciting route I will take, you will be able to read about my hike on this blog ;)

So many options already on Crete - seems like I could spend months there!

Spain - Conclusion: A short hiking trip

Hiking time:

06. - 31.01.2022

Start - End: 

Málaga - Baza

Hiking Route: 

The first idea was to hike the GR7 via the southern variante to the north, but the agricultural intensively used Murcia seemed uninteresting. 

Sierra de Cazorla Natural Park was a perfekt alternative and is a real gem!

Since I started in Málaga, I walked my own route through the Málaga Mountain Nature Park to the GR7. 

In the Sierra Nevada, I partly followed the GR240, which is a little higher up than the GR7, but also made up my own routes.

From Baza, I took a bus in the afternoon to Pozo Alcon, which cost about 4 €.

I finished my hike in the Sierra Cazorla by hiking the circular main route of the GR247 and then back to Baza.

Trails and marking: 

The trails I hiked were mainly on wide (dirt) roads, even in Natural Parks. Smaller paths were rather rare and best in the Cazorla Natural Park.

Hiking was generally easy and rarely steep, so it is suited for everybody. 

Making up own routes based on OSM (like maps.me) can be frustrating due to private lands, high fences and non existing trails!

GR7: only partly marked and I wouldn't want to hike it without map or GPS!

GR240: well marked

GR247: very well marked!

Map of my Route

Environment/landscape: 

Apart from natural parks with lots of pine trees, Spain is an agriculturally intensively used land, with olive, almond and citrus trees. That can be an advantage, when fruits are ripe, but generally I prefer natural landscapes and I learned how loud the olive harvest can be in modern days!

Wildlife: 

The wildlife was especially rich in the Cazorla Natural Park, with lots of vultures, deer, wild pigs, ibex etc.

In the trees there were lots of nests of pine processionary moths and there were some very slow and dead caterpillars on the ground. Despite the potential danger of their irritating hairs, they didn't pose a problem.

Sleeping:

I slept zero nights in a hotel, hostel or camp ground, but wild camped every night. This can be a bit tricky in agricultural areas, especially during the time of the olive harvest.

There are a few shelters/refugios in the Sierra Nevada and Sierra Cazorla, which were partly open. For the GR7, www.frankrevelo.com has information about potential accommodation in villages.

Resupply:

There are plenty of options for resupply along the way and I never carried more than 5 days of food. 

BUT stores in villages have a long lunch break (usually 2-5 p.m.)  which is a thing to keep in mind!

Water:

I never carried more than 1.5 L of water. I found enough fountains (nearly every village has one) and creeks, although some fountains were turned off and some creeks were frozen.

BUT that was in January, where temperatures were very low!

Weather:

I was lucky with the weather, as it was usually dry and sunny during the day, but nights were long and freezing cold, so I was happy about my warm winter sleeping bag. 

Advantages of a winter hike:

The low water consumption and the absence of annoying insects were certainly an advantage. In addition, there were rarely any people and I had the mountains to myself. Apart from weekends, when there were some day hikers and people in popular places like Cazorla, it was a rather lone hike - just the way I like it ;)

Dogs:

After my bad experience in Romania, dogs will be a big point for me now...

Although most dogs in Spain are barking like crazy, they are behind fences or chained. Dogs roaming around were usually more scared of me, than I was of them :) Rarely did I had to pick up a stone (or pretend to)