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Towards The End Of Crete

August 20, 2021 /

We do like to mix it up a bit when it comes to accommodation on our travels, and aim for a bit of variety. Large hotels with small spaces and big prices aren’t really our thing, but pretty much anything else is fair game. So after apartments in Hania, Thessaloniki and Korinthos, a small family hotel in Delphi, and an “aparthotel” in Agios Nikolaos, we both find ourselves beaming from ear to ear as we drive up the steep unmade road to our next base in the village of Palaiokastro, just a short drive from the eastern coastline of Crete.

Our Cretan home

For the next few days we are based in a typical Cretan house, hidden amongst the bougainvilleas and pomegranate trees on the top of the hill above the village. It’s as rustic as it is charming, and as we take in our new surroundings, the swirl of the wind and a crowing cockerel replace the sound of the holiday babble of the last two stops.

Our Cretan home

We now find ourselves within touching distance of the eastern end of Crete, just a couple of kilometres from the coast and perched on hilly, rugged terrain. Away from the lush plains of central Crete, this is much more barren country, dusty and rocky, open to the more stringent efforts of the Meltemi wind which howls in from the east. The air now is so much fresher, the heat nowhere near as intense.

Palaiokastro

Most visitors to this area seem to stay here in Palaiokastro (as ever, alternative spellings are available) scattering out to the remote beaches and hidden coves during the day, gravitating back to the village to fill the half dozen tavernas at night. It’s a bit like a hiking destination, or even a ski resort, where evenings are convivial as everyone unwinds from their day. 

Palaiokastro

With a third hire car now at our disposal we set about exploring this new end of the island. Apart from its coves and beaches and the peaceful Toplou monastery, where a proportion of the excellent local wine comes from, the Palaiokastro peninsula is mostly empty and devoid of villages of any size, with vineyards and olive groves filling the gaps between rugged outcrops.

  • Toplou Monastery
  • Toplou Monastery
  • Toplou Monastery
  • Toplou Monastery
  • Toplou Monastery

South of the village there are a few more settlements, though the barren mountainous terrain stands in the way of any serious development. Just south of the pretty mountain village of Zakros lies a canyon of the same name but which is excitingly also called Nekron Gorge, meaning the “valley of the dead”. This name came not from any Bermuda Triangle type mystery, but from the discovery of the remains of hundreds of the dead of the Minoan people, buried in caves down either side of the gorge.

Zakros Gorge

The Minoan race vanished from the Earth around the time of the massive volcanic eruption which created Santorini and are thought to have been exterminated by that event, but Zakros was evidently an important and sacred burial site.

Minoan tomb caves
  • Zakros Gorge

Zakros Gorge is an excellent hike – we complete it down to the sea and back up again – notable not only for its massive steep sides but also the depth of greenery in its bed which twists oasis-like between the otherwise barren rocks. The canyon, bone dry today, is by all accounts a raging torrent in winter and spring. Thyme, fennel and a plant we don’t know (looks like giant lavender, blooms like buddleia, smells like spice) spread aromas through the hot dusty air.

Zakros Gorge
  • Zakros Gorge
  • Zakros Gorge

“Yiasas, yiasas”, beams Giorgos as we take our seat by the roadside back in the village, “you like one big draught beer and for the lady I think one caipirinha. How was your day?”.

It’s the 30th day of our trip and it’s the first time we’ve found one. When you’re travelling and you suddenly find a bar which straight away becomes your “temporary local”, maybe just for a couple of days before you move on, it feels brilliant. Cafe Central is a coffee bar at breakfast time (but fetch your own food from the bakers) then a lively convivial bar at night. It’s only our second night here but Giorgos remembers us, and our drinks, we chat about where we’re from, he gives advice on local places to visit, and he smiles his way through every conversation. He takes pride in telling us that people in this area are the friendliest in Crete and with his easy way and great bar he writes himself into our travel memories.

Olive groves and not much else

And so we take a last breakfast at Cafe Central and head off for a day long road trip which takes in the south coast and ends up on the opposite side. Once again the mountainous scenery makes for a fabulous drive with some views which put us straight into stop-and-stare mode; others which make us laugh out loud at the improbable hairpins and steep inclines.

Eastern Crete

The “Voila”, now a ruin, was once a Venetian palace apparently, though it’s just about impossible to imagine ladies in their finery socialising in such a remote mountain location. A few more twists and turns brings to our daily frappe fix at the picturesque village of Ziros, where the charm of the village is upstaged by watching village life play out in front of us. Our frappe cafe seems to be a barter centre, as a succession of villagers arrive with produce (cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, plums, bread) and exchange it for something else with other customers before putting the world to rights over a strong coffee. What fun it is to sit and watch.

  • Voila
  • Voila
  • Ziros
  • Ziros
  • Ziros
  • Ziros
  • Ziros
  • Ziros

Several years ago before we were together, Michaela tried unsuccessfully to buy a plot of land in the village of Kato Perivolakia with a view to building a holiday home. We revisit the site today, where nothing has changed, the plot sits idle over 15 years later with olives and pomegranates still ruling the roost, the village seemingly asleep around it.

  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia
  • Kato Perivolakia

Makrygialos on the south coast is our final call before we cross from south to north, arriving late afternoon in the port town of Siteia (alternative spellings available) from where, in the morning, we will bring our time on Crete to a close and start the next stage of our adventure.

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