Zakros

After breakfast on Thursday we walked up to some rooms where we have been told they have maps on the local walking routes. The patronne, Stella, was very helpful and the rooms looked very nice, but they aren't right on the sea as ours are. Then we visited the Zakros Minoan site. It is, I think, the third biggest Minoan palace complex, and the most recently excavated. It was here they found the elephant's tusk, the bronze ingots and the wonderful bull's head vase. It's really interesting, as the lower half of the complex, where the finds were and where they even found food in cooking pots on fireplaces, was never rebuilt, whereas the higher bit was partially rebuilt. I'm convinced it was done for by the Thira eruption and tsunami, especially since it's so near the sea. Apparently some of the site is underwater, and as this is quite a wide and not particularly sheltered bay, I imagine there must have been some sort of port installations. Anyway we enjoyed looking round, and particularly enjoyed the many turtles which have taken up residence in the sacred wells. Not archaeological, I know, but they were charming.  

The afternoon was given over to swimming and idleness, which was lovely.I am getting actually ahead with my books for book group. I have read “All The Light We Cannot See”, which was a real page turner, especially the Werner story, but a bit floridly written. Now I’m reading a biography of Thomas Hardy, which is quite sad. He seems to have been incapable of happiness.

On Friday we drove up the winding road to Zakros proper. This time we were held up by a herd of goats, again with two men but no dog. The goats seemed easier to organise than the sheep, though. We parked the car and walked back to Kato Zakros along the Zakros gorge. It was brilliant. Because there's water, it's really lush, but because it's quite a scramble it's wild.

 There are all sorts of wild flowers and some sort of oaks, the odd wild olive and almond trees and it's all strongly scented with wild herbs and oleander.

Precipitous sides of the gorge with caves

All you can hear is insects humming, birds singing and the odd goat bell.  There are high cliffs and pinnacles and many many caves, where the Minoans buried their dead. It was super. This path down the gorge is apparently the end of the E4 European footpath, which starts in Portugal. We indulged brief fantasies of walking the whole thing, in instalments of course - we're not over ambitious. Then we phoned for a taxi to take us back up to Zakros to retrieve the car.

In the early evening, before dinner we began chatting to a charming Dutch couple in the next room, as we all sat out on the terrace. Then a German bloke in another room told us to be quiet or go somewhere else, as his girlfriend was trying to sleep. I was so worried about Phil's probable reactions that I hardly felt offended. However, he kept his cool, while calmly telling the bloke to clear off. It was actually our Dutch friends who got fierce. All four of us had decided that we would not be told what do by some ill mannered German.  That's Europe - all one big happy family.

We went for dinner with the Dutch bloke, Theo, as his wife has stomach problems and didn't want to eat. It was a very interesting dinner. It's curious that we always seem to get along with the Dutch, even if not the Germans!

It rained in the night and we got up to a strong but warm wind and a rough sea. We had decided to walk to the Pelekita cave. It's a good long walk around the headlands; they say three kilometres, but it's more than that, I'm sure. I have to say that once we were round the first headland, where the walk is very close to a long drop into the sea, it was rather boring. It's over volcanic rock and I have never imagined you could have huge boulders of pumice stone. You can see where the lava reaches the sea and is all buckled up in waves. But it does mean that it's really barren. There's nothing growing except exceptionally spiky thyme. There are a lot of bulbs but they have finished flowering. I thought at first they were hyacinths, but now I don't think so. There are loads of millipedes and some beetles and some goats, which must survive on the thyme, so they are ready flavoured for the grill. We kept seeing goats, gazing down on us from some high point on the cliffs above, like guerrillas spying on government troops. The path is well marked but very rough and the stones are very sharp. I think both of us were a bit worried about tripping and falling, as everything was so sharp one would really have hurt oneself.

Guerrilla goats

 Also, like a fool, I left my walking trainers at the hotel in Chania. They are keeping them for me and we will collect them on our return. But all I have now are sandals and a pair of Converse plimsolls I bought in Aghios Nicholaos, and plimsolls are just not up to this sort of walking; the soles are far too thin.  My feet are bruised. Anyway, we reached the cave, which is a bit similar to the Dikteon, in that you climb down into it. 

The opening of the Pellekita Cave

There's a massive first “room” with pits where there is obviously ongoing archaeology, and then you can go down into a second enormous “room”. We went so far down, but didn't reach the floor of the lower bit. Our torches felt very feeble in this vast space. There are some formations, but nothing on the scale of the Dikteon. You can go a bit farther and see a Minoan quarry, but we'd had enough by then. We've also rather gone off the E4, if it involves boring bits like this.

 

The surface of Mars.

Our last day was really windy, with white horses on the sea, and occasional spatters of rain. It meant we had a quiet day, sitting out watching the sea. The drive back to Chania was quicker and easier that we had anticipated, in spite of the inevitble flock of sheep, and so we had a few hours to wander around. I do really like Chania. It has a cheerful atmosphere – well, all of Crete does, to be honest, and there are layers and layers of history – Byzantines, Venetians, Turks, Germans, have all left their marks on the place.

Well, we’ll definitely return. Maybe we’ll go to the west of the island next time.