Three Summers: Agia Irini Gorge

Whilst keen to hike Crete's most famous gorge, Samaria, we were discouraged by reports of the numbers of hikers each day (ok and the fact that it's Crete's longest gorge at 16 kilometres!). People we spoke to all said variations on 'yes, sure it's beautiful but know that you will be among 800 or more hikers that walk Samaria each day', or 'there'll be 400 walkers ahead of you, and 400 walkers behind you, there are bottlenecks'.

We also heard that Agia Irini Gorge, on the west side of the Lefka Ori mountains, was perhaps more beautiful than Samaria, and that it attracts nowhere near the numbers hiking Samaria Gorge. That was all we needed to make our decision that we'd hike Agia Irini Gorge.

We planned our day; up at 6.30 for a 90 minute drive to the head of the gorge. Our research told us of a little taverna and car park at the head of the gorge and another taverna at the end of the gorge. Coffee and breakfast before our hike sounded perfect! A cold beer, should we make it to the end of the gorge, appealed to my favourite hiking partner :)

The drive from Vamos to the tiny village of Agia Irini was spectacular, as we passed Chania and headed inland the road wound upwards and each sweeping curve revealed the next green wooded vista and a tiny village nestling into the side of the mountain.

We arrived at the head of the gorge at 8.30am and easily found the little taverna. We met a couple of Dutch hikers who were just finishing their breakfast and were heading off. They looked the part in their hiking gear, apparatus and walking poles (we looked more like we were heading to the beach) but we were pleased to hear that they had hiked all over Crete over the years, including three times through Samaria Gorge, and in their opinion Agia Irini was indeed the loveliest of all.

There is no way that Agia Irini could be described as an easy walk, but we made it to the end in two whole pieces! Every single footstep of the way was incredibly beautiful. In parts it was so thickly wooded with pine trees the smell was just like an Australian christmas. Then there were sheer walls rising on both sides, coming together to just a few feet apart, then opening up again. We climbed over boulders and rocks the size of small houses, and in parts had to stop and search for the track that would take us further on. Every two kilometres there are small mountain spigots with fresh spring water, and we stopped half way to eat our packed lunch of fruit and boiled eggs. We saw wild goats, trees growing from rocks and rocks tangled in trees, and of course Crete's beautiful wild herbs. The aroma of pine gave way to the beautiful wild sage scent that filled the air as we descended the gorge.

We hiked up and down, and crossed the dry stoney river bed from one side to the other a dozen or more times. Sometimes the track took us up the left side of the gorge, only to take us down again to the bottom, across the river bed and up the other side. We only encountered four other couples during our hike. It was exhausting but exhilarating. We finally emerged at the end to see the little Oasis taverna. Such a beautiful sight! No injuries, no sprained ankles, just a couple of pairs of complaining knees and one tiny hand blister.

We drank cold beer and mountain tea to celebrate and arranged to share a taxi (back to the car park) with a German couple who had finished the hike before us and had had lunch at the taverna. The taverna owner rang for a taxi to come from the little town of Sougia, 7 kilometres away. Many hikers continue on walking the extra 7 kilometres for a swim in the Libyan sea at Sougia. Not today :)

It was a 30 minute winding drive back up to the head of the gorge, where we said farewell to our German hiker friends, and drove 90 minutes back to Vamos, arriving at 5.00pm. I fell on the bed and slept soundly for 2 hours until it was time for our revisit to Parasia Paradiko taverna for dinner. The end of a perfect hiking day!