Crete 2022, part 18 (Ano Zakros, Gorge of the Dead, Kato Zakros)
As soon as I settled in the hotel in village Ano Zakros and changed into proper clothes and footwear, I got my hiking poles, asked the hotel owner where the trail started and headed that way.
Soon I left the village, but in the beginning the trail leads along an asphalt road and among sporadic houses. Thus I came across a young man and asked him to take a photo of me.
There are several rocky mountains in the east of Crete and amongst them, in the north-south direction, there is a natural depression in the centre of which is Ano Zakros. Nowadays, probably just like in the past, this is the area that mostly grows olives and grapes.
Still, on this day I did not want to go for a walk around vineyards and olive groves, but through wild nature.
A small riverbed leads from this depression directly to the east and the shore, going through a gorge that is most often called the Gorge of the Dead, although its official name is the Gorge of Kato Zakros. In this way, there is a trail that runs through the gorge and that connects Ano Zakros, i.e., Upper Zakros and Kato Zakros, i.e., Lower Zakros that is situated on the coast. The distance between the two Zakros villages is around 5 km if you go through the gorge and around 7 km if you go around following the main asphalt road. Using the walking trail it is possible to go in both directions, but although the altitude difference is only around 230 m, I definitely preferred to go downhill.
To start with, at some point I turned off the side asphalt road that led me out of the village.
Here and on this day, I was absolutely happy and very content with everything that was happening and that I saw and did. Later, when I returned to my home, I realised that I took an unusually high number of selfies and I did this in many different spots, but I must also admit that I like many of these photos. I guess this is so because it is quite clear to me how happy I felt. These photos are primarily a splendid reminder for me about how life can be great and how sometimes I am incredibly lucky to harmonise myself with the beauty of existence.
The Gorge of Kato Zakros is, as I’ve said, often called the Gorge of the Dead and this is because of small caves that can be seen on its slopes and that were used as the places where the Minoans buried their dead.
But, before I reached the gorge itself, after leaving the asphalt road, I walked for a while along a dirt road that leads through olive groves. Behind me, up the hill, I could see Ano Zakros.
Soon I got down to a wider section of the riverbed and practically the cultivated olive groves stopped there giving way to lush oleanders that grow almost like weed throughout the entire length of the gorge.
Then, at some point, the trail led over the river and there were some branches piled up there in order for hikers to be able to cross safely.
However, I did not cross immediately to the other side, since I encountered several dragonflies here and they looked simply incredible. I had to be patient and wait for some of them to stop in a suitable place where I could take a photo of it.
When I was satisfied with the photos I took, I moved to the other side of the river and soon I climbed up a little following a path that now seemed a little wilder and I could see quite clearly that I was in the gorge now. I continued to be very content.
The trail goes a little up, a little down, in the open for a while and then it tucks right next to the river and amongst the trees that are lush here thanks to the sufficient quantity of water at the bottom of the gorge.
I still found all of this beautiful and was delighted with everything around me.
Soon I came across an incredibly looking tree that had spread with its trunk over the surrounding rocks.
If you look at the photo above more attentively, you may notice on the left-hand side something like a very low concrete wall. From time to time, it is possible to see details of human intervention along the gorge. I guess this is so in order to regulate the river because of the potential seasonal flooding, as well as because of the redirecting of water for the purpose of irrigation.
But, regardless of such details, the Gorge of Kato Zakros is not ruled by the man, but rather by nature. And an occasional goat here and there.
Sporadically, the trail led over the river and in some of these spots there were larger pieces of rocks placed there in such a way as to facilitate a safe passage to the other side.
In such places it was necessary to look carefully in front of oneself and to be cautious about where one walks and places the feet, but from time to time I could lift up my gaze and enjoy the cliffs of the Gorge of Kato Zakros and the beautiful blue sky.
As it may be concluded from the photos, I was completely alone here. In fact, at the very beginning of my walk, while I was still in the area around village Ano Zakros, I passed by a couple of young people who were walking in the opposite direction and who were evidently on their way back from the beach in Kato Zakros.
In this section, seen in the photo above, I suddenly met a woman coming my way. She was a foreigner, like me, and was delighted when she saw me for she was trying to find a trail leading to a parking lot. Unfortunately, I could not help her for I honestly did not even know that it existed, let alone where it was, so she just turned around and hastily trotted away in the direction from which she first came. I did not see her again and I hope she did find the trail she was looking for.
What I paid my attention to here were some insects that I noticed.
And then I continued with my walk. It was already late in the afternoon and in some sections of the gorge the shadows were large. Although it did not bother me at all while I was there, it did cause me certain problems when taking photos. Namely, the human eye (or rather the human brain, to be more accurate) is more perfect than any photo-camera and easily and automatically creates a balance between the parts exposed to the sunlight and those in the shade. That may be reproduced by a photo-camera, but one has to have a very, very good camera, needs to know how this is done and needs to want to be bothered with this. I did not meet any of the given criteria.
While I was walking through a part of the gorge that was in the shadow, I noticed a very interesting plant. Because of the limited impact of the humans on the gorge, despite minor interventions, the biodiversity here is at a satisfactory level and numerous species, primarily plant species, can be seen here, some of which are rather rare. One of them is the dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris) that I had seen in Samaria Gorge a week or so ago (https://www.svudapodji.com/en/crete-8/). I found it interesting, however, that there, in Samaria Gorge, in the west of Crete, this plant was only blossoming, while here, in the east, in the Gorge of Kato Zakros, its fruits had already formed.
And then I entered again a part of the gorge that was perfectly lit from all sides and still full of oleanders.
At some point I also noticed a pretty little egret (Egretta garzetta).
And as for me, I kept being extremely content and happy. I think this can be seen.
Needless to say, the gorge continued to wind and there was a frequent play of the sunlight and the shadows, but at any given moment everything was spectacular and perfect.
The photo above shows a part of the gorge I was yet to reach, while the photo below in the shape of a panorama shows a “curve” in the gorge – I had just arrived from the right-hand side and was yet to go to the left and this is the section seen in the previous photo.
In one segment, the trail goes over somewhat larger stones that are reminiscent of a riverbed, but there was no water here, at least not this wide. The river still flowed on the side, but its bed was significantly narrower.
This rocky section soon disappeared and for a while the trail led over soil-based ground, only to reach a rocky section yet again, this time in the shape of tiny pebbles.
This actually already marked the end of the gorge and exit from it, and this soon became very clear when I passed from a pebble trail onto an asphalt road. Admittedly, for those who start from Kato Zakros and want to go to Ano Zakros, this would in fact be the entrance into the gorge. There you go – again an example of everything being relative.
Here is also a video showing segments of my passage through the Gorge of Kato Zakros.
Now I started to follow the asphalt road heading for the coast and the beach. Along the way I was greeted by the absolutely wonderful song of birds and I even managed to take a photo of one of them. This was a male chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs).
The road from the exit from the gorge to the beach of Kato Zakros leads right beside the archaeological site “The Minoan Palace of Zakros.” It is certainly possible to leave Ano Zakros earlier in the day, walk down the gorge and then come here and visit the remains of the ancient palace; all in one go. This was obviously not my case, but I did not worry. I had already decided that I would get back here the following day.
Now I walked to a viewpoint beside the shore from where there is a fine view at the deep bay of Kato Zakros where a beach consisting of a couple of segments is located. The longer, bigger section of the beach is in the south, while in the north there are two smaller segments.
Along the bigger segment of the beach, there are several taverns. It was very important that I went to one of them. For a couple of reasons.
The first one was that a son of my hotel’s owners worked at the tavern and the agreement was for me to get in touch with him, while he would arrange my transfer back to the hotel in village Ano Zakros. My guidebook said that there was a local bus, but it seemed to me it worked only during high season and that was not in May when I was here.
Since there were practically no tourists to speak of, the son of my landlady “recognised” me at once as I was approaching the tavern he worked at. We greeted cordially and agreed that I was in no hurry and that also brought me to the other reason why it was important to me to get to a tavern. Namely, this was a perfect moment for me to relax by the sea and have a nice, local – beer.
As I slowly enjoyed the beer, the Sun was getting ready to set, while the beach was calm.
I thought that the son of my landlady would provide some transport from here, but in fact he called up his father who came down to the beach to pick me up. This was more than exceptionally kind on their part. When we left, the man asked me if I would mind that we stopped at his olive grove because he was supposed to turn off the water for the irrigation. Of course I did not mind. I was neither in any hurry nor did this take away any precious time of mine, since this was but a small detour from the main road. In fact, I actually found this interesting, plus we also chatted nicely along the way.
As he was turning off the water, I took the opportunity to take a photo of the vehicle and the olive grove.
When I returned to the hotel, I first took a shower and changed, and then I went down to the hotel’s terrace where completely uncommonly I took another beer. It did feel good though. I also asked the landlady to get me some meze. It all fitted perfectly and later on, exceptionally content, I could withdraw to my room and go to bed. Ah, this was such a perfect day...