There's at least 11 long-distance hiking paths in europe, numbered logically E1-E11.
The E4 path starts from Tarifa in Spain and goes through Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romany to Greece. Through the island of Crete and it finishes in Cyprus.
Our two man expedition's objective is to hike through the Cretan part of the path in May 2011.
There's a few things that make the Cretan part pretty interesting. E4 path has two branches in the island, there's the "beach branch" that goes, suprisingly, with the coastline almost half of it's lenght. Then it sneaks from between mountains to north side of mt. Ida, and goes through few argeoligal sights. And then there's the "alpine branch. It goes through the mountain ranges ( Lefka Ori - the White Mountains, Mt. Ida and the Lassithi mountains ). Our goal is the "alpine branch".
And what were the things that made it interesting? Few things. At the White Mountains, there's a big possibility that there's still snow in early May. And still in the lower parts of the path there can and will be more than 30 degrees celcius. And as we are carrying all our gear in our backbacks, all the gear has to be though trough very carefully.. Also the terrain is very rocky and tiring, and it will test nerves and joints over and over again.
Also the lenght of the route brings an addition to the hike. Depending on the source, lenght is something between 320-500km (200-300 miles):) -- that sounds like really usefull info for a backbacker! -- Kidding aside, with all the work with maps and guidebooks, the lenght is pretty accurately 450km (280 miles). Not the mileage of the path is our biggest trouble, but we have only four weeks time to do it, as we have to return to the office.. And still, with hustle or not, our goal is to enjoy, admire the scenery, interact with locals and so on. Enjoy Crete. Without permanent damage.
When conveniently situated, we're going to sleep in hotels or in small village guesthouses, but mainly we're going rely on sleepingbags and sleep in tent or under a starry sky.