The Route, part 2

From the Kallegri refuge, the path goes along "one of the best ridge walks on Crete" and bypasses the Melindaou summit ( 2133m ) from the south. From there the next stop is Katsiveli refuge. The refuges from now on are not occupied like Kallegri refuge, where you can buy some snacks and get accomodation - from now on, the doors are probably locked, and there's no-one around. Depending from how tired we are, the first tent night in the White Mountains will be somewhere near Katsiveli, or few km along the trail.

The next two days are rumoured to be the most difficult of them all. As the path bypasses the Pachnes summit ( the highest peak of White Mountains by 2453m ) the terrain is very tricky and hard for your joints. After Koutala Seli ( a pass, kind of a gorge ) the terrain becomes even more difficult and even ground for camp are rare. So between Katsiveli and town of Askifou, it will probably take two days to walk through, atleast we will be prepared for it.

The Route, part 1

The E4 path starts from the city of Kissamos goes along a asphalt-road in the western coastline to the paradise like beach of Elaffonissi. From there the route jumps of the paved roads and "really" starts.

                                       Here's our planned route, roughly sketched.


The path followes the southern coastline through the city of Paleochora to the town called Sougia. From there the path splits in to two sections, one that followes the coast 'till Frangokastello and one that climbs to the white mountains from Sougia. The second one is our planned route.

From Sougia our route goes probably via Agia Irini Gorge to the Omalos plain and to the start point of Samaria Gorge, as the path via Koustoreako to Xyloskala ( The Greek name to the "wooden stairs" that starts the Gorge ) is ( on our knowledge ) damaged and so it isn't safe enough. From Xyloskala, path goes to the Kallergi refuge, where we hope that we can spent our first night in the Lefka Ori, the White Mountains.

Gear talk vol. 1

As we're carrying all our gear for weeks, last 10 months have been an start of an new era for me, the traditional backbacker. I'we discovered a new world called "ultralight backbacking", or atleast "light". And what an endless project has it been :) All the time comes new and lighter gear to the market, and you have to consider how much money you're willing to spent in your gear and how far are you ready to go with lighter gear, as lighter is usually equal to less durable. So you want to find a good balance between light and durable gear.

First update I made was my tent. I was used to the Skandinavian "default", the tunnel tent. But you really can't go ultralight with 3kg tent. And you can't set up 4-5m long tunnel in mountains full of sharp stones and rocky terrain. So I put up a little mindstorm, what kind should my new tent be? Two person. Two doors, as nothing is as annoying as waking up in the middle of fantasy like dream when your friend stumbles on you. Two vestibules, for shoes, and preferably for backs. Under 2kg. Selfstanding would be great, but not essential. And it would be great if the structure was self standing, so it would be easy to move when once put up, but that's not a must.

My choice was Tarptent Double Rainbow. When the weight is 1200g with two extra stakes, repair part for the pole and some ducktape, that can't be too bad. :) And the tent fills all my requirements. Or now it does, when I updated my backback from 85 liter giant to 60 liter compact and light back, and now it fits nicely in the vestibule.

The tent seems to be great. As I have only used in my local short backpacking trips, and only in moderate rain I can't say nothing about how stormproof it is with it's single pole system, but for our "expedition" it will work great. I hope. Only thing that should be improved by Tarptent is that it should came allready seam sealed, as now the buyer has to do it himself ( or pay separetaly for it ).

Crete 2011

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.