This Sunday I joined a hiking expedition from the seaside area of Koutsouras to the village of Orino. It is located at 650 meters above sea level and it’s name means mountainous in Greek!
The route goes through one of the most beautiful ecosystems of eastern Crete known as the “Gorge of the red butterflies”.
If we were crossing the same path 26 years ago we wouldn’t even need a hat. The pine trees forest sprawled from the sea to the top of the mountains, but a catastrophic fire destroyed most of that forest (and most of the butterflies, too). Fortunately nature’s healing power is performing miracles and the only visible signs of that fire are some half burned logs, decomposing among the weird shaped trees that survived!
We began early in the morning under the shadow of the pine trees in the communal park of Koutsouras. A few minutes later we saw the entrance sign of the gorge. The walk through the gorge is fairly easy and at the difficult points there are constructions (a ladder, a small bridge etc) to make it easier. The landscape is wild but beautiful. I loved the rock formations around me and even the burned trees are now transformed into wonderful sculptures!
Along the route there are two little churches that offer thick shadow, fresh water and a big table and benches each, making them ideal break points for the hikers. Especially the second one has an astonishing view of the gorge till the sea!
Towards the end of the hike we saw a little sign “waterfall”. We took the detour and ended up at a lovely place with plane trees and thriving vegetation but unfortunately without any water falling! As we found out later the same water is used to cover the needs of a nearby village. Usually it is more than enough for the village and the rest goes to the waterfall. But this year due to the lack of rain during the winter there isn’t any left!
We continued our ascent alongside the water pipe while the scenery was getting more wild and more challenging! Finally we reached the main road and from there we could see Orino a few kilometers away. It took us 5 hours, in the whole, of enjoyable hiking, with enough breaks and no rush to get from Koutsouras to Orino and I wouldn’t change a thing!
It was one more great hiking day, on the island of Crete :)
