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0Sarakina Gorge no sudeste de Creta

Sara­ki­na Gor­ge (ou Canyon) is a gor­ge in south-east Cre­te about 25 minu­tes dri­ve from Iera­pe­tra. The gor­ge starts near the vil­la­ge of Males, and sna­kes south to the sea just east of the vil­la­ge of Myrtos

I first lear­ned of the exis­ten­ce of Sara­ki­na Canyon back in 2013 graças a a pho­to on a face­bo­ok page cal­led Visi­tI­e­ra­pe­tra that I used to fol­low befo­re I clo­sed my face­bo­ok account. Des­pi­te having visi­ted Iera­pe­tra many times I had been unawa­re of the gor­ge and the pic­tu­re made me want find find and explo­re it.

When I first visi­ted Sara­ki­na Canyon the­re wasn’t a gre­at deal of infor­ma­ti­on in English onli­ne but the canyon is now bet­ter known and plenty of infor­ma­ti­on is now avai­la­ble. No entanto, due to the lack of infor­ma­ti­on when I first visi­ted I had to do a lot of rese­ar­ch whi­ch I then wro­te about after visi­ting the gor­ge in the ori­gi­nal ver­si­on of this arti­cle. I have now been back to the gor­ge appro­xi­ma­tely 10 times and con­ti­nue to dis­co­ver more about it.

The total length of the water­cour­se from Males down to the coast is 5 milhas (8km) as the crow fli­es, and rea­lis­ti­cally about dou­ble this, or may­be more, when fol­lowing the twists and turns of the river­bed. Given the boul­de­ring and scram­bling requi­red this would take a good part of a day to walk in full. The most inte­res­ting parts of the gor­ge are near the mid­dle, and for­tu­na­tely seve­ral roads criss-cross the river­bed so it is not neces­sary to walk the who­le thing.

Sara­ki­na Canyon is also known as Myr­tos Canyon and to some locals may be known as Saran­ta­pihos. The river that flows down it is often label­led on maps as Myr­tos Pota­mos (Pota­mos is Gre­ek for river), but I beli­e­ve it is more cor­rec­tly cal­led Kriopotamos.

For most sec­ti­ons of the gor­ge the­re are parts that would be a con­si­de­ra­ble chal­len­ge to young chil­dren, anyo­ne with a phy­si­cal disa­bi­lity, anyo­ne with a seri­ous fear of heights, or anyo­ne who might be des­cri­bed as ‘elderly’. I would sug­gest most of the rou­te is pro­ba­bly doa­ble for any healthy indi­vi­du­als aged 7 para 70, but I’d recom­mend the exer­ci­sing of some jud­ge­ment at both ends of that scale.

Como chegar de carro

A lit­tle beyond the vil­la­ge of Mythi the­re is a hydro­e­lec­tric faci­lity or dam right next to the tar­mac­ked road with an area whe­re visi­tors can park. This is the area most peo­ple tra­vel to when visi­ting the gor­ge even though this is in the mid­dle of the full length of the water­cour­se. From this hydro sta­ti­on one of the most inte­res­ting parts of the gor­ge is imme­di­a­tely ups­tre­am (see sec­ti­on 3 abaixo), and another is around 500m downs­tre­am (see sec­ti­on 4 abaixo), ambos dentro de uma caminhada / luta bastante fácil.

To get to this hydro sta­ti­on, whi­ch is around 4 miles dri­ve from the vil­la­ge of Myr­tos you need to dri­ve west from Iera­pe­tra along the south coast on the main road (cal­led “Iera­pe­tra-Arka­lo­cho­ri­ou” on Tom­Tom, and cal­led “Epar.Od. Pachi­as Amou — Gdo­chia” on Goo­gle Maps). Pass through Gra Lygia and Sto­mio and con­ti­nue towards the vil­la­ge of Myr­tos (loca­ted 8½ miles West of Iera­pe­tra). Just as you enter Myr­tos you cross a river­bed on a brid­ge. This is the end of the rou­te of the gorge!

Fol­low the main road past Myr­tos whi­ch cur­ves away to the North (para a direita), back up into the moun­tains. Pouco menos de uma milha (pouco mais de 1km) after cros­sing the river­bed by Myr­tos you will see signs for a right turn towards the vil­la­ge of Mythi. The­re is also a sign in Gre­ek and English poin­ting to the gor­ge. Fol­low this road, e depois 1 1/2 milhas (aproximadamente 2km) you will pass through the vil­la­ge of Mythi. Con­ti­nue along the road, whi­ch will still have sign­posts to the gor­ge. Depois de Mythi, a estrada começa a cair novamente. Depois de outro 2/3 milha (1km) the road appe­ars to be cros­sing the river­bed again and star­ting to wind back up. Aqui, à esquerda, is a gra­vel par­king area and some con­cre­te structures.

Pontos de partida alternativos

For sta­ge 5: If you want to start at the very bot­tom of the gor­ge (not recom­men­ded) you could park just off the main coas­tal road east of Myr­tos whe­re the river­bed pas­ses under the main road. From here it would be a very long walk to the more inte­res­ting parts of the gor­ge though so I don’t recom­mend it.

It is also pos­si­ble to turn off the main coas­tal road either side of the brid­ge over the river­bed and dri­ve paral­lel to the river­bed (Em ambos os lados) whi­ch is how to get to the Roman brid­ge. This road will pass the obser­va­ti­on point for sec­ti­on 4 and will even­tu­ally rea­ch the hydro sta­ti­on but the road qua­lity is not as good as the rou­te des­cri­bed above.

For sta­ge 2: Con­ti­nue past the hydro sta­ti­on des­cri­bed abo­ve for just under 2½ km (approx. 5 mins dri­ving) e, em seguida, vire à esquerda na primeira saída de estrada de terra. After 100m or so on the dirt road you will see the best pla­ce to park whi­ch is a hexa­go­nal woo­den struc­tu­re whi­ch is an obser­va­ti­on point.

As diferentes partes do desfiladeiro

I will bre­ak the full length of the gor­ge into 5 parts and des­cri­be them from the top down to the coast. The only sec­ti­on of the gor­ge that I haven’t explo­red is the top most sec­ti­on. The infor­ma­ti­on I can find, inclu­ding views on goo­gle earth, sug­gests this part is lar­gely fairly gen­tle river­bed without the high nar­row walls found on other sec­ti­ons. It also looks qui­te over-grown and may be dif­fi­cult to explo­re. When I have inves­ti­ga­ted this top part more I will add more infor­ma­ti­on about it.

Mapa

Seção 1

I haven’t yet explo­red this sec­ti­on, but will add further infor­ma­ti­on when I even­tu­ally do.

Seção 2

The second part of the gor­ge is more of a river­bed and less of a gor­ge. It can be acces­sed direc­tly on a dirt road although I would recom­mend par­king near the top and wal­king down (ver mapa). Existem 2 bran­ches of water here, com o principal (eas­tern) bran­ch coming from the part des­cri­bed as sec­ti­on 1 whi­ch comes down from south-east of Males.

The­re used to be a nar­row metal brid­ge over this bran­ch as recen­tly as 2018, mas por 2019 foi lavado. It is pos­si­ble to fol­low the dirt road along­si­de the river for a lit­tle dis­tan­ce here, but if you want to con­ti­nue ups­tre­am it is even­tu­ally neces­sary to get back onto the river­bed whi­ch is sur­roun­ded by den­se bam­boo-like plants.

O outro (wes­tern) fork runs for a short dis­tan­ce whi­ch requi­res qui­te a lot of scram­bling over boul­ders and then ends at a she­er cliff whi­ch I ima­gi­ne might form a water­fall in win­ter and early spring, although I have never seen any water fal­ling the­re as I’ve only gone this far up this bran­ch in summer.

Downs­tre­am from whe­re the 2 bran­ches mer­ge the river­bed is gen­tle and peb­bly and not too dif­fi­cult to walk. After 200m or so it starts to enter the first pro­per sec­ti­on of canyon and quic­kly rea­ches a point whe­re it drops around 2–3m. To get down requi­res the use of a rope. This is whe­re the part I will call sec­ti­on 3 começa. No caminho pela estrada de terra, next to the hexa­go­nal woo­den cons­truc­ti­on the­re are views into this part of the canyon from abo­ve, although the drop is qui­te dan­ge­rous and the­re is no fen­ce so take care.

This who­le sec­ti­on is one of the easi­est to access thanks to the dirt road and the more open area around it. I would say it is sui­ta­ble to explo­re for all ages and in any footwe­ar. In spring the­re is usu­ally a rea­so­na­ble flow of water and the­re are often lots of nice flowers dot­ted around inclu­ding orchids.

Seção 3

The part I am cal­ling sec­ti­on 3 runs from the start of the gor­ge just after the 2 rivers des­cri­bed abo­ve join, down to the hydro faci­lity whe­re most peo­ple park. This sec­ti­on is a gre­at sec­ti­on of gor­ge to explo­re for any adult of good health along with chil­dren and seems to be the most popu­lar and most explo­red part, with most peo­ple star­ting at the hydro sta­ti­on and wor­king their way up.

The first part of this sec­ti­on is easily explo­red with young chil­dren but to get all the way up to sec­ti­on 2 is a lit­tle tricky in pla­ces and pro­ba­bly best only tac­kled by healthy teens and adults, although tho­se older and youn­ger may still wish to give it a go. Explo­ring in sum­mer and autumn is rela­ti­vely straight­forward as the­re is usu­ally not very much water, but it can be more chal­len­ging in spring when the­re is more water. I would exer­ci­se cau­ti­on in win­ter in all parts of the gor­ge as sud­den heavy rain could pro­ve dan­ge­rous! In sum­mer I have wor­ked my way all the way up this sec­ti­on in flip-flops but I have seen enough water ear­li­er in the year that I would want something a bit more seri­ous for spring.

The first year I explo­red this sec­ti­on, em agosto, the­re was a decent flow of water with a num­ber of fairly deep pools, but in sub­se­quent years the­re has been less water in sum­mer and I haven’t found any pools deep enough to dip in for the last cou­ple of years. Another fac­tor is that the natu­re of the gor­ge chan­ges every year – I’m assu­ming sud­den heavy rains in win­ter can pro­du­ce suf­fi­ci­ent flows of water to rear­ran­ge some of the lar­ge boulders.

The lower part of this sec­ti­on starts with around 30 steps that lead up from the car park by the hydro sta­ti­on, e então, after tur­ning right, a disu­sed con­cre­te chan­nel that was pre­vi­ously used for irri­ga­ti­on runs paral­lel to (and abo­ve) the river­bed for around 200m. This con­cre­te chan­nel is flat and easy to walk on and leads well into the gorge.

The next 200m or so are rea­so­na­bly easy to walk as long as the­re isn’t too much water as the ground is fairly even and cove­red by gra­vel and sand. In sum­mer and autumn it would pro­ba­bly be just about pos­si­ble to walk all the way up without get­ting your feet wet, but it is much easi­er going if you have footwe­ar that can go ankle deep into the water. I have pre­vi­ously worn flip-flops and light-weight sho­es like plim­so­les or casu­al loa­fers and found it was easi­est just to let them get wet.

Further up the num­ber of lar­ge boul­ders incre­a­ses and a lit­tle more scram­bling and jum­ping is requi­red. Once you rea­ch the area with the boul­ders the rou­te isn’t always obvi­ous (although in a 10m wide canyon the­re isn’t too much sear­ching to be done). The­re are faint yel­low arrows pain­ted in qui­te a few loca­ti­ons, and rocks that are part of the rou­te often have a red squa­re pain­ted on them. Using the­se (and the obvi­ous car­ved footholds) makes fin­ding the best rou­te rea­so­na­bly straightforward.

Após cerca de 500m (um palpite bastante difícil da minha parte) you rea­ch the only sig­ni­fi­can­tly deep part of the river in this sec­ti­on of the gor­ge – whi­ch in some years (mas nem todos) it forms a pool whi­ch is around 7m wide by 8m long and 2m deep at its dee­pest point. If the­re is enough water this is the best pla­ce to go for a dip if you wish to do so.

The very top of the sec­ti­on has a 2–3m high boul­der that back in 2013 I was able to climb with the help of a rope that had been put the­re. Eu não sei se isso ainda é o mesmo, mas acho bastante provável. Beyond that is what I des­cri­bed abo­ve as sec­ti­on 2.

Seção 4

The part I am cal­ling sec­ti­on 4 runs down from the hydro faci­lity. Ini­ti­ally it is wide and flat with lar­ge peb­bles for a base. After around 500m the river­bed encoun­ters har­der ground and is for­ced through another nar­row gor­ge sec­ti­on – the nar­rowest part of the who­le gor­ge I beli­e­ve. This sec­ti­on has at least 2 fairly lar­ge pools that in autumn could just about be jum­ped when tra­vel­ling down, but could not be pas­sed coming up without get­ting very wet. I ima­gi­ne they would be impas­sa­ble without wading in all other sea­sons. At the other end of this nar­row sec­ti­on the river­bed widens out again and beco­mes what I will des­cri­be as sec­ti­on 5.

When I explo­red this sec­ti­on in 2020 I wore light-weight loa­fers and my tra­vel­ling com­pa­ni­on wore flip-flops whi­ch were good enough to do the job but I cer­tainly wished I had trai­ners or even pro­per wal­king boots. The walk got pro­gres­si­vely more chal­len­ging as we got further down and as we got nea­rer to the nar­row part the­re were more and more boul­ders we had to scram­ble and jump to work our way down.

We didn’t go through to the end of the nar­row sec­ti­on as we both had came­ras (and pho­nes and car keys) com a gente e não queria se molhar. We also didn’t really want to walk and scram­ble our way back up the river­bed on our return as it would have taken at least an hour, but I had spot­ted a truck pas­sing by abo­ve us, so we just about mana­ged to scram­ble our way up a fairly ste­ep part of the side to the road and then wal­ked back along it.

I wouldn’t recom­mend this sec­ti­on for most chil­dren or for anyo­ne other than healthy adults as the going was a lit­tle tricky in places.

Seção 5

The final part that I am cal­ling sec­ti­on 5 is fairly flat and wide and gen­tle. It runs from just after the nar­rowest part of the gor­ge, descendo para a costa. Whilst this sec­ti­on might not sound espe­ci­ally inte­res­ting, the­re is an old arched brid­ge that is clai­med to date back to the Romans. This is easily acces­sed along paved roads that run along­si­de the river­bed from the main coas­tal road so can be explo­red sepa­ra­tely from the other sections.

Outra informação

In many pla­ces the water seems to disap­pe­ar, only to reap­pe­ar further down. In sum­mer and autumn it appe­ars that the­re is a suf­fi­ci­en­tly gen­tle flow of water that in are­as with a sig­ni­fi­cant depth of gra­vel and sand the water is flowing in this layer and isn’t visi­ble at the sur­fa­ce. In sec­ti­ons whe­re the sand and gra­vel layer is thin­ner the water re-emerges.

I have seen a tad­po­les, rãs pequenas, and crabs in sec­ti­ons 2 e 3 of the gor­ge although only on a cou­ple of occa­si­ons. I haven’t found myself bothe­red by fli­es or mos­qui­tos in any parts of the gor­ge, and whilst the­re have been wasps occa­si­o­nally they only seem to be inte­res­ted in drin­king the fresh water and have never bothe­red me.

The­re are gui­ded hikes and wal­king tours that inclu­de the full length of the gor­ge from Males down to Myr­tos. If you are a seri­ous out­do­or explo­rer then the­se might be something to con­si­der as they will pro­vi­de trans­port so you can go through the wet parts without wor­rying about car keys, and they are also likely to pro­vi­de infor­ma­ti­on about the flo­ra and fauna.

When the­re is sig­ni­fi­cant water in the gor­ge wal­king boots really aren’t sui­ta­ble unless they are desig­ned to be sub­mer­ged, nor are they neces­sary when the canyon is lar­gely dry so I recom­mend against wea­ring them for sec­ti­ons 2 e 3 unless you’­re happy to get them wet. Most sec­ti­ons can be done indi­vi­du­ally in flip-flops in all the con­di­ti­ons we’­ve encoun­te­red, but the best footwe­ar for shor­ter excur­si­ons would be secu­re san­dals, or canyoning/bouldering/climbing sho­es. Plim­solls will also work well when explo­ring short sec­ti­ons. If you want to walk the full length you will need to invest in some pro­per water­pro­of hiking boots.

I would say that taking a came­ra is highly recom­men­ded, and I would further recom­mend a ruck­sack to car­ry it in, along with some bot­tled water. The num­ber of peo­ple visi­ting the gor­ge has ste­a­dily incre­a­sed sin­ce I first explo­red the gor­ge, but even in the height of sum­mer you are only likely to encoun­ter a hand­ful of other people.

Another impor­tant thing to note is that onli­ne gui­des to the spe­ci­fics of the rou­te (e.g. the loca­ti­on of ropes etc.) are likely to be out of date by the fol­lowing year — each year we’­ve found the rou­te a bit dif­fe­rent due to chan­ges cau­sed by win­ter floods.

Galeria de fotos do Sarakina Canyon

Outra informação

Uma nota sobre a história desta postagem

This arti­cle was ori­gi­nally published at JonScaife.com. It has been exten­si­vely rewor­ked and upda­ted sin­ce the original.

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