0Sarakina Gorge Güney Doğu Girit'te

Sara­ki­na Gor­ge (or 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 sayesinde 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. Ancak, 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 mil (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 için 70, but I’d recom­mend the exer­ci­sing of some jud­ge­ment at both ends of that scale.

Oraya araba ile nasıl gidilir

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 altında), and anot­her is aro­und 500m downst­re­am (see sec­ti­on 4 altında), both wit­hin a fairly easy walk/scramble.

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. Bu geçit yolunun sonu!

Fol­low the main road past Myr­tos which cur­ves away to the North (sağa), back up into the moun­ta­ins. Bir milin altında (1 km'den biraz fazla) 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, ve sonra 1 1/2 mil (app­rox 2km) you will pass thro­ugh the vil­la­ge of Myt­hi. Con­ti­nue along the road, which will still have sign­posts to the gor­ge. After Myt­hi the road starts to drop aga­in. After anot­her 2/3 mil (1km) the road appe­ars to be cros­sing the river­bed aga­in and star­ting to wind back up. Buraya, soldaki, is a gra­vel par­king area and some conc­re­te structures.

Alternatif başlangıç ​​noktaları

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 (on eit­her side) 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) ve sonra ilk toprak yol çıkışına doğru sola dönün. 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.

Geçidin farklı bölümleri

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.

Harita

Bölüm 1

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

Bölüm 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 (haritayı gör). var 2 branc­hes of water here, ana ile (eas­tern) branch coming from the part desc­ri­bed as sec­ti­on 1 Erkeklerin güneydoğusundan aşağı inen.

The­re used to be a nar­row metal brid­ge over this branch as recently as 2018, ama tarafından 2019 it had been was­hed away. 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.

Diğer (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 başlar. Toprak yoldan aşağı inerken, 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.

Bölüm 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, Ağustosda, 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, and then, 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.

After aro­und 500m (benim tarafımdan oldukça kaba bir tahmin) you reach the only sig­ni­fi­cantly deep part of the river in this sec­ti­on of the gor­ge – which in some years (fakat hepsi değil) 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. Hala aynı mı bilmiyorum ama oldukça muhtemel olduğunu düşünüyorum. Beyond that is what I desc­ri­bed abo­ve as sec­ti­on 2.

Bölüm 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) bizimle ve ıslanmak istemiyordum. 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.

Bölüm 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, sahile kadar. 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.

Diğer bilgiler

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, küçük kurbağalar, and crabs in sec­ti­ons 2 and 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 and 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.

Sarakina Kanyonu için Fotoğraf Galerisi

Diğer bilgiler

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

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