Samaria – gorge of the White Mountains
There is something strange in the islands, devoid of mountains. In the absence of a heavy stone outfit, they either try to hide their nakedness behind a lush green tropical outfit, or with the help of human hands hit the guests with architectural delights designed to replace natural beauty. But can anything compare to this natural power, the reliability of which you feel with your back, standing on the shore and looking at the horizon line separating the sky and the sea?
The Lefka Ori mountain range in the west of Crete is famous for its peaks, most of which are covered with snow caps before the beginning of summer. Hence the name of the range – the White Mountains. Mountains that hide an innumerable number of mysteries, one of which is the Samaria Gorge – the most famous natural attraction of the island.
Samaria gorge at all times served as a shelter for the Greeks from the enemy forces. It was the enemies – after all, successfully knocking heads to all those who came to the island with a sword, the Cretans favored those who politely asked permission to go through the mountains for the benefit of the local population, even despite the loyalty of the aliens to the most cannibalistic regimes. For example, at the height of the Second World War, an expedition of German natural scientists, led by the scientist Siebert, successfully worked here. However, it should be noted that the aura of the White Mountains did not spare the man, whose contribution to the study of the nature of the Samaria Gorge was outstanding: when work on systematization of flora and fauna came to an end, and the film about the animals inhabiting the gorge was finished, Siebert died tragically, breaking with the rocks. Without any help from the local population, generation after generation, they tempered their character in the fight against the invaders.
However, not always these beautiful and harsh mountains could stand on the protection of the Greeks. In June 1948, during the civil war in Greece, left-wing insurgents hiding in the gorge were surrounded by a detachment of soldiers and policemen, after a hard battle they were destroyed, and the civil war in Crete ended. Thus, only the Greeks themselves could defeat the Greeks in the Samaria Gorge.
Since 1962, when the gorge received the status of a national park, and all residents were resettled from the village of Samaria, it was already absurd to accuse the mountaineers of involvement in cases of injuries received by foreigners in large numbers. Since then, it has become quite obvious that tourists with great success cripple themselves. And until today, they do not stop doing this.
When you reach the tragic news from the park, given in an ideal tourist view, equipped with wooden fences along the trail, kilometer signs, rest areas, toilets, drinking water sources, fire-fighting equipment and even staff with mules, you wonder: caring attitude of the hosts to the guests, the last to try to kill himself to death? But arriving at the starting point of the route and looking at the slates on the feet of selfless tourists, with the scandal of those who refuse to comply with the rule of visiting the park in sports shoes, you understand: the victims can not be avoided! But after all they can fairly be entered into account of natural selection – isn’t it?
And one must assume that your names will not fill up this sad list under any circumstances. After all, as quite adequate travelers, you not only do not lean to the top of the route in beach clothes, you, among other things:
– do not go to the top in your car, because you do not want to wrestle with how to get to it later, but buy a ticket for a comfortable two-way bus for 14 euros;
– you will not take a lot of clothes and food with you on the road, because for the good of a pleasant walk you do not want to carry useless cargo 18 kilometers, but take a flask or a plastic bottle – the sources are evenly distributed along the whole route, and a light “snack” for the halt;
– you will not fall anywhere and will not break on sharp stones, overdoing in the desire to make “the most beautiful picture”;
– Do not burn under the scorching rays of the sun, because prudently provide yourself with reliable protection from the burning rays;
– reaching the finish, do not go back to the top, because you have enough sense to think: the road is several times harder and therefore longer, and no vehicles for your transfer are planned at the starting point (if, of course, you did not dump fool and did not come in a rented car);
– do not give up at the end of the road, and you will not wait for the bus to get to the ship, because you want to selflessly go all the way from start to finish “on your own two”;
– Take with you bathing accessories, because …
Because if you want at least a tiny step to get closer to the happiness of a man who wandered through the desert and reached an oasis, you will pass this way – from the rocky peaks to the canyons-ridged foot of the mountains – and when you run, burning your feet, on hot sand and plunge in the azure coolness of the sea, you will experience the incomparable, inexpressible words of bliss.
