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In loving memory of William (Bill) Watson Jackson (1910-2002). If men from Aberdeen, are
created from hard granite, then here was a man who proved, that from there too come men
with hearts of pure gold. He shall be sorely missed by all of his grandchildren, Alison,
Alasdair, Richard and I as well as his great-grand-daughter, Sophia (pictured with WWJ). I
dedicate this page and the walk to him and his everlasting memory.
Stelios Jackson
Contact: Mobile +44 077 203 29 323 E-mail
Foreword
I have used various links to sites on this page most of which are run by friends and
represent the very best of Cretan knowledge and technology. I have even plagarised a bit,
but have done my upmost to qualify and credit these sources, where due. This is a private
page which only friends of mine are privy to, but I must still give my thanks to the
following sites which are all excellent and have been used to some extent on this page;
cast your browser upon the gifs and open up whole new windows of possibilities:
Plus the Chania Mountaineering Club ; ATHANATI (to whom I owe the gif. of walking...), to Malcolm Stoddart, from whom I learned it is a far better thing to have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy, though the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive!; to Maraki Mou with whom I have drunk and said "goodbye to all that" with (K); to all other friends, especially those met through that great Cretan portal "Interkriti" who have had to put up with me posting and pouting for the past two years and have been my inspiration: (Lala; Adam; Ray and Lynn; Al. "The (ocassionally) Flying Kiwi"; Tom and Jane who have made their dreams come true; my trading partner Stuart, a rare old bean!; my ol' red Jan; JohnS who I confuse more than most or is it just that he admits it?; my ol' Dutch Yiannakis; my Bonnie and adopted sister o'er the ocean Maria; her spirited mother and aformentioned "Athanati"; Mpomp, who makes me smile; Stelios F; Erno; Jean; Tim; Roger; Julie F and Judy, both kindred spirits; Paul; Sam; Marianne; Chris from Calgary; Jacqueline; Gea; the fabulous writings of both Alexandra and Lars (Kriti stin Kardia tous) for their very special stories; Loreto the lone-starred-ranger, Wolfgang and Alexander for their fantastic pictures; Niki for her tea, sympathy and Birkenstocks; Frank; the inimitable Dinos-Siteia; Yannis S and many others); to my sister Alison, her mad husband Ian and my beautiful God-daughter and niece, Sophia and last, but not least, to Rex, for being the best friend that a man can have and for putting up with me moving in mysterious ways! Ta leme, Paidia! SJ
Introduction
Hello there! As
I am sure you know if you are reading this, I shall be attempting to walk from Kato Zakros
in the East of Crete, to Kastelli in the North-West, this year. The plan is taking shape
nicely and now includes three weeks of acclimatisation, before I set off. The
acclimatisation is also a thinly-veiled excuse, ultimately enabling me to do both the
"Alpine" and "Coastal" parts of the E4.
Just south of Argyroupolis, in the foothills of the western-most fringe of the nomos of Rethymnon, the coastal and alpine paths cross at Velonado/Nissiani, and my intention is to walk both of these routes. The first part, taking in the coastal path, I will call "the pre-walk" and that part will hopefully get me into some sort of shape to enable me do the walk itself. Full descriptions of both walks appear below; and that, lady or gentleman, is my best-laid-plan.
Everything underlined is hyperlinked to something or other
This icon indicates walks that are
actually on the E4 trail, as some of the walks I shall be doing, are not.
Days I shall be busing. This icon connects to
the individual bus service of the particular nomos (area) that I'll be leaving from
starting from Heraklion to Rethymnon.
Dopey will take you back to the top of the page, but he is also
there to indicate my lazy days, of which there'll be quite a few!
Some of
these walks are detailed in books, of which I have five different ones. The icons to the
left are the books and the numbers in brackets are are the page numbers for that
particular walk. I have also used abbreviations as the two of the guides have a remarkably
similar appearance to two other ones; OK so not so surprising in the case of the Landscape
guides:
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CBT = "Crete Off The Beaten Track". |
LWC = "Landscapes of Western Crete". |
RCW = "Crete, West." Rother Walking Guide" |
CWM = "Crete: The White Mountains". |
LEC = "Landscapes of Eastern Crete". |
Date |
Map of Nomos |
Spending Night |
Doing |
Activity: |
Description |
Wed Apr the 30th and Thu May the first |
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Not a lot |
Wandering around Rethymnon |
Fri May 2nd |
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I reckon on a walk to Moundros, but haven't decided yet. |
Bus up to Argyroupolis There are a number of options here. I shall try to discover this area if I get here early enough. I have heard many good things about Argyroupolis and environs, but have never visited this area, south of Episkopi. A good look at the village will take place during today. A walk to Asi Gonia, down to Moundros, Nisiana etc, will be decided on once I am ensconced. |
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No accommodation shall be booked
in advance, with the possible exception of Chandras, as the information below is just my
best laid plan and until I am on-hoof, I will not know exactly where I am likely to end
up. Some of the walks below are a bit ambitious and others are perhaps a bit short, so
this is just a crib and is not written in stone, but I would like to get to Spili for the
28th of May.
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