After an early morning 3-hour bus ride along the coast from Iraklio to Chania where I had tasty coffee and an omelet by the Venetian Harbor.
I had booked two nights at the Cocoon City Hostel www.cocooncityhostel.com through booking.com since it did not show on Hostelworld. I picked it because it was star-rated by Lonely Planet. Apparently, the dorm rooms I stayed in had just been completed a month ago. It was stunning with large gathering areas including one around an outdoor soaking pool. There were two high-end kitchens and the bathrooms had beautiful green frosted glass partitions for the shower and toilet areas. They included a bidet at each toilet which I prefer. The dorm rooms have individual lights and power plugs at each bed and lockers below the bunks. The A/C is welcome and they included a duvet so the A/C did not chill you during the night. They also offer breakfasts and all varieties of coffee in the morning for those who do not cook their own. The cost was 20 Euros per night plus a 3 Euro rental for two towels.
The staff kept the place clean throughout. It is one of the few hostels I have stayed at that are turning away travelers.
While at the Cocoon, I ran into Nomadic Matt—a popular blogger from Austin, TX—who I have followed for years and who provides great traveler advice. Here is a link to his website: https://www.nomadicmatt.com/. He was doing some serious work at one of the many table work stations in the common areas.
After checking in and booking the Samaria Gorge tour for the following day for 40 Euros which included a bus pick up and drop off at our hostel, a guide to make sure we all made it out of the Gorge, a park fee, one hour boat ride back to our bus and a second bus ride of 1 1/2 hours.
I then walked a short distance to the Venetian Harbor lined with outdoor restaurants, glass-bottom boats, horse buggy rides, and the remains of a fort.
Early morning, our bus arrived at the twisty narrow road to Omalos and the entrance to the Samaria Gorge National Park at an elevation of 4,035 ft and we would reach sea level in just 11 miles. We first stopped for breakfast, however, the “restaurant” only had bananas, pastry, ham and cheese sandwiches, and a variety of power bars. I guess this is my day for fasting.
The start of the hike was pretty crowded as we all worked our way down 2 miles of stone stairs.
I was joined by Eva from Poland who had been my seatmate on the bus and lost track of the other three travelers from the Cocoon Hostel.
At each of the 8 rest stops, they had toilets and much-welcomed water. Here is one of the water taps at the abandoned Samaria village stop.
At one of the early viewpoints, a woman asked for me to take her picture. After I did, Eva and I noticed that she traveled at the same pace as us, and she joined us for the remainder of the hike down the Gorge. Her name is Iona and is from Romania. It turned out that this was her way of celebrating her birthday.
When we got to the Samaria Gorge floor, we finally saw the water running along the bottom of the Gorge.
As we proceeded, we frequently crossed wooden bridges that are removed when the flood season arrives or stepping stones.
The further we descended, the narrower the canyon walls were until they were just about 15 feet across which was called the “Iron Gates”—Sideroportes.
After leaving the park, the first restaurant we came to was selling fresh-squeezed orange juice at a premium price of 4.50 Euros, and most of us gladly paid.
We then headed down to the waterfront village of Agua Roumeli where we would get our ferry tickets from Martha, our guide, for the one-hour ferry boat ride at 5:30 pm to our waiting bus.
We had a late lunch at the Roumeli Restaurant where Eva had a giant salad, Iona had calamari that looked like a miniature octopus, and I had the goat stew. It felt more like I was dissecting something than having a meal because of all of the fat, gristle, and bone to sort through. The flavor was excellent though and the meat was tender.
We and about 1,000 other people took this one-hour ferry boat ride back to our waiting buses for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to our hotels and hostels.
Our guide, Martha, said that this day set a record for the number of people hiking the Samaria Gorge post-COVID. Pre-COVID they averaged between 1,500 to 2,500 hikers per day.
The returning road was very windy, but wider and smoother than the road we took in. We returned to the hostel at about 8pm—tired and dirty looking forward to a shower and relaxation.
While I was in Chania, I toured some of the other walking streets and areas and enjoyed meals by the Venetian Harbor enjoying entertainers at some of the restaurants.
On the 15th I took a local bus to the nearby port of Souda for my midnight ferry boat back to Athens.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my Peru Adventures there as well as my other travel videos. That link is https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
Love the way you compliment all of your entries with details, I’ve always enjoyed reading you.
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Gaby Crespo