The High Mountains of Crete – a walking and trekking guide

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Updates
• Reviews
• Further Reading

Richard Ellis has a useful blog for anyone planning to walk the E4 long distance route along the spine of Crete, from East to West - www.e4crete.blogspot.com
 

Scene of the first Bronze Age civilisation in Europe, Crete has attracted the interest of archaeologists, scientists and scholarly travellers at least since the 18th century. Dozens of books in Greek, English and other languages have been produced on every subject relevant to the island. A few of these, long out of print in the UK, are reissued by the Efstathiades Group, Athens, as economically priced paperbacks available locally for interested visitors. Imported books are available, but are expensive. Foreign bookshops in the towns, and at Matala (central Crete) may stock a last copy or two of out-of-print books. Visit www.west-crete.com for a range of relevant books.

Countryside
O. Rackham and J. Moody The Making of the Cretan Landscape (Manchester University Press, 1996, ISBN 0 7190 3647 X/36461)
Historical ecology: based for a period in Kambia, Anopolis, a botanist and an archaeologist joined forces to produce an in-depth study covering everything to be seen in the Cretan countryside.

Stephanie Coghlan A Birdwatching Guide to Crete (Arlequin Press, Chelmsford 1996, ISBN 1 9001 5910 4)
Birds seen in Crete, and birdwatching areas throughout the island. Amongst places relevant to this walking guide Chania town, Omalos, the Samaria Gorge and Lake Kourna are featured.

Oleg Polunin Flowers of Greece and the Balkans (Oxford University Press, reprinted 1997, ISBN 0 1928 1998 4)
Useful glossary of Latin and popular names. See Chapter 2, Western Crete, for plant-hunting itineraries: Omalos (Walks 1, 2), Samaria Gorge (Walk 3), Imbros Gorge (Walk 23) and the Madares from Anopolis (Trek 8). Use of digital photography has resulted in several new books on flowers to be found in the local shops – take your pick.

George Sfikas Birds and Mammals of Crete (1987) and Wild Flowers of Crete (Efstathiades Group, Athens 1978)
Unassuming but useful guides. The latter a book for more advanced botanists, but dozens of illustrations. Also Trees and Shrubs of Greece (1979) and (outdated) The Mountains of Greece.


Cultural and Travel Guides
Johan de Bakker Across Crete, Part 1: From Khania to Heraklion (World Discovery Guide Books, 2001, ISBN 90 806150 13))
A selection of writings by early travellers in Crete. Since travels were often made on foot, on old trails which may still exist, many passages are of particular interest to walkers.

Pat Cameron The Blue Guide: Crete (A & C Black Ltd, 7th edition 2003, ISBN 0 7136 4676 4)
Specialising in facts, rather than the author’s opinions, the top cultural guide restyled to be useful also as a ‘companion’ guide. Walkers will appreciate the mention of the E4 Trail and other footpaths wherever these are encountered near places of interest. The Psiloritis and Lassithi mountain ranges are particularly rich in less-visited archaeological sites and historical points of interest, all of which are described in detail.

David MacNeil Doren Winds of Crete (John Murray, 1974, reprinted Efstathiades)
Living and travelling in the Cretan countryside before modern tourism arrived.

Sonia Greger Village on the Plateau (Brewin Books, Studley 1985)
An ethnographic study of the Magoulas community of Lassithi (Walk L9) in the early 1980s.

Adam Hopkins Crete, its Past, Present and People (Faber & Faber [OUP] paperback, 1977, ISBN 0 5711 1361 3)
Observations, history and sociology. Two young shepherds (now in their 50s and living in a different era) lead the author up the garden path (to Katsiveli, Trek 8).

H.T. Hionides Greek Dictionary (Collins Gem series, Harper Collins, reprinted 1997, ISBN 0 00 458548 8))
A good mini-dictionary.

Sabine Ivanovas Where Zeus Became a Man (Efstathiadis, translated by Maria Stratigati, ISBN 960 226 584 1)
The text is in Greek, German and English. The author observes the work of the shepherding families of the Milopotamos Valley and their love for Psiloritis. A quality souvenir of Mount Ida and the people you may meet working on the mountain.


Archaeology
Costis Davara Guide to Cretan Antiquities (Eptalogos S.A, Athens, 1976)
Helpful quick-reference directory.

Dilys Powell The Villa Ariadne (Efstathiadis, 1973)
Essential memoirs concerning Sir Arthur Evans’ villa, which overlooks the site of Knossos, and its occupants over the years, including the period of World War II. As a young woman the author was married to archaeologist Humphrey Payne, who died aged 37 of an infected insect bite. She wrote several memoirs of their time in Greece together before forging a new career as a film critic for The Sunday Times. In the 1950s (when there were few roads and mountain walking was much tougher), in her late 50s, with a thick head cold and wearing unsuitable shoes (don’t do this!) she was guided by an ex-partisan on one very long walking day over the summit of Mount Ida on the route taken by the General Kreipe kidnap party. With no such thing as our modern-day walking routes, the only easily identifiable spot in her account is the Analipsi spring, with its stone-carved bowl (Walk P12).

World War II
To those who walk the high mountains, the (currently out of print) memoirs of the SOE Intelligence agents who lived and worked with shepherds and partisans are of particular interest, not only for accounts of daring deeds, but as valuable records of the Cretan way of life before emigration, roads and other amenities changed it so drastically. Lately Internet searches have enabled New Zealanders in particular to enthusiastically mop up secondhand copies, but it is worth knowing relevant titles because books like this always reappear. Of the bunch, currently only Ill Met by Moonlight and The Cretan Runner are in print.

Agents belonging to Secret Service units such as MI5 have unfortunately not written similar memoirs. Both groups contributed to the Resistance effort during the Nazi Occupation and their work overlapped. If anything, the SOE was assigned to co-ordinate Cretan partisan bands, whilst the Inter Services Liaison Department (ISLD) was assigned (for the purposes of Commando raids and other strategies) to relay, by wireless, intelligence information to the Allied HQ in Cairo. 

Antony Beevor Crete, the Battle and the Resistance (John Murray, paperback, 1991, ISBN 0 7195 4857 8)
The full coverage of this disastrous campaign by the author of Stalingrad and Berlin included newly researched material to mark the 50th anniversary of the battle.

Murray Elliot Vassili, Lion of Crete (Efstathiades, reprinted 1992)
The story of Dudley Perkins, the New Zealander who led a Resistance group in the mountains above Koustoyerako (Walk 6).

Xan Fielding Hide and Seek (Secker & Warburg [OUP] 1950)
The wartime memoirs of the tough and competent SOE intelligence agent assigned to the White Mountains region. Although he settled in Andalucia after the war, he requested that his ashes be scattered in the Lefka Ori. His surviving former comrades chose a viewpoint at Kallergi refuge.

Xan Fielding The Stronghold (Secker & Warberg [OUP] 1955)
The countryside in the 1950s: the author’s return, revisiting the people and places he had known during the war. Of particular interest to those who walk the northern foothills of the Lefka Ori.

George Pyscoundakis (trans. by Patrick Leigh Fermor) The Cretan Runner (various editions, lately Penguin 1998 and Efstathiades, Athens)
The World War II memoirs of a young, talented, Cretan shepherd from Asi Gonia who ran messages between all the Special Operations Executive (SOE) mountain hideouts. This translation work was Patrick Leigh Fermor’s lasting tribute to the courage of the Cretan Resistance volunteers who assisted and protected Allied forces intelligence agents – he was one himself.

W. Stanley Moss Ill Met By Moonlight (various editions; lately Efstathiadis)
This memoir of the kidnap of General Kreipe by the author together with Patrick Leigh Fermor and members of the Cretan Resistance, notably Manouli Paterakis of Koustoyerako, describes their successful escape over Mount Ida and across the hills of Rethymnon to Rodakino. Patrick Leigh Fermor’s account of this venture is included in Words of Mercury (John Murray 2003), edited by Artemis Cooper. Observations and thoughts on his time in Crete are covered in chapter 3 of Roumeli (John Murray 1966).

A.M. Rendel Appointment in Crete (Allan Wingate [OUP], London 1953)
Sandy Rendel’s interesting and impressive memoir of his service as the SOE agent assigned to the Lassithi region.

Mathew Woodbine Parish Aegean Adventures (The Book Guild [OUP], 1994)
Includes a separate chapter by Myles Hildyard, describing his experiences as an escaped prisoner of war hiding, with Australians, in the northern foothills of the White Mountains. The spring near Volikas EOS refuge is easily recognised in this memoir, as are the corbelled huts nearby (Walk 13).

Sean Damer and Ian Frazer On the Run: Anzac Escape and Evasion in Enemy-occupied Crete (Penquin Group [NZ], 2006, ISBN 0 14 302030 7)
Experiences and memoirs of Allied Army soldiers, particularly New Zealanders, hiding in the mountains after the Battle of Crete 1941.
Efstathiadis, and others, publish several other memoirs of the Battle of Crete and the Resistance years – take your pick in the local bookshops.

Novels
Nikos Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek (Faber & Faber, reprinted 1987, ISBN 0 571 05265 7))
Timeless character studies, remade 1960s as a memorable film starring Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Irene Papas. The film was shot at Vamos, near Vrisses, and on the Akrotiri peninsula at Stavros.

Nikos Kazantzakis Freedom and Death (Faber & Faber, reprinted 1983, ISBN 0 571 06679 8)
1890s Crete: revolutionaries, who sense that victory is at last in sight, continue the struggle against Turkish rule.

Ioannis Kondylakis Patouchas (Efstathiadis, 1987)
Traditional shepherding life: young men forced parental decision by abducting their (hopefully willing) brides.