Hanging onto Crete by Michelle Ward-Kantor
Please note that “Hanging on to Crete” is a memoir of a hike from twenty years ago. You can read current, specific, details about the area here:
http://www.west-crete.com/samaria-gorge.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samari%C3%A1_Gorge
Hanging onto Crete
by Michelle Ward-Kantor
It was with trepidation that I stayed behind on the island of Crete 20 years ago, watching my girlfriends as they boarded a boat that would take them back to the mainland. They would later fly back to Canada, leaving me to wonder at my decision to stay behind, the only thing connecting me to home being the Canadian flag sewn onto my blue backpack.
My mind is fuzzy on details after all this time, but I still hear the insistent beat of the music coming from nightclubs…see the moon hanging in a star-filled sky… …smell the sweetness of the night air….recognize the slight feeling of panic as I feel a thirst unlike any I’ve felt before. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Shortly after my friends left to return to Canada, I met up with several people, including Adam from New York City, Claudia and friend from Germany and an Australian brother and sister whose names I cannot remember, but who surely were related to Crocodile Dundee. The world of backpackers is one of instant camaraderie and we all bonded quickly, so quickly that we decided we must travel together for the next few days. After hiking through the Samaria Gorge, we decided we would walk to the next village the following day. I recall we got the idea, and some sketchy directions, from a fellow backpacker. “It takes a few hours,” he told us. “Bring lots of water.”
We set off early the next morning, armed with our day packs, which included essentials such as sunblock, bread, cheese, fruit and water. There was no map of the island. With great gusto, we walked under a cloudless sky, which remained so as the day progressed. We sipped on our water, careful not to take too much at one time, energized by the relatively cool morning, the scenery around us and the feeling that here we were, six nomads of the earth, bound together by a single-mindedness of purpose.
As the morning wore on, the slope got rockier and our feet got achier. Our day packs felt heavier,
our armpits stickier. Our water bottles were soon empty. After a couple of hours, one of us finally admitted out loud, “Where the hell are we?” None of us knew. How had we missed the path we were supposed to be on? We agreed we should have been at the next village by now. Instead, we had taken the cliff-side tour and were now hiking right alongside the sky, that is to say, the timing would have been perfect if one of us had wanted to try cliff-diving into the sea below.
Well, cliff diving was out, however rock climbing was the only thing we could do to get ourselves out of this mess. Claudia had the worst time of it, as she was deathly afraid of heights. Maybe it was because she and her friend were several years younger than me that I felt obligated to reassure them, although Vertigo wasn’t my favorite movie either. Brother and Sister Dundee did just fine, and Adam was just slightly put out that he had to ruin a white T-shirt by sweating all over it.
Angels watched over us that day, because when we finally reached the beach below, we discovered a fresh water spring among the rocks. We later discovered the town and yes, we had taken the wrong “path”. Locals told us we should never have attempted to walk on a day like that, when the mercury had reached 30 degrees.
We all made membership in the mountain goat club that morning as we inched our way down those sharp cliffs, helping to guide each other’s feet. One slip and any of us might be telling a different story, or perhaps no story at all.
Travel Info from Michelle: Crete is just one of the beautiful islands in the Greek Isles. To reach the Samaria Gorge, we took a bus from Chania to the top of the Samaria Gorge. After hiking through the gorge, we stayed overnight in Sfakia, then hiked around the southern part of the island to the next town, staying in small pensions. We hitch-hiked and took the bus during our travels around Crete. That was 20 years ago and I can't vouch for hitch-hiking while traveling nowadays!
Michelle Ward-Kantor is a mom and elementary teacher. Her work has been published in both online and print journals: Still Point Arts Quarterly (will appear July 2011), The Writer’s Block Magazine http://www.thewritersblockmagazine.ca/ (issue #7, January 2011), The Prairie Journal (November 2009), Main Street - McMaster University (2005). She has lived in Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton; London, England and Sydney, Australia. She has traveled within Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. She currently lives in southern Ontario.