Walking on a DREAM

The best way to experience Crete’s oregano-scented villages is on foot, writes LIBBY TRAVERS.

The best taverna in Crete has been built on a rocky outcrop where the Aradena Gorge spills out to the Mediterranean. The arid cliffs stand sentinel over a glassy aquamarine bay. Each morning the sun chairs are laid out on Marmara’s pebble beach, slowly filling as hikers make their way out of the gorge; their swim to be chased by one of the best lunches on the island. There are only two ways into this gustatory paradise: by boat or by foot.

Crete is an island that rewards the hiker, with trails that zigzag all over. At 240 kilometres from east to west, it’s the largest island in Greece and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean, taking in fertile valleys and deep gorges along with a considerable mountain range in the middle that rises to 2400 metres.

Its size and geographical contrast allows for incredible biodiversity. Home to thousands of species of plants, some 10 per cent are only found in Crete. You sit to draw your breath and that breath is clouded with the perfume of the surrounding thyme and wild oregano. This biodiversity in turn rewards the curious diner.

On my first trip to Crete, I spent a month in the tiny seaside village of Loutro, on the raw and rugged southern coast. The tourist season had not yet begun and I had the town largely to myself. We – the hoteliers, restaurateurs, fishermen, cooks and I – were often held captive by the sea and the winds, sometimes for one day, sometimes for five (there are no roads to Loutro, only goat tracks and the sea). I learnt to walk for my supper.