A walk to Previli

FRIDAY 19^th DECEMBER

Such a lovely morning we thought a walk through the olive groves below Asomatos following the ‘Preveli’ signs would be great.  Keith decided to park the car on a wide area at the beginning of Kourtaliotis Ravine and then we would walk down the road into the valley below.  It was much further than we thought before we came to the first sign, but hey if we could drop 100 metres to Nisi this was nothing! 

As usual we did a detour following a path that lead down to the banks of the Megas Potomas river which runs through the gorge to eventually flow out to sea at Palm Beach, Preveli.  We discovered a few houses hidden amongst the bamboo and deciduous trees with lots of colourful leaves still hanging on the branches.  We also saw several makeshift tents, one in particular made of heavy duty polythene with a large chimney spurting black smoke coming out of the low roof.  With a washing line of clothes, including a pair of long johns, I am under the impression a man lives here. 

We came to what we thought was the end of the track as a wirefence was across the path but Keith noticed it was not strongly secured and so we passed through to find more signs of people who had been camping along the river bank.  Looking up the hillside to the road running through the gorge we saw another temporary building clinging to the rock face, under a concrete construction that we cannot at the moment identify, and a man tending his garden.  We wondered how he got up there, especially with his shopping. Finding a good place to get closer to the river we were surprised how deep and fast it was flowing considering we have had no rain for such a long period.  On the other side of the bank we saw only one goat with two kids following close behind, but when they spotted us they quickly disappeared into the shrubbery.  Following this path we had hoped we could make our way to the gazebo in the valley that we visited recently, but it was not to be unless we did some serious rock climbing, and so we returned to take the ‘Previli’ route as planned.

 We followed the signs but only ended up in an olive grove just as it began to rain.  The weather forecast had said it would rain at midday, and having discovered it is very reliable, it was right once again.  Luckily there was a newly built church that we could take shelter in.  It might be raining lightly but the sun was still shining and as we looked out of the church doorway we briefly witnessed a rainbow passing through the gorge. Looking back towards Plakias bay, when the rain had stopped, we saw black clouds heading our way and decided now was a good time to return to the car.

Back home the cloud missed ‘Creta Spirit’ and we spent the afternoon on our balcony and witnessed a very colourful sunset.