Kritsa is a favourite place to head for in the winter and is the best route to the isolated plateau of Katharo which almost invariably, is our best chance of seeing any snow in Crete. The solitary kafeneion, bedecked with posters of Che Guevara, is the only available place to warm up with a hot coffee and the local 4×4 club race along the melt water filled river beds of the area. Today, however, Katharo would remain in splendid isolation, at least from us. My friend Kostas Argyropoulos, a local mining engineer, had tipped me off about a new road which had recently been completed which I wanted to investigate. Just before the main street in Kritsa, we turned left to ascend the road to Kroustas. With panoramic views to the Gulf of Mirabello and a church jutting out into the road on one of the corners, it is an interesting and spectacular drive. The village itself is one of the few places which seems untouched by the passage of time. Old men sit in the coffee shops sporting knee length leather boots and dressed in the traditional black costume of Cretan villagers. The women of the village prepare horta, a variety of wild plants including dandelion leaves, or pick through fava beans before making their version of pease pudding to be served with onions and drizzled with fresh olive oil.
The road wound down from Kroustas to the forested area with ribbons of sunlight peeking through the autumnal deciduous trees. Already, the first rains had damaged the newly laid road and several areas had been washed away, necessitating caution. A rudely written sign pointed left to Istron, a rough track which leads to Pirgos, which I had travelled on many occasions. But Kostas had advised me to continue on to Prina, a village near Kalamafka, the only place on this part of the island where you can see the Cretan Sea and the Libyan Sea simultaneously. From Prina, we followed a new road to the picturesque village of Meseleri and diverted through winding streets of the village itself before re-joining the new road. To the right the reservoir at Vramiana glistened in the distance. The area is a major market gardening area and a constant water supply is necessary to ensure the quality and quantity of cucumbers, tomatoes and fruit produced near here, much of which ends up on tables in Northern Europe.
The semi-industrialised landscape that is Ierapetra was something of a shock to the system after the sheer natural beauty that we had experienced previously on our journey, but the economics of the town have bestowed an affluent lifestyle on the inhabitants and the sumptuous villas and large houses are testimony to this. We bypassed to the north of the main town and found ourselves on the road to Siteia.
We were, by now, feeling quite hungry and took a left turn to the village of Koutsounari, only to discover nowhere open. We could have turned back to Ierapetra but decided to continue east, through Ferma and Achlia. We arrived at Koutsouras, where there is a well known restaurant called “Robinsons”, but this was also closed. The desire for food, or at least a coffee, was now becoming urgent. We found a place open in Makrigialos but, for reasons best known to ourselves, continued onward towards Siteia.
The road from Makrigialos climbs progressively northwards, with spectacular views of fertile valleys to the west. Churches on monolithic hilltops dot the landscape, many of them built on ancient shrines to the pagan sun god. The taverna at Lithines had a tourist coach parked outside. In the winter Sunday coach trips to religious sites and monasteries are a popular pastime for the older ladies, sometimes accompanied by bawdy songs on the return journey that would make a rugby player blush. Just past the village is the turn to Ziros, leading in turn to the spectacular Xerokampos. Reached by a spiralling road, this is one of the jewels of Crete. Some say reminiscent of the Seychelles, the clear waters and tranquillity of this bay are now being disturbed by the almost inevitable sound of JCBs and concrete mixers as the developers snatch another piece of paradise from our grasp to sell to the highest bidder.
Continuing northwards to Siteia, I slowed the car to be within a few metres of a migrating Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae), perched on the barrier on the roadside. Naturally, it flew away before we had time to really appreciate it, but it was yet another magical moment in our unplanned day. Through Agios Georgios and Maronia, we descended slowly to Siteia, another industrial centre and market town with a large and well respected winery and some of the finest olive oil in Crete. For the first time, despite my many visits to the town, I saw the old Venetian fortress, named Kazarma from the Italian word for “barracks”. This fortress was built to resist invasion by the Turks and withstood a siege for three years (1648 – 1651). It has recently undergone extensive renovation work and nowadays hosts concerts and other events taking place in the town.
It has long been rumoured that Siteia airport will be accepting incoming charter flights so we went to the airport, along an unmade road, to investigate. The airport still bears more resemblance to the military airstrip that it always has been, and flights to this particular area seem to be as distant a prospect as ever. Perhaps it is not a bad thing to preserve the area from mass tourism, although developers have now purchased the area near Vai palm beach and plan to build a huge complex of golf courses, villas and hotels.
The new road, all 3km of it, took us towards home before returning to the old road. Work is ongoing on this project and we passed bridge building projects which, along with the other road improvements and bypasses will reduce the 72 km journey to Agios Nikolaos, the regions capital, to 45 minutes. The sea and mountains glowed red as the sun began to set behind the Lassithi mountains and, as desperation set in, we turned at Sfaka towards the coastal village of Mochlos. We parked and walked past the kafeneions where every head was turned towards the televisions for the live football match. As we turned the corner to the harbour, loud music blared from a pickup truck. As we approached, we found the door wide open and no driver inside and realised that this was the background music for the next kafeneion. Nobody seemed to be taking any notice of the music. They too, were enraptured by the football match.
The tiny village gave us a choice of two tavernas, both facing the island of Agios Nikolaos with its Minoan town ruins. We chose to sit inside, the evening now having a chill in the air and turned to the menus. Lamb with Artichokes and a Mixed Grill were off the menu, so we went for meze of fava and baked feta cheese and tomatoes followed by chicken souvlaki (kebabs) and a huge pork chop, both served with chips, washed down with a vintage diet cola. As usual, half a loaf of bread and some Cretan rusk appeared to keep us going until the food was prepared, along with some delightful pickled anchovies and a rich brown olive pate. As hungry as we were at this stage, we still could not finish everything, particularly the complimentary plate of fruit that came with the bill for EUR23.00 (£16.00, $32.00).
It was dark when we left the taverna and the driving, along with a very full stomach, had left me feeling a little tired. The sign at Paxia Ammos read “Agios Nikolaos 19km”. In half an hour we were home again. It may have been the longest journey we have undertaken to get a bite to eat but it was completely justified by the wonder that is Eastern Crete.
For more information on Eastern Crete, interviews and articles, please contact
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simplycreteholidays ltd
Akti Koundourou & Salaminos 4
72100
Agios Nikolaos
Crete
Greece
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