Hello everyone,

This is the first in a serie of articles that I plan to post in the near future. They will focus on the numerous walk possibilities offered by the White mountains of Crete. The White Mountains (straight translation from the greek “Lefka Ori”) are a tiny range to the south-west of Crete. It’s tiny to our European standards, compared to the alps or Pyrenees, nevertheless, of the three main ranges in the island, it is the widest and most impressive. What makes these mountains stand aside from the others is a unique blend of unusual features:

•  Some peaks, standing above 2000 meters, are so close to the south coast that, as the crows fly, it’s a matter of 5 to 10 km to the lybian sea.
•  The center of the range is often referred to as a “high desert”. Barren with snow in the winter, stony desolation in summer, vegetation is very scarce and so is water. And yet, this does not prevent herds of goats from grazing there from june to October.
•  Mountains are mostly limestone, highly eroded at places with gorges cutting deep towards the sea.

In this post, I’ll present what is probably the most popular high-mountain walk in the range: Gingilos mountain. Read more.