Hikes in Rural Crete

Right out our door, endless hiking, and running for Marc. A very peaceful two weeks in Apostoli, taking advantage of the landscape as we wind our way through small-scale olive groves and vineyards, sunshine for the first 10 days and temperatures averaging 12-15 degrees Celsius. 

Here, local workers finish the olive harvest by hand. Marc came upon these guys while out for his first exploratory run, and they let him help! No English, all learned via sign language.

Part of the vista from our front door. In 2 weeks, we never tired of looking out over this valley, and rarely did it ever look the same. Towards the end of our stay, the temperatures dropped and rains arrived, and the mountains had snow. The square structures along the ridge are ancient markers, and perhaps shelters made of stone for the many shepherds who still guide their sheep and goat flocks through these ranges on a daily basis.

We played a fun Facebook game of "Find Marc!" On our first full day, I went for a short hike up behind the house while Marc opted to read on the roof patio of our apartment. If you look way down in the bottom left, you can see a rooftop railing, and where it meets a corner, there's a blue figure with a yellow strip across his back, which is the backrest of the patio chair. That's Marc!

Small-scale olive groves in this valley and up behind our house. The earth is very very red, almost like PEI. We're not sure if different varieties of olives grow in different soil, because not only are they in the lush valley, they are also all along the mountainside, in places lunar-like in the rocky scrub, growing just fine. All olives are grown for oil, and you'll find 10x10 rows, then a vineyard planting, with that pattern repeated for large swaths of land.  Al. Of the ground is covered in a clover-like ground cover, with beautiful yellow flowers popping their blooms up above the fray.

What do they find to eat?

An olive branch: hard as stone and very bitter. Almost every home has attempts at self-sufficiency in these economic times for Greece, whether it's chickens, sheep, goats, oranges, lemons, cauliflower, broccoli or potatoes. The village of Apostoli is increasingly relying on the barter system of food for families to sustain themselves.

Lunar!

A gorgeous day hike where we figured out the timer on our camera.