Wednesday 26th June

Rather than face another day on the beach, twiddling our thumbs and fidgeting as wait for the day to pass and the holiday to be over, we set out on an adventure of our own making. D had read in our 10 year old Lonely Planet guide about the Avgas Gorge. Accessible off a dirt track to the north of Cape Drepano this provided an objective and promised to be reasonably short.

The drive from Neo Chorio to Agios Georgious was straightforward, but from there the road headed north, and soon disintegrated to a dirt track. The turning off toward the gorge was even rougher and I decided that for the final section discretion was the better part of valour and we would walk in rather than risk the car. If we had had a 4×4 then it would have been a different story but I was concerned that the little Colt would struggle with ground clearance, grip and torque. With the road to the start of the gorge hugging the edge of a cliff I preferred to walk.

Rather than risk taking the car down a steep uneven track on the side of a cliff I decided to leave it here.

Entering the gorge itself there were echoes of Zion Canyon as the walls closed in and the carving effect of the water became obvious. In the shaded canyon it was very pretty, with the stream bubbling along and variety of plant and animal life around. Water seeped out the walls and at one point a huge limescale goitre clung to the side of the canyon. As the canyon narrowed I left D and pushed on, alone, aiming for a patch of sunshine that seemed so close.

After scrambling over large boulders and skirting deep pools of rippling water I made it the sunshine. I could have gone on, but already D appeared a long way away and the route ahead was blocked my more rockfall, so reluctantly I made my way back. The gorge is part of the long distance path E4 and it is possible to scramble out of the end.

Beware of falling rocks, caused by goats grazing on the narrow ledges above the gorge.

We retraced our steps to Agios Georgious and went down to the little harbour, where we paddled along the rocky shore and I swam out into the protected bay. Then it was back to Neo Chorio for a quick swim and lounge by the pool long enough for my shoulders to turn quite red.

After a shower it was up into the village, and although we found the other taverna, Smiyies, at the other end of village (keep left past the church and keep going) we went back to Kouppas for dinner and had another very fine meal.

We bought Baklava from the little shop on the way back to the apartment to go with the cans of Leon beer we had in the fridge.

All the photos from today can be found on my Flickr site.