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What the gorge actually is

Samaria cuts through the White Mountains of western Crete, from the Omalos plateau down to the Libyan Sea. The drop is 1,230 metres over sixteen kilometres. Thirteen of those lie inside a national park declared in 1962.

Guidebooks call it the longest gorge in Europe, which depends where you start measuring. Nothing in Greece is longer.

At the Sideroportes, the Iron Gates, the walls close to roughly four metres apart and rise some three hundred above. Halfway down sits Samaria, the village the park emptied. Kri-kri, the wild goat native to Crete, keep to the upper slopes.

How the day works

The top has a road; the bottom has none. The walk ends at Agia Roumeli, a south-coast village that only boats reach. Getting back means a ferry to Chora Sfakion or Sougia and a coach over the mountains.

• The full crossing — five to seven hours downhill from Xyloskalo, then the beach and the boat.
• The short version — landing at Agia Roumeli, up to the Gates and back, four kilometres each way.

Both come with the transfers and the ferry, because there is no sane way to arrange those yourself. Departure is before dawn. From the east of the island the round trip reaches seventeen hours.

Practical

• It is a hard walk. Sixteen kilometres, almost all downhill, on loose river stone. Knees complain, not lungs.
• Season. Open from the first of May to mid-October, weather allowing. Rain shuts it at a morning's notice, because the riverbed floods.
• Timing. The top gate admits full crossings only until early afternoon, and everyone must be out by evening.
• Kit. Proper shoes are not optional and poles help more than people expect. Springs run along the route.
• No exit. Nothing is sold until the bottom, and once you are down the only ways out are forward or on a mule.