Unique Guided Tour

As I mentioned, friendships form fast at the youth hostel in Plakias, Crete. Ameigh, my roommate, introduced me to her friend "Florida James" who now lives most of the year in Plakias. I was treated to an all day guided adventure with our destination of Saint Antonio Gorge. James has a wealth of knowledge of the area, history, flora & fauna, plus great places to eat.

We headed up the hillside to the town of Frati which lies between the two gorges of Koutaliotis and Kotsifos.




It looks like this from the ridge.



A huge old olive tree we met along the way.


Crete has many gorges of which the most famous is Samaria and full of tourist. James and Ameigh swear that Saint Antonio is just as beautiful with less people. I will take their word for it.

At the beginning of the gorge is a church carved into the stone dedicated to, of course, Saint Antonio.


Inside the church


The gorge is magnificent and not sure the pictures do it justice,
but I tried.







After our hike, James knew just the restaurant in Kanevos to stop for dinner. The family invites you into the kitchen to show and explain the different dishes you can choose from. Need I say, I nearly tried everyone! Their cute little daughter with the sweetest smile served us our appetizer and desert. It was by far the best meal I had in Greece :)

We still had some traveling down the mountain and our discussion lead into my not leaving Greece until I tried the Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts. James stopped at a restaurant in Myrthios overlooking Palkias to take care of this. Yum!