#travelalltheway – Live Crete Alive

April 21, 2021

Fodele’s nature

When I woke up this morning my mood wasn’t in a very good condition….. or maybe I can say that I did not have any mood at all, not to get up or make breakfast, not to work in the garden as I had planed to…. the only thing I did do was sit on the sofa …. doing nothing, so I thought that today was going to be a very lazy, lazy day. And as I knew that a friend would come by to go find a waterfall close to my village, I decided to call it off.

Luckily she arrived just as I was dialing her number, she also brought some sandwiches so we could have a pick-nick, so calling of was not an option.

We didn’t really know where to start as our direction and google maps were not very clear, so we decided to start walking where the river flows as the water of the fall falls into the river.

We were told that we could reach it through the water, but after a while we saw that that was not an option.

Back at our start point we took the car and drove up, for about 3km, where we saw a mud road going to the right, an off road with lots off stones and holes and small waterflows, BEAUTIFULL!!!!!

You beter use a jeep to take this road!!

After driving for about 10 minutes over this road we decided to park the car and continue by foot, that’s what google maps adviced us. Believing in G maps again we started walking…… Wrong way!!! We returned to the car and started listening to the sounds around us, we both thought we heard water falling so we took the other direction, and then we came up to this small “waterfall”

After shooting this little one we followed the river further up and……….. there it was!!! a larger waterfall, probably not yet The One but the place we found was amazing beautiful, take a look yourself

We did not find the right waterfall yet but this place is also a pearl in Crete.

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

A picture from Gramvousa

These 2 pictures have been taken within a difference of 1 week exactly.

September 23, 2019December 1, 2019

Excursion must-know for Crete

When you buy an excursion be sure you get the right information from the seller.

A lot of sellers won’t give you all the information. Here are some examples of what they may forget to tell you:

extra fees, for example : entrance fees, travel taxes, a meal that is not included, a boat trip fee, etc.
that the duration of the pick up (before the excursion starts) can take one hour or more.
that the guide will not speak only your language in the bus, but also 2 or 3 other languages.
the duration of the excursion. (the giving of a false return time is very common)
that you can’t pay everywhere with a credit card.
that cash money will be gathered in the bus by the guide.
if you will be the first or last ones on the pick up list.
If your hotel is at the end of the list you may ask if they can arrange 2 seats together. (unless you don’t mind sitting apart during the whole trip.

Here is already some more information about beach excursions on Crete.

Have with you of course your bathing suit (we have only very few nudist beaches and no organised excursion will take you there 😉) and instead of taking a towel (takes a lot of space in your bag and is quit heavy) take a large scarf to lay on, they dry fast and or very light. You will also need a pair of surf shoes because at nearly all the beaches here there are rocks in the water. Most of the beaches have sunbeds and umbrellas, but then if you don’t want to be all the time with a lot of people around you buy yourself an umbrella (they’re not expensive) so you can find yourself a quit spot on the beach. The waters in Crete are very clear so take a diving mask with you!

If you want to go for a walk in the mountains then this is what you will need.

First of all take enough water with you as also some nuts and raisons, these are light to take with you and a perfect energy source. Make sure you wear walking shoes ( no brand new onces please) and use walking sticks if you have (they will help you stepping down from rocks and stones). Protect yourself against the sun (not only your head but your whole body) by covering yourself and you should also protect yourself against the heat, so take a small towel with you that you can make wet from time to time and put it in your neck, not on your head! If you go into the mountains without a guide (something I do not recommend) take a compass with you or download one on your phone and inform some people of the hike you’re going to do.

So before you book an excursion be sure to ask about these points or try to look them up on the internet. This is easy to do for entrance fees and for distances, so you can figure out by yourself the extra money you will need, and the return time of the excursion you want to do.

And the most easy way is to send me an email to livecretealive@outlook.com with your questions about excursions organised in Crete. I will answer you accurate and within a day.

But first of all enjoy your stay in Crete!!!!!!

April 20, 2019April 21, 2019

Having lunch with sheppard Andrea

Yesterday I went on a trip up on the Psiloritis mountain to have lunch with sheppard Andreas. He lives in the village Livadia in the Idi mountains and he has been a sheppard for his whole life. He loves being out there in the nature high up in the mountains

with his sheep and goats. Together with his brothers they have around 3000 animals to take care of. Today 200 of them are already up on the mountain where Andreas milks all 200 of them twice a day and they give him each time around 100 liter of good quality milk. The other animals are still on the land they have further down the mountain and they will be brought up until the end of April.

Andreas will be milking the animals twice a day until the end of May and then for about one more month he will milk them once a day. From the month of July on the animals will mate, so they won’t give any milk until they give birth about 5 months later.

During the months that the animals don’t give milk Andreas still goes up to give them extra food and water but also because he loves being up there.

His family also built a chapel there, a saint George chapel.

Close to the chapel there stands a very large Stone Oak tree where you can enjoy the real sheppard’s lunch called antichristo. Which is lamb that is cooked next to the fire instead of on the fire. No herbs are needed during the preparation of the meat as his animals eat lots of herbs during their time in the mountains. Andreas is a very good cook and also very good company, he likes to talk about his life and work up there on the Psiloritis.