Our day started early - 6:00am - and wouldn't end until we were safely on board a ferry bound for Pireaus.  We packed our bags, had breakfast, stored the bags at the bus station, and boarded the bus to Omalos.  This was the jumping off place for hikers eager to make the six-hour journey from the top of Samaria Gorge all the way to the sea on the southern coast of Crete.  The top part of the gorge was wide, yet quite deep, and filled with evergreens - there were rugged mountains on all sides...

As we descended, the vegetation became more sparse,
and the scenery more dramatic...

We walked through wide areas covered with rocks of all sizes, rounded and smoothed by water flowing through the gorge on its way to the sea during countless rainy seasons.  Many of the thousands of hikers passing through the gorge paused to stack the rocks to form small columns - making the floor of the gorge look like some prehistoric graveyard.  Here Kumiko points out one of the more creatively placed arrangements...

We finally descended to the point where water was flowing through the gorge.  We had to cross the stream several times during our hike, using the somewhat primitive bridges provided...

About halfway through the trek, my left knee started to ache.  At first, I simply thought I twisted it during one of my many missteps on the treacherous ground.  But it bothered me again on another hike - and yet again on another.  I tried to think of what I had done in the past that would have caused a lasting injury.  I hadn't gone out for the various sports in school that are so rough on the joints.  I played tennis for a while, but not enough to aggravate my knee like that.  Maybe all the years of playing Frisbee - with starts and stops much like tennis.  Or maybe it was from so many years riding motorcycles - with my left leg doing all the work of raising and lowering the 800 pound (360 kilo) beast from the side-stand.  Then it dawned on me - motorcycles - October 30, 1993 - bad accident - that must be it!  Especially since my left knee didn't fair so well as it absorbed most of the impact by slamming into the faring - and the hole in my knee as a result of the impact probably didn't help either.  Okay, mystery solved - back to the story...

Speaking of treacherous ground, the photo below shows the view of the gorge most vivid in my memory.  The going was so difficult that we had to watch every step - and we had to stop to look at the scenery.  If we tried to walk and look around at the same time, the results were usually disastrous (not to mention painful).

At long last, we reached the most-photographed part of the gorge - and we certainly took our share of photos.  It is where the high walls of the gorge close to a gap of only 3.5 meters...

Kumiko going in...

...Doug coming out.

Finally, we reached the end - or so we thought...

It turned out to be only an oasis of food and drink stands.  It was still another fifteen minute walk to the town of Agia Roumeli - where we would catch a ferry along the coast to Hora-Sfakion.  When we finally made it to the town-proper, the first sign we saw was for an appropriately named restaurant...

Our long day continued with a bus trip from Hora-Sfakion back to Hania.  We retrieved our bags, had a quick dinner, and boarded the ferry for a night-crossing to Pireaus, the port of Athens, on the mainland.