The day before yesterday, in the evening, we got a mail from Luca Gianotti. He introduced himself as a walker, and asked if he could come by Kallikratis and see us tthe next day. Ofcourse, we invited him to come by.
He arrived yesterday in the late afternoon here. Luca, with his friend Stelios Georgidakis, have the project to walk the entire length of Crete, from East to West, a trip of 500km.
From Kato Zakros, crossing in the middle of Crete, walking on 3 mountain ranges (Oros Dikti, Oros Idi e Lefka Ori) , till the last part, the most famous, near the sea, with overwelming gorges, to the Monastery of Christoskalitissa. Today is his 19th day on the walk, he has covered more than 250km. His intention is, to revive the old E4 walking paths, to check their conditions and record GPS trails of the paths, which he then will publish free for any walker to use.
We were talking about his walk and experiences, about Crete and nature, about many things while cleaning wild vegetables. He had met our friend Giannis Giannoutsos in Kouses, the guy with the incredible herb shop, and Giannis had told him about us. Later, also Katherina and Antonis from Chania came, and we had dinner, and a great evening together. Luca has a wonderful approach, he calls it slow walking, which sounds most beautiful in Italian 'Movimento lento'.. walk, but do not run, have time to be present in the moment, time to meet people and nature in the now.. still, he covers about 20km daily..
He publishes a blog about his walk, which he updates daily, and which makes a wonderful read, both in Italian and English. The Italian version is daily updated, the English version is always a day or two behind.. have a look, its absolutely worth it, for all Crete lovers and for walkers.. The Italian version is at http://camminacreta.wordpress.com/ and there is a link to the English version on the site...
During the night, it started to pour down and this morning it was still pouring down with rain.. so we had a cozy extended breakfast everyone, waiting for the rain to pause.. as Luca said, that he doesn't mind rain on his walk, but he never starts out when its raining.. Today, he will walk to Askifou, where he will meet up with Stelios Georgidakis again to continue together..
After he had gone though, it again started to rain, and never stopped.. and foggy clouds filled the mountains.. we worried about him.. however, by evening he had arrived safely, but surely completely soaked, in Askifou..
May you have dry weather on your path, Luca..
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