News from Madara

After only 300 m of running we leave Loutro, or to be more precise, we leave the seaside boulevard. The route turns sharply to the left and begins to climb narrow streets, which are actually a sequence of stairs, only occasionally interspersed with flat sections. However, all this only lasts a moment, Loutro is a microscopic village, we pass the last house and a gate protecting the inhabitants from the invasion of sheep and goats. In front of us stretches a steep rocky slope, devoid of trees, yellow-brown in color, separating the coast of the island from the interior. From a distance, there is no path visible there, it is hard to believe that we will somehow manage to get to the other side. However, the path does exist, it winds through many bends, and by Cretan standards – it is even quite wide and comfortable. In many sections it is a well-preserved ancient kalderimi, what means a stone road. Crete once had hundreds of kilometers of such roads, and there were even more of them throughout Greece.

We run up a clear pass and we have… an asphalt road! The change is incredible. A large, almost flat valley stretches out in front of us with the village of Anopoli in the middle – our first refreshment station. (5 km from the start). The valley is surprisingly green, full of trees, mainly olives and fruit. Now it is a small village but once it was a large city, one of the most important in Crete with a history dating back thousands of years.

We only run through Anopoli for a moment, but it is worth realizing that two kilometers to the west stretches one of the most beautiful gorges in Crete – Aradena, with a bridge hanging over the abyss and the possibility of bungee jumping and a village of the same name abandoned due to vendetta. And 5 km further there is the village of AgiosIoanis – one of the most remote villages from civilization and a great starting point for trips to the White Mountains.

The road on this section is almost flat, so we move quite quickly. We run through a pine forest, another food station called Porolango and the real mountains begin. At the beginning we have a narrow, V-shaped valley that cuts into the steep slopes. There are still a lot of trees there, so sometimes you can find some shade. Generally, however, the path becomes hellishly difficult technically. Endless serpentines and stones, huge amounts of stones, both moving, escaping from under your feet with each subsequent step, and more dangerous ones, rooted in the ground like columns of ancient temples, so every snag threatens to fall.

From the bottom of the valley you can’t see much and maybe it’s better because you can focus on gaining height (over a distance of 5 km we cover almost 1000 m vertically). It is also possible that this steep climb is mainly to mentally prepare ourselves for what awaits us in a moment, which certainly cannot be predicted or expected when someone is here for the first time. The terrain slowly flattens out, there are fewer and fewer trees and bushes, and finally you can’t even see any plants. Before us stretches a huge area of ​​dry, gray, stony landscape straight from the Moon called Madara. A completely unique place, unlike anything in Greece or Europe. Without a doubt the biggest attraction of the Sfakia Sky Marathon, the main reason we run here.

To be continued.

The first part of our story you can find here