News from Madara

Madara is the highest, most inaccessible and driest area of ​​the White Mountains (Lefka Ori). On the competition route, it is a section from about 15 to 35 km, i.e. about 20 km long! Each runner will certainly notice it, after the Agkathopi aid station the landscape changes. There are no more trees, and soon you can see no vegetation at all. The gray colors of the bare rocks dominate, sometimes in shades slightly darker, up to almost deep black. This is a completely unique place, unlike any other mountains in Greece and probably no other mountains in Europe. A lunar landscape. It is difficult to say that these are classically rocky mountains like the Alps, Pyrenees or Tatras in Poland. There are practically no vertical walls or sharp ridges here. There is also no “logical” arrangement of the peaks along any clear lines or valleys. Generally, there are no deep valleys, all the peaks rise from a height of about 2,000 m and reach almost 2,500 m above sea level. And there are really many peaks above 2000 meters, different sources give numbers from over 30, through 55 to 58 (depending on how we define the peak and how precise the measurements are. No wonder many observers talk about a sea of ​​peaks stretching to the horizon.

Our route changes character a bit. It is no longer steep, many short sections even lead downwards, although in general we are still gaining altitude, or more precisely, we are conquering the highest peak of Lefka Ori – Pachnes (2453). For the more impatient competitors this may be a difficult time, especially if they keep asking themselves which one is Pachnes? The highest peak is completely invisible for the vast majority of the first part of the Sfakia Sky route, and when finally 1 km before the summit Pachnes becomes visible, it looks completely inconspicuous, barely sticking out beyond the surrounding “sea of ​​peaks”. It is good that volunteers from the checkpoint are waiting there, informing the least oriented competitors that this is it (21 km of the route). It is also worth adding, that Pachnes is the first peak on our route, all that was before were various traverses, plateaus and passes.
Let no one delude themselves that since it was mainly uphill so far, now it will be downhill. There is no shortage of climbs in the second part of the route, we also have a second peak to conquer – Mavri Gourgutha (2435), and the path becomes (even) more technically difficult.
At the point furthest from the finish line – the old shepherd’s settlement Katsiveli – we have a surprise and an unusual reward. A 4-kilogram traditional hard cheese graviera awaits the first competitor who wants to challenge it, i.e. run with it to the finish line. The cheese has a unique taste, it is produced locally in the mountains, from the milk of goats and sheep that eat only high-mountain herbs (so something does grow in Madara after all). However, we warn you that only competitors running around positions 4 to 7 have a chance to take the cheese, and statistics indicate that they will lose several positions with cheese on their backs.

Madara is such an extraordinary area that you not only want to be there, but also try to understand this phenomenon. How is it possible that Madara exists?
As is often the case with particularly exceptional phenomena, the answer is neither simple nor obvious, and the understanding is at least incomplete. The uncertainty concerns the name itself. We mentioned that Madara is the highest area of ​​Lefka Ori, located above 2000 m. However, some sources suggest that Madara is simply another name for the White Mountains (Lefka Ori). The word “Madara” (Greek Μαδάρα) itself is supposed to come from the Cretan dialect and comes from the word μαδαρός meaning “without coverage, bald, bare of any vegetation for high mountain areas”. If this is indeed the case, it is a very old version of the Cretan dialect, since the name Madara – as the name of the mountains – appears already on the Venetian map of Crete by Abraham Ortelius from 1598.

The expression “mountain desert” also has a somewhat perverse character. What kind of desert is this, since according to statistics the annual rainfall here is over 2000 mm? This is a huge amount, exceeding the amount of rainfall in places considered exceptionally humid. How is it possible then that it is so dry here? Most of this precipitation is snow, which lies in the mountains for half a year, but at these latitudes it does not actually melt, but evaporates directly.
The second important element is the geological structure of these mountains – they are mostly various types of limestone, which easily let water through. This is why the landscape of Madara is full of larger or smaller, drainless depressions in the terrain, which in other conditions would create mountain lakes, but here they are completely dry. That is why Madara is full of caves (one of them with very steep walls a few meters from our route – caution is advised around 19 km), headed by the Gourgouthakas and Lion Cave with a depth of more than 1000 m (both not fully explored yet) – the deepest caves in Greece.
The impression of desert is also created by the temperature and intensity of solar radiation. During the summer months, even high in the mountains it can be really hot, there is practically no rain then, and the limestone rocks heat up much more than any other type of ground. It is also worth remembering that Crete is the southernmost part of Europe, in June the sun is 78 degrees above the horizon (optically it is almost vertical), from the top of Pachnes it is closer to Africa than to Athens!

So we have a recipe for a lunar landscape of a mountain desert. It is hardly surprising that in such a unique place half of the plant species that live there (yes, they are there) are endemics, i.e. species that occur exclusively in the White Mountains.
After 35 km of our run we leave Madara and run back into the more classic regions of Crete. Now it is really only downhill to the finish line.

to be continued