Wed- walk to town - library, archaeology museum walk around town, 6pm was in leather area in east area ... Not much to see. The Turkish area on the east of oldtown was more interesting cos of it's many archaeological sites. As it was 9pm when I left internet instead of waiting 30mins for the bus I set off to walk.
Wednesay's minor disaster - dropped my smartphone stylus. It was 3Km so after a while I start o run then 5 minutes later I realise I have dropped the stylus .. I walk all the way back but don't find it. So after 8Km of walking I get back to the campsite at 11pm. I have a spare stylus, but I was very annoyed with myself

- Thu- Should be easy day ... Bus to town then use internet ...library PC is so crap ...
Thursday 's minor disaster - waste 2 hours trying to collect money I tried to be clever I had €200 to collect Western Union but cos the Euro has been falling it should be worth €8 extra at this weeks rate. In the morning I had checked the hours of postbank - unusually it doesn't close for lunch, when all the other banks do. 4pm go there But despite having a WU sign they sent me to the post office... I waited and she told me it was not a western union code .... Back to internet .. Should be WU but decide to check Moneygram... There should be 30 agents in town, but 20 closed for siesta however many address wrong .... One branch opens at 5.30pm, But he doesn't turn up, walk 30 minutes to 4 branches same story everytime wait 5+ minutes to get served then they say they only send money even though website says they do payout. Finally after 6.30pm I get money, but even then their system took 10+ minutes. And then they didn't use today's rate, but gave me last weeks... So my clever waiting was a waste of time anyway.

I was supposed to meet George at 9pm, but all this delay stressed me so I took a coke before going back to internet ....then at 8.45pm lost emails turn up so I'm in a rush. The cokes making me pee, so in a rush to the toilet I break my shorts button off. I'm wearing long trousers as well, but their elastic is broken
Thursday 's minor disaster 2 - running down the street with 2 sets of trousers falling down

- Met up with George at 9.10pm - It's always interesting to meet the locals, but our meeting was brief as he wasn't free until after 9pm and I had to run to catch my last bus at 10.20pm ... I was surprised to make it.

- Only after 3 nights did I realise that the campsite was 200m from a nice beach I walked along the beach to catch a bus to Kissamos. I didn't go direct instead I stopped off at 2 villages Gerani and Kolimbari, but there was nothing interesting within 1Km of the bus stops.

http://www.kyrstyninkreta.blogspot.com/
- I too will go to Polyrina so maybe i will try that walk to Sirikari R/T Via the Sirikari Gorge http://www.gps-tour.info/en/tracks/detail.16823.html (good writeup) http://cretanvistas.net/CVNASirikari06.htm an i9nteresting site

Tuesday walked 25Km first along coat to Frango Castelo ..then Imbos Gorge in 1:47 mins to get bus which actually left 45 minutes later that

- Walked the 4Km back to Kisamos then walked/ hitched to Polyrinia Ruined city. Poor explanations meant it wa not an exciting visit.

- Then walked Sirikari Gorge. OK not as good as Imbos 2 hour walk. But I had 2 minor disasters the 1. Finding the path and 2. Once finished the gorge is still 9Km from hitching ... See list of minor disasters.

- At Kalathenes a villager gave me fruit etc and Manuela and her friends gave me a ride to Topolia. Got a hitch down, but still a 2.5Km walk back to camping.

- Walked the 4Km back to Kisamos then walked/ hitched to Polyrinia Ruined city. Poor explanations meant it wa not an exciting visit.

- Then walked Sirikari Gorge. OK not as good as Imbos 2 hour walk. But I had 2 minor disasters the 1. Finding the path and 2. Once finished the gorge is still 9Km from hitching ... See list of minor disasters.

- At Kalathenes a villager gave me fruit etc and Manuela and her friends gave me a ride to Topolia. Got a hitch down, but still a 2.5Km walk back to camping.

Mondays's disaster - it took me 4o minutes to pay at Carrefour - I lost 20 minutes die to the normal waiting they never seem to have enough staff on and they are pretty slow anyway...but today I lost another 20 minutes cos they didn't know the price of their own jam ... I have bought these little packets of jam for 5c many times... but this time at the checkout she didn't recognise them .. "stupidly I went back and checked the shelf, but there wasn't a code there.. so I asked again.. (the code is 5030655 if you get the same problem) it took her another 20 minutes to find this.

Tuesdays's disaster - had to walk extra 3Km cos of bus conductor - My walk started at the village of Platano, but I decided to get off the bus at the village before so I could experience the village...Unfortunately this village has the name Gramvousa which is the same as the famous pennisula nearby .. I bought a ticket to Gramvousa village, but the conductor had me pigeon holed as anothet tourist so ordered me off the bus .. but I wasn't able to explain my village was 3Km further "I shouted twat in my mind" and fumed as I walked the extra 3Km
- Actually now there is a road from the west side to the new windturbines and along the ridge .. So I think other people should drive instead of walking as the book's walking route takes you up a difficult non-path up a gully on the Eastern side.
here is a panorama I took there

- Sorry it'ssideways youtube doesn't have a rotate facility anymore

Tuesdays's disaster 2 - wasted an hour cos of bad info in guidebook - The explanation of the path down wasn't very good ..I found a road going down... but the book was talking about turn right at the big transmission tower towering down... so I tought I'd better climb back up to the tower back at the top, but there was no sign of a path there...at the bottom of the hill I passed the tower he was talking about it was 1/3 the height of the first one

Tuesdays's disaster 3 - bar owner tried to rip me off I stopped at a village and had a small glass of wine.. she charged me the normal 50c .. I did the same at the next village.. even though I asked for a small glass she brought me a bigger glass ... it was bloody awful so I only drank half , then when I asked the price she said 2Euros I put down 1Euro and walked off .... this crap really puts me off using Greek cafes

ISKA Kisamos International Community Events - also many info pages

I was thoping to find a good expat scene here and live here .. but it seems many foreigners have already left cos of the problems and high costs

Wednesday's disaster 1 - Went to Carrefour to buy bread and cheap sausages - but oday is a general strike so they had run out of both

Wednesday's disaster 2 - lost my backup SD card - I found it ..actually I was the internet til 00:30 last night so I'd put it in my bag, but not in the case ..

Friday's disaster - cost 20Km extra walking
- cause : The Kisamos Camping site seemed to have closed down, no notice about opening dates even though the book said April, they didn't answer the phone etc.
- My plan had been to stay then the next day go to the Polyrinia Ruined city and walk the Sirikari Gorge. I tried the site again after 6pm. Another site 4Km away didn't answer the phone either so I walked 2Km and found a place to freecamp, but I still had the problem of where to leave my bag the next day... The bus office might be closed for the May 1st holiday. I suddenly found there was another site 4Km away I called them and they said "come we'll give you a good price". Unconsciously I obeyed this command, reasoning if I freecamped I'd still have to packup and get to the site the next day so I might as well go straight away and perhaps there would be a May Day party. But when I got to town I found the bus schedule was against me.. Even though it was before 8pm there were no buses. The campsite manager told me to hitch, but it got dark as I tried so I had to walk 4Km with my heavy pack.
- There was no special atmosphere or partly at the camping..Yesterday I had to walk the 4Km there and back also. Sunday I same, but when I checked the Kisamos camping it's gates are open.. Damm damm if I had freecamped on Fiday On Saturday morning I would have walked past on the way into town and checked in and left my bag.

Friday's 2nd disaster - In preparation for the supermarkets being closed for 2 days I bought my cornflakess and bread - as I was hitching a pickup pulled up I put my bags in, but the driver couldn't understand my pronouciation so I took my bag out. He drove away, then I realized my shopping was still in the pickup. I was super annoyed with myself. ..... Actually some small shops opened on Saturday, but I had to pay triple price for the cornflakes..... But I suppose villagers also gave me $2 of free food that day also.

Saturday's disaster - I missed the path to Sirikari Gorge so I lost an hour.
- I knew I had to go on the tarmac road and then to the path which would take to the place where the gorge splits with Sirikari Gorge on the right. On all my maps that's where the road ends. I passed a broken sign which could have been to the path, but I continued along the road as it was heading for the gorges. As long as it didn't turn left that would be the right direction. I would ask at the first opportunity. Unfortunately a car pulled up and when I said Sirikari Gorge he took me along the road which suddenly turned left, then he dropped me at the top where the road goes to Sirikari village. Damm I realized the path must be at the broken sign. So I went back a bit and I could see a way to the left gorge and the junction to Sirikari Gorge back 300m. So I cut down a dry waterfall for 30 mins then another 20 minutes back north along a tricky riverbed ..... And voila reached the correct and much easier Sirikari Gorge path. Probably 600m on from where it began. By then it was 4pm . The gorge was wide
...more Grand Canyon than the 2m wide sections of the Imbos Gorge. By 5pm I was at the end of the path.

Saturday's 2nd disaster - It's a 9Km walk back - The problem is Sirikari Gorge doesn't come out at Sirikari Village rather it ends at Sineniana and as you are up in the hills the road has to take a long circuituitous toute around the ridge buttresses created by the gorges fishtailing. It was another 3Km walk to Sirikari Village where paradoxically the east side 2 gorges ends surely that should be called Sirikari Gorge ? I hitched while I walked the 6Km to Kalathenes, but no luck only 2 cars passed me.

- Ah, I see as I left the farm at the end of the gorge I had not taken the the path to the left ..from the book it seems this is a shortcut to Sirikari village so my extra walk would have been 7Km not 9Km

Better Photos than mine