Our trip to Plakias began early, with a 1.5 hour bus ride across the northern coast of Crete. The landscape is like nothing I have ever seen, and is heartbreaking in its beauty. It is reminiscent of the mountains and southwest of the U.S. and Hawaii all at once.
Located on the edge of the European tectonic plate, it sports soaring cliffs of limestone and massive jutting mountains. Free-ranging goats and wild deer navigate the blade-thin ridges that fall dozens of meters on either side. One turn, just before Plakias, the traffic slowed to 30 kmph and we turned on an abrupt switch back. The vast rolling hills and scrubby pink-flowered bushes gave way to a sudden, breathtaking gorge rising on either side with grey limestone cliff faces.
The wind in Plakias is astronomical, but wonderful. The age of the place is apparent in everything from the pre-historic-looking mountains to the rich red clay dust from the soil blown in from Egypt.
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