Almost all tourists going to Crete will be proposed "Safari" offers, which most of the time consist of a formated tour on some off-road paths, accompanied by other surrounding activities such as barbecue, swimming or "typical" cretan willage visit, etc.
Crete is indeed a great island for "soft" off road driving, as good weather and rocky soils guarantee that a good path will last long and will be usable by most vehicules.
There are so many rocky roads that some are even considered standard roads by navigation systems and Google maps.
So I thought it would be more fun to rent an all-terrain vehicle, find a good offroad trail and drive it a my pace, stopping to take pictures when I see fit. Driving alone is also a bit more "thrilling" (well, sort of).
Finding a good offroad itinerary wasn't an easy task however. I couldn't find any information about them on the internet, so I decided to find one myself with the help of Google Maps.
Here's what I the summary of what I found. If you have more info to share, please feel free to comment !
samedi 4 septembre 2010
samedi 28 août 2010
Trail map
Here's a link to the track in Google maps.
And here's a high res capture in case you want to print it or download it for offline use.
The start is at the east, you can see the fields of the Lassithi plateau at the right. The first mark I placed is approximately the end of the most rocky part. The two other marks are places where tracks merge or split. The rule is "stay on the most important one" :-)
And here's a high res capture in case you want to print it or download it for offline use.
The start is at the east, you can see the fields of the Lassithi plateau at the right. The first mark I placed is approximately the end of the most rocky part. The two other marks are places where tracks merge or split. The rule is "stay on the most important one" :-)
lundi 16 août 2010
Trail pictures
Starting point on the Lassithi plateau. Don't trust the "2km" mention... :
A few views from the track :
The Jimny is not a toy one. The track is really 10m+ wide at some places:
Rather hot here, indeed...
Trail information
I would qualify it "easy".
I'm not an experienced off-road driver, but I guess anybody can make it without any problem using just a bit of common sense (drive slowly, choose easiest side of the track, use 4WD Low gear when needed (if available), etc).
Although I personally chose to drive the track going upwards, I strongly advise (and have described it on this blog) going downwards from Lassithi to Kastamonitsa for a few reasons :
I'm not an experienced off-road driver, but I guess anybody can make it without any problem using just a bit of common sense (drive slowly, choose easiest side of the track, use 4WD Low gear when needed (if available), etc).
Although I personally chose to drive the track going upwards, I strongly advise (and have described it on this blog) going downwards from Lassithi to Kastamonitsa for a few reasons :
 |
| Starting point. Don't trust the "2km"though ! |
- The start on the Lassithi plateau is much easier to find than the end, and it even has a road sign indicating the trail, as can be seen on the pictures (though it says "2km" which is plain wrong. I guess a second digit is missing, and it should read "20km", which according to me is slightly over-estimated...)
- The part near the Lassithi plateau is the hardest. In the 0-4km section, you drive on the raw rock. After that, the path looks more and more like roadworks in progress. It has been levelled and is wide, even much wider than some normal Cretan roads in several places. So if you don't feel like turning back during the first 4km, I don't see a reason for stopping after that.
- Going downhill probably gives much more beautiful views on the valley while driving.
Trail facts
The trail is about 16km long.
It starts from the Lassithi plateau, at the North-West corner of the road around the plateau, a point near Kato Metochi. It is situated about 35km in a straight line to the South-East of Iraklio (55 km by normal road via Malia) or 20km in a straight line to the West of Agios Nikolaos (55 km by normal road via Neapoli). The plateau is a really nice place about 800m above the sea level, it is worth visiting as a place on its own. There is plenty of information about it on the net, so just Google for it :-)
The trail ends near Kastamonitsa, 45km from Iraklio via Chersonissos and Kastelli (advised itinerary to drive back, otherwise some GPS will route you back using other offroad tracks... Which is maybe not a bad idea, after all :-)).
I admit I didn't spend much time there but it's much less touristic so it's probably really representative of today's life in Crete.
It took me about 1h30 to drive the track itself, but I spent most of the time taking pictures rather than driving :-)
It starts from the Lassithi plateau, at the North-West corner of the road around the plateau, a point near Kato Metochi. It is situated about 35km in a straight line to the South-East of Iraklio (55 km by normal road via Malia) or 20km in a straight line to the West of Agios Nikolaos (55 km by normal road via Neapoli). The plateau is a really nice place about 800m above the sea level, it is worth visiting as a place on its own. There is plenty of information about it on the net, so just Google for it :-)
The trail ends near Kastamonitsa, 45km from Iraklio via Chersonissos and Kastelli (advised itinerary to drive back, otherwise some GPS will route you back using other offroad tracks... Which is maybe not a bad idea, after all :-)).
I admit I didn't spend much time there but it's much less touristic so it's probably really representative of today's life in Crete.
It took me about 1h30 to drive the track itself, but I spent most of the time taking pictures rather than driving :-)
Important note
If you intend to rent a vehicle, any quad, buggy or 4WD vehicle will do (Suzuki Jimny seems to be the norm) for this itinerary, but some contracts explicitely forbid the use of these vehicles for off-road driving, or state that insurance will be void in this case.
You probably find that as silly as I do, but better read the small print before signing...
You probably find that as silly as I do, but better read the small print before signing...
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)