The Golden Step

The only plan for Christopher Somerville's walk across Crete was to begin in the East at Easter and finish at Whitsun in the extreme West, at the Monastery of the Golden Step. During the three hundred-mile walk he tackled four mountain ranges and the numerous gorges of the West. Speaking only basic Greek and following a poorly marked path, he relied on his instincts to guide him through shepherding country where villages are few and each night's accommodation uncertain. The result is a book that beautifully evokes a Crete few ever encounter, rugged, perilous, hospitable and charming.