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The path in the Samaria Gorge crosses the river in many places (Walk 2)

Along with your water supply, plan your food. For example, a staple like pasta needs more water (and gas cylinder time) for cooking than couscous. (Couscous is seldom found locally – bring your own if you want it.) In remote places aim to keep one litre of water in reserve in case of mishaps or delays. If you are short of water do not eat as this draws on body moisture reserves – being hydrated is much more important than being well fed. Plan gas cylinder supplies to cover daytime brew ups or water boiling as well as cooking.

Types of pathways

Wherever possible, walks in this guide follow footpaths or mule tracks rather than roads.

Unsurfaced shepherds’ roads

These roads link shepherding villages to traditional grazing pastures in the mountains. They enable shepherds to pursue a modern lifestyle: instead of staying up in the mountains for long periods, especially during the milking season, they can drive up in the early morning and bring down the day’s milk yield to the village dairy in the evening – or the other way round. In many places road-making is ongoing according to demand. Maps and route notes are not always able to keep up with it. New access roads slice through former footpath-only routes, leaving a walker having to pick up remaining sections by working out where they went, perhaps now in between loops of a new road. On south-facing barren hillsides new roads take about 40 years to blend into the landscape, but in places where rainfall is higher this process is much faster; any disused tracks are soon overgrown and so become pleasant walking routes.