Читать книгу The High Mountains of Crete. The White Mountains, Psiloritis and Lassithi Mountains онлайн

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Footpaths

These are footpaths used by local, or recreational, walkers, as well as animals. Nowadays most of these paths in the more vegetated areas of Crete have become overgrown through disuse and lack of maintenance. With any luck, brambles are not involved and you can still get through in spite of various unwelcome plants such as Jerusalem sage or spiny broom. If you get caught in this undergrowth, don’t panic – move through it very slowly and you won’t get scratched. South-facing hillsides of Crete, having lower rainfall and terrain classed as steppe, have been able to keep, and even re-develop, many old footpaths for ‘walking tourism’. There are ‘splintered paths’ formed by flocks of sheep as they pass up and down mountainsides and you will see other paths, such as those made by goats crossing scree slopes and crags, which are unsafe for walkers. See ‘Maps’ for further information on footpaths.

Fences

Many people who own fields and mountain grazing areas have taken to fencing off their land. Unfortunately, this has blocked-off many footpath routes and even access tracks. Fences may be made out of (rusty) steel wire sheets (otherwise made for use with concrete) supported with iron rods at intervals, the whole fixed together with wire, or, alternatively, seriously tough galvanized netting. As a rule, gates are not fitted unless a fence crosses a car track, in which case it might be locked to deter animal rustlers. Instead, for pedestrian access, there will be a panel somewhere with wire fixings that can be opened and closed. Sometimes not even this is provided, but it is worth looking for it. For walkers, these new fences in the countryside prove the worth of the designated E4 Trail, beleaguered though it is in many places.