“Cold sea versus challenging gorge”

Cold sea versus challenging gorge
“Nobody ever mentioned that the final reward of the hike would be entering a fridge” I thought to myself.
We were a mosaic-group of 16 people coming all over the world, sharing the same goal on this Saturday dawn: to hike through the longest gorge in Europe, Samaria gorge. Hundreds of people come here each year from April to October, determined to live this “lifetime experience”, as some people call it.
Following the zig-zag, downhill path, made entirely of slippery rocks and wood for about 40 minutes, made us realize why everybody gave us this strange look of disbelief when we mentioned our plan to them. Passing through 16km of rocky pathways while twisting your legs every 2 seconds, most probably wouldn’t be the ideal “lifetime experience” for many. But taking the time to breathe in the oxygen, to smell the invigorating aroma of the cypress’ and pines’ woods, admiring the roughly attractive surroundings, suddenly validates this hike as one of the most thrilling.
Halfway through, I come face to face with a Cretan man dressed in black coming from the opposite direction, riding a donkey while a second one was following right behind; I immediately stop and have my photo camera flashing, trying to capture the moment.
“Why do you shoot him? Have you asked him if he likes publicity?” tells me in a very authoritative tone.
Shocked as I was, and before I manage to say a word, I see his face transforming and a smile appearing under his black mustache.
“Would you like to stride on him and give me the camera to snap a photo of you?” goes on in a very friendly voice, while I am still struggling to find my voice, turning down his offer politely.
We have been walking for almost 4 hours now, struggling to keep up. At this critical point, we reach the most awe-inspiring part of the gorge which gives us the energy to keep going: “Sideroportes (=iron doors), the most narrow part of the gorge which is only 3m wide and up to 700m high.
After “Sideroportes” the gorge becomes wider and the sun shines with all its power upon us. Finally, after about 5 hours, we reach the exit, totally exhausted but proud of ourselves. With an accomplishment smile locked on our faces, we were now heading to the beach of Agia Roumeli facing the Libyan Sea. After so much effort all you want when you see this deep blue sea is to run as fast as you can – that is of course if you can- and dive. As I dive I catch my breath: the water was dead cold, and felt as getting into a freezer.
“Why didn’t anyone mention that the real accomplishment of this whole excursion was to survive the heart-attack from the dive in the end?” I thought to myself trying to adjust my body temperature as fast as possible.