When we arrived in Lassithi we decided it would be lots of fun if we went for a hike up Karfi, a small peak with a spectacular view of the plateau and the northern coast of Crete.

The road to the hike began near the village of Tzermiado. The road was a tiny one lane road that winded itself up slowly up the mountain leading to a Stavros Church. We were supposed to get off the road before we got to the church and take a dirt road, but we misread the instructions. We knew we had misread the instructions when we reached a dead end

and I had to do a three point turn in my Nissan Micra (huzzah for small cars!).

The hike began in a small valley near a much smaller church off the main road.

The hike was extremely easy to follow

with lots of goats pointing the way

The guide book claimed that there was plenty of shade on the mountain for a picnic. We found no shade except for this tree:

 

I suppose if you consider that you are on a mountain top in Crete which was deforested in the Minoan era the mountain looks downright lush with this lone tree providing shade …

There were many pretty flowers, that I could not resist taking pictures of.

We finally reached a fork in the road with a sign that pointed to Karfi

The only problem is that Karfi was in the opposite direction of the arrow (or so we think based on our guide book) and looks like this

Unfortunately we only discovered our mistake on the way down from this other peak.

At the top of the mountain

we took a group photo

Unfortunately, in our first attempt, I tripped and fell before I could get to my spot next to Andrew. Funnily enough the camera was able to take a picture of the reaction of my wife and Andrew to my fall

Which looked more gruesome than it was.

While on the top of the mountain I did put together this 300 degree panorama that looks kinda cool

The way down was uneventful, and after my fall, I wasn’t that interested in taking any more pictures.