We awoke to a very windy but clear day. Our plan was to take a taxi up to Sto Scholeio, Schoolhouse Restaurant in Anidri, situated at the top of the gorge, which leads down to the beaches of Gialiskari where we hiked a few days ago. It is 5.5 km from Paleochora. Our plan was to have lunch and then hike downhill to our hotel. We arrived at 12:15 but the kitchen doesn't start taking food orders until 1pm. We had our pick of tables overlooking the gorge with the sea off in the distance. It’s a funky restaurant with brightly coloured tables. The centre of the restaurant is a 600+ year old olive tree, which provided the dapple shade as we shared a beer.
The menu was extensive with traditional Greek selections dominating. We had read about the restaurant which came highly recommended. Jill had the baked chicken in beer and honey. I went with their most popular main, Tsigariasto, “goat cooked in traditional way”. The goat was absolutely delicious. I love goat, so scrumptious. Jill also enjoyed her chicken as did the cat. I have been wanting to have a Greek coffee and this was my opportunity to accompany the small complimentary sweet cakes. Greek coffee is boiled and somewhat gritty. You can have it pre-sweetened, medium or sweet, mine was medium. Jill didn't like it as it is an acquired taste. I enjoyed it. It was now time for our hike down.
We checked the time, 2:30. We estimated that it would take us 1 hour to get to the bottom and then another 30 minutes along the coast to our hotel. It was a beautiful hike. As we started out, we had 100 year old olive trees to the right of us and 400 to 600 year old olive trees to the left of us. We met some beautiful roosters and goats along the way. It was hot but the strong wind at our backs was almost pushing us along and cooling us at the same time. More than once I wondered to myself whether we had made the right decision to do this long hike but we hung in there. Crossing the road several times to catch some shade as we walked. We then entered the canyon portion of our descent. It was beautiful. A shame that pictures do not show the grandeur as we felt it. As we reached the coastal road we were relieved that we had just half an hour to go. We opted for showers and drank lots of water in our air conditioned room rather than a swim. An early evening snack was all we needed to get us to breakfast for our last day in paradise.
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