Pudi ya thaba

I had decided to take the path over the Giglios Pass, as described in my travel guide. The others descended through the Samaria Gorge. According to the description, it should be 1,200m uphill and then 2,700m downhill to Sougia. 22km and 10 hours of pure hiking time. I had planned to make it a two-day tour. I met the others again at Xyloskalo (entrance of the Samaria Gorge). I hiked up and the others went down. At the beginning of my path, there was a nice sign stating that the trail had been renovated in 2020 with EU funding. It was steep, but the path was really well made. After two and a half kilometers, there was a section where the path had slipped a bit. Here, I had to climb, with limited agility due to my 18kg backpack. Holding onto small crevices in the rocks with my fingers and feeling for the next stepping spot with my foot. That was quite exciting and was not in my hiking portfolio before. After that, there was a break. Going up to the pass was fine. There were still a few people on the trail. Then the markings became scarce and I found the path on the slope with a couple who only wanted to go to the pass and back. The travel guide stated that surefootedness was required on the scree slope, but it didn't mention that the safety rope was only attached to one out of five anchor points. Since I was alone, I had to figure out how to pass this section or whether to turn back. Crawling on all fours, with the rope in one hand, seemed doable to me. That really raised the adrenaline level. There was also a passage where the support rope had come loose and I was able to apply my newly acquired skills. During the next orientation break, I sat down on a rock in an unfortunate way, causing my pocket to tear open when getting up and my wallet to roll downhill among a lot of scree. However, I only noticed the missing wallet 2 km later. So I went back again, hoping it might still be within sight and reachable, but unfortunately that was not the case, and my already strenuous tour was now extended by 4 kilometers. But I had left my backpack in a good place and had done the four kilometers without any luggage. It felt like bouncing around as lightly as a mountain goat, and it was really fun. Unfortunately, I was now quite exhausted, and my enjoyment of the extremely beautiful Achlada Valley leading gorge was limited. Quite exhausted, I finally reached my destination after eleven and a half hours. I set up my tent and filtered water for the next day. A herd of sheep then prevented me from falling asleep. I was probably too close to their sleeping place and they had to find something new. It caused a lot of baaing, bell ringing, and chaos, and it took a while until the last sheep found the new spot.