Morning everyone. I don't post much but i wanted to share with you all that i completed the Samarian Gorge Walk in Crete on Wednesday. At 57 and being diagnosed now with COPD for 6 years - I've done it.
I cried and i twisted my ankle slightly hobbling down and some uphill bits having constant rests - 10 hours it took me hiking on to a stick and my my partners shoulder towards the end - but made it - last out the gates too (17 km). - this is something i thought i couldn't do BUT i did it. May note doing it again soon though.
I'm still holidaying in Crete recovering with aching muscles that i didn't know i had - but I'm amazed at myself!!! Anything is possible. A good cry at the end was very emosh but i wanted to share on here xxx
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pepparuby1
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My partner has been asking me every year as he did it 8 years ago and i laid by the pool all day but this year i thought oh just do it never say can't or won't and through a very emosh cry quarter of the way down i continued! I was even offered a Mule towards the end which would have been a life line but i thought No just do it
Well done, give yourself a good pat on the back you shoul be so proud of. Yourself for achieving it and so much effort you had to put into it congrats.....👏
Hi pepparuby1 , a great achievement. Just shows what can be done when you put your mind to it. I bet your partner is just as proud of you as you are of yourself.
I hope your ankle recovers quickly and you enjoy the rest of your holiday.
What an achievement,well done. When we went to Crete I wanted to go there but was not quite fit enough. But hopefully will go back soon and have a go😊 xxx
@Damon1864 the Gorge changes every year apparently and the walk halfway down although a bit treacherous underfoot it was the continuous river bed that was hard as the rocks had moved a lot. IF and a big IF i did anything like this again i would wear hiking boots not trainers and get a couple of poles. There were people going down very quickly but they were properly equipped x
@Toci yes a week later I'm congrats to myself at the time i was like ready for a good cry and did i was panting in the end fighting for breath and that was downhill
I am in total awe of you! My husband and I walked the end bit of the gorge some years back and that was quite enough for me, even before COPD!
What a great achievement!
I hope you've spent the rest of the time relaxing on the beach. We've been to Paleochora a couple of times and then we found Plakias which we liked even more, so went there every year. We haven't been since 2010 and I still miss it.
If I ever need a 'happy place' to think about, Plakias is it! In my mind, I do the walk from the hotel to the beach, via the supermarket, then relax on the sun lounger listening to the sea and waiting for the call of the doughnut man! It's got me through many a sleepless night, not to mention a few root canal appointments.
Congratulations on meeting your challenge and shunning the mule - I'd have been on it's back lik a shot!
@MoyB i love Crete we have a villa in a place called Plaka near alymirda beach been coming here for 12 years and every year my fiancé has asked me to do the Samarian Gorge walk with him and I've always said no! He took his boys i stayed by the pool ten years ago and that's before my diagnosis of COPD so this year i have been doing some Zumba which kills me but i feel fantastic after to get some energy. I promise you when i looked down the mountain and gorge i had no idea really what it would be like. About an hour in i went over on my ankle but carried on then my other ankle and kept doing it! I stopped a qtr of the way and cried - damn you COPD and weak ankles and had a really really good cry and then thought - you've got no choice - you can't go up but you can go down - my fiancé made me a stick from a tree which helped but OMG it was ten hours we hobbled down and the mule was a temptation and I'm glad i didn't jump on the
Mule because today my sense of achievement is huge. Next time i walk the ten minutes to the train station i'll think of the gorge and realise i can do anything x
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