Zonari – Neraidogoula Cave

It is another unknown but beautiful route in the forest of Selakano. This time we will cross a large section in the southern part of the forested valley of Selakano.
The access to the starting point of the hike is via a dirt road from Metaxochori and a vehicle that can cope with a dirt road of moderate condition is required. There is also access by a dirt road, from the south, from the village of Riza and further through the settlement of Karydi, but the last 1.5 km is in bad condition.

We leave the vehicle at the starting point (see the map below) which is on the Zonari stream, which stream a little further down forms a canyon that can only be crossed by someone with technical equipment. The Zonari stream ends up joining the Myrtos river which passes through the beautiful Sarakina gorge.

From this point and already at an altitude of 750m we start and walk on a dirt road (which is not recorded on Google maps) that heads northwest, through the Zonari stream. The forest presents us with amazing sights and smells as we climb into a beautiful environment with pines and privets scattered along the stream bed.

The route on the dirt road is about 4km long until its end, and at 1050m altitude, a well-formed and distinct path begins along its entire length, which leads us deeper into the heart of the forest.

This is the most impressive part of the route because we are moving completely under huge pine trees. The species of the tree is “spine pine”, which is found mainly on the leeward southern slopes of the great mountain ranges of Crete, where it is protected from the moisture of the northern winds. If you look in some places, on the north side of the trees, moss has grown, and this is where the best honey comes out, due to the fermentations, from the bite of a bacterium on the trunk of the tree.

In a little while we reach the highest point (1227m) of the route where we are at the intersection of 3 paths. The path with an eastern direction brings us after 150m to a place where the landscape forms a beautiful natural balcony at “Spyridou to Haraki” with an impressive view of the entire forest. The 2nd path descends in a direction initially north and then northeast and goes to Selakano settlement. The 3rd path heads south, goes for a while parallel to the stream of Linaras and in a short time we arrive in its bed where the Neraidogoulas cave is located at an altitude of 1221m.