Richtis Gorge

So yesterday was our birthday – Dad and I - several years ago I popped out so now we share the day. We try to celebrate together but given that I went to boarding school and then moved away, celebrating together has always proved to be somewhat of a challenge. This year, at the very last minute and by the skin of our teeth, we managed to wangle it!

Having gone to all the effort to get us together we had to decide what to do … after a long discussion that went along the lines of whatever it is I don’t want to sit in the car all afternoon.  Dad and I tried to work out what we hadn’t already done that was close to home, we settled on Richtis George.

Richtis is a small yet surprisingly pretty gorge located just below Exo Mouliana. It is about a 15 minute drive from Sitia to Exo Mouliana and takes around 20 mins to descend down to the beach where you start the walk.

Loaded with sandwiches, water, cameras and a dog we started the trek up the gorge. It is quite an easy walk, though there is potential to get your feet wet at various points where you have to jump across the small river as it meanders towards the sea.

The dog was in seventh heaven, running up down and around. Jumping into the river puddles and generally anything which meant that the inside of our car would resemble a mud pit by the time he got home.

We only walked up to the waterfall but you can carry on up the path. At the foot of the waterfall there is a picnic bench which we made good use of, luckily we were the only ones at the waterfall, in fact we almost had the gorge to ourselves only passing a couple of small groups on our way in and no one on our way out.

The nice thing about the walk to the waterfall is that it’s really not that far, it’s shaded, and you don’t have to be superman in terms of fitness to get there. It took us about half an hour to get to the waterfall. 

 

Driving from Sitia towards Heraklion you will find the village of Exo Mouliana. As you’re driving through the village on your right hand side you will see the signs for the beach of Richtis, follow these they will lead you down a very steep road which eventually ends up on the beach. At the bottom of the gorge take a right, after about 15m you will find a parking bay. Leave the car here and start your walk.