Klub Podróży HORYZONTY.pl

Kreta

Photo expedition: Labyrinths of Crete

8 days (September 29 - October 6, 2014, Mon-Mon)

About the expedition

- Chania - the most beautiful city of Crete
- Elafonisi Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on the island
- Samaria Gorge - the longest gorge in Europe
- Loutro - picturesque village "like from a fairy tale"
- Delicious Cretan cuisine (and the art of photographing it)
- Outdoor workshop and photography workshops with instructors

The most beautiful beaches of Western Crete, the famous Venetian port in Chania, picturesque towns dating back to the Roman times, Minoan ruins, the longest gorge in Europe - we will photograph all this in the best light, without rush, relaxing in the Mediterranean climate and ... Mediterranean cuisine.

Crete unknown

The largest Greek island is only apparently photographed by crowds of tourists. We'll be in places where tours don't arrive. We will also have much more time to taste Mediterranean landscapes, photographic exploration of over 5000 years of culture, and we will spend much more time crossing the famous Samaria gorge than tourist groups have. We will descend to the monumental Koutsomatados gorge, spend the night in a former fishing village by the Libyan Sea, we will visit mountain villages and ancient ruins.

Photography is fun

The stationary base in the hotel will create opportunities for both leisure and photographic education, discussions and lectures that will precede and summarize the daily photo sessions. There will be time for portrait sessions, landscape composition classes, long-exposure exercises, and if the weather doesn't cut us out - for astrophotography. Dinners in local taverns overlooking the sea will be a delight both for the palate and for the eyes, becoming ... the subject of subsequent photo sessions.

For everyone!

This is not a holiday, but if someone is considering taking their child to one of the photo tours, West Crete will be the best choice. An attractive program and unhurried pace of sightseeing will ensure that the accompanying persons will not be bored, even if they are not interested in taking pictures. The program is not physically exhausting, and the only attraction that requires working knees (going down the Samaria Gorge) can be avoided by going to Loutro first by bus and then by ferry.

Program

P3050552.jpg Day 1 - September 29, 2014, Mon Flight to Chania in Crete and transfer to the hotel. During your stay on the North Coast, Molosbay **** Hotel will be your starting point and relaxation. Evening session: "Everything you wanted to know about photography, but you had nobody to ask".
P3040906.jpg Day 2 - September 30, 2014, Tue, Chania. Chania, Aptera and Chania again. Chania at dawn - sunrise in the most beautiful port of Crete. The only opportunity to photograph this place with almost no people. We will set off for the session before dawn, taking breakfast packages from the hotel. Then we drive to Aptera - excavations of the Minoan city, whose origins date back to the 14th century BC. In addition to the ruins of the Roman theater, tanks and temples, you can also admire the view of Souda Bay and the NATO naval base. In the afternoon, we return to Chania for a walk among the historic architecture of the center of the most beautiful city in Crete, we photograph the sunset and the night panorama of the city and the port at the "blue hour".
Aptera
P4040344.jpg Day 3 - October 1, 2014, Wed, Kournas - Argiropoulis - Giorgiopoulis. Kournas - a lake among mountains with different colored water, where you can rent a pedalo or canoe and go for a swim, looking for the turtles that live there. Later, Argiropoulis - a charming village in the mountains, where everyone settled, from Dorians, through Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, because it is one of the few towns with an abundance of fresh water. Apart from the waterfalls (rather small and not entirely natural), there are remains of Roman and Venetian buildings, a picturesque Roman necropolis under a giant plane tree, and the village itself, located on the hills, is picturesque. It is one of the greenest places in Crete. In the afternoon, drive to Giorgiopoulis and photograph the shrine on the causeway reaching out to sea.
P4040380.jpg Day 4 - October 2, 2014, Thu, Koutsomatados - Hagia Sophia - Elafonisi - Kissamos. All offices take all offices to the Elafonisi beach, because the beach is really nice - colorful sand, gentle descent to the water, large, very shallow areas. But first we will stop more or less halfway, in the deepest point of the very impressive Koutsomatados gorge, there we go down and photograph the gorge with the stream flowing through it. Later we take photos of the Hagia Sophia cave (a very impressive cave with stalagmites and stalactites), and even later we go to the Elafonisi beach, where we stay until late afternoon. An opportunity to take photos just above the water level - you can not be afraid to enter the water with the camera, because it is very calm and you can see the bottom. All sightseeing buses leave Elafonisi at 4pm, but we can stay longer (as we'll arrive later than a typical tour bus).
In the Hagia Sophia cave
P4040407.jpg Day 5 - October 3, 2014, Fri, Samaria Gorge - Loutro.. The hit of the program: the Samaria Gorge in a photographic way! We will pass the longest gorge in Europe without rushing, because we will have much more time than regular trips. Typical tourists have 8 hours to cross the gorge, we will have 3 more hours at their disposal, which is enough for a quiet trekking and photographing along the way. We go through a 16-kilometer long gorge taking photos. Then we pack up for the ferry (at the end of the Samaria gorge there is the village of Agia Roumeli, to which there is no road access, transport only by ferry) and sail, but not where everyone else, but get off one village earlier - in Loutro.
For those who do not feel strong enough to hike the Samaria Gorge, bypassing the Samaria Gorge, sail to Loutro, where they meet a group that passed through the gorge.
The end of the Samaria Gorge
P3050430.jpg Days 6 and 7 - October 4-5, 2014, Sat-Sun, Loutro. Loutro. Loutro is a village like a fairy tale: a dozen or so white houses in a picturesque bay surrounded by a high rocky cliff. We spend two nights in Loutro, so you need to bring a change of linen and toilet necessities. The next day, after our arrival, we take a bath in the cove, rest or - for those without calves - we go to photograph the ruins of the ancient Finix. You can also take a "water taxi" to one of the nearby beaches, rent a canoe or go there on foot - there is a path. Those who are more tired after Samaria can take their first day of relaxation, sunbathing and rest, and only in the evening "Loutro by night" and only Finix the next day. At dawn on the seventh day, the session is at sunrise, and in the late evening we do a night shooting session of the stars (if there are no clouds). At the end of the second day of stay in Loutro, we board the afternoon ferry, reach Hora Sfakion, transfer to the hotel.
Breakfast on the terrace of the Blue House in Loutro
P3050571.jpg Day 8 - October 6, 2014, Mon, Transfer to the airport and return to Poland
Selfie on the Ryanair plane

Conditions

Number of participants: 15 people + 2 guides

Guides and photo support:

Ewa Prus i Piotr Dębek Ewa Prus and Piotr Dębek After studying Roman and German studies, Ewa switched from languages ​​to photography - because one picture is worth a thousand words. Piotr soaked up photography when he was a few years old, assisting his father in the darkroom - he remembers the smell of reagents well to this day and appreciates digital photography even more. For over a decade, since 2002, first in the monthly "CHIP", then "CHIP Foto Video Digital" (which changed into "Digital Foto Video" and later "FOTO PLUS"), they popularize photography with hundreds of guide and workshop articles. They are the authors of several books on photography and a growing number of e-books. Together, they have been running photography workshops since 2010, and photo expeditions since 2011. Their favorite landscapes are the hills of Tuscany, Iceland's waterfalls and the coasts of Greek islands, and they like the alleys of cities in every part of the world. They write about travel photography not only on the blog www.ewaipiotr.pl

After the trip:

Common photo on the narrow quayside of the Blue House in Loutro

K14P_5489_to-kreta_a.jpg

In the photo, from the left: Marek, Agnieszka, Ania, Ewa, Marzena, Adam, boss of Blue House, Ewa, Ilona, Katarzyna, Aleksandra, Jerzy, Barbara, Aneta
First row from the left: Piotr, Magdalena, Mirela, Dariusz