Mountain Walk along Rouvas Gorge -forest

The gorge of Rouvas  or Agios Nikolaos or Gafaris  , is the most important gorge of Psiloritis and central Crete.  This is an ecosystem with rich flora and fauna, smaller canyons and interesting geological formations and cliffs of rare beauty.  It has a total length of 4,  km one way from start point at eleonas country village .

the walk is  along the river bed, which has a lot of water on spring and several waterfalls and ponds are formed. On the way we pass a  wooden bridge and continue in lush green gorge until we reach the heart of the Rouvas forest and the  church of Agios Ioannis (St. John) .

The forest of Rouvas,  is an important ecosystem of holly  trees of national interest. The forest area covers about 30,000 acres. The rarity of the forest of Rouvas is related to the fact that holly trees escaped from the bushy typical shape and size and acquired characteristics and sizes different from those used in Greece.

At St. John there is the homonym old chapel and the surrounding prairie is ideal for picnic and resting.
From St. John you have to  walk  the same way back.

  • Start point : Eleonas country village
  • Suggested  visiting : April to November  
  • walking :  9 km
  • Route duration : 4-5 hours
  • Degree of difficulty: 4/5
  • Altitude: ranges from 400 m to 1100m