Sometimes I randomly pick adventures to go on without doing much research in advance. This has it’s benefits and its drawbacks!
The first adventure Carolina and I went on outside of Chania was one of these unresearched occasions. I thought we would go on a short, meandering hike to a beautiful, ocean chasm for a nice swim on a hot day. In reality, it was a sun-soaked and complicated path down to unknowingly treacherous waters!
While this hike to Katholiko Bay had some difficult twists and dramatic turns, I still can’t wait to share all the beautiful scenery, the ancient ruins, the cool caves, and the turquoise waters we encountered. In the end, I highly recommend this hike but definitely pay attention to some of the lessons I learned!
Driving To Gouverneto Monastery
The beginning of this hike starts on the Northern side of the Akrotiri peninsula about 19 km outside of Chania at the Gouverneto Monastery.
The drive there was full of exciting moments with kri kri, or Cretan goats, running along the roadside.
There were also bee hive farms speckling the hillsides in the distance.
We noticed on the drive there just how hot Crete gets in midday summers. It was 91-degrees and not a single cloud in the sky or breeze to break the heat. Luckily, we found shade to park Tighty Whitey just outside the monastery.
Built in 1537, the Gouverneto Monastery, also called Our Lady of the Angels, is one of the oldest monasteries in Crete. We paid 2.50 Euros each to enter the area and start the trail.
An Unexpected Journey
Originally, I found this hike by checking out Google Maps photographs along the coastline of Crete. I clicked on Katholiko Bay which brought up photos of a little swimming chasm between rocks that was outrageously beautiful. Now I just had to figure out how to get there!
I was able to identify Gouverneto Monastery as the access point to what looked like a trail right down to the bay.
“What looked like a trail” was key here. What I didn’t realize was that the trail was not a straight path down. And, although Google Maps said it was a 16-minute walk and then a hop-skip-and-a-jump to the bay from there—that is not what it was at all.
First major lesson of this story: Don’t trust Google Maps! Which I guess I should have known from my other recent hiking mishap!
I was still deceived by what the map said at the start of the trail. We could see the ocean ahead and it really didn’t look so far or so challenging. Although the sun was blazing, I was still convinced it was going to be maybe a 30-minute walk at most.
We really did not even have the proper gear for what was to come. We had just 2 bottles of water between us. We didn’t take sunscreen, although we had some on from earlier. And I had one small item to snack on.
Mainly, we came thinking we were going to walk down to a small fjord, enjoy a little swim, then walk back! At the start of the hike, we still didn’t realize how long and sun-soaked this adventure was about to be!
Despite our initial naivety, we stopped to appreciate the sights along the way. We were fixated on the ocean ahead and we could see on a distant hillside across the gorge the Monastery of St. Anthony.
Monastery of St. Anthony
The Church And The Cave
After hiking in the sun for about 20 minutes, we made it to a really cool place—both literally and figuratively!
The sun was piercing hot and the air was thick and unrelenting. But the old ruins of the Panagia Arkoudiotissa Church were attached and embedded right into a cave that gave us a nice spot to cool off.
Church Panagia Arkoudiotissa
The church ruins are built right into the cliff and cave. The chapel inside is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
People still gather for celebrations in the cave, spending the night there and lighting fires. The ceiling is blackened by the smoke from these fires.
This cave once operated as a sanctuary in Crete. It is called Cave Arkoudospilios or Bear Cave because of a stalagmite inside that resembles a bear!
Next to the bear is a collecting pool. Legend tells that the Virgin Mary petrified a bear stealing water from the pool.
Cave inscriptions depict the Greek gods, Apollo and Artemis.
This cave was so nice and chilly to cool off in and to check out all its dark corners before moving on.
The Wrong Way Down
We emerged from the cave back out into the scorching sun and continued our trek down the trail. The trail was mostly a well kept path along the edge of a ravine.
Eventually we got to where the path started leading downward. We could now see more clearly just how much was ahead of us. Glancing at my google maps again, the trail ended here and there was no clear direction on a path down.
The well-kept path also seemed to end here, but we still needed to go down to get to the water straight ahead.
In this next photo, I am clearly in distress already. It’s hot, I’m looking ahead at the trail with no clear path, and I’m realizing how hard this is actually going to be to descend and especially to ascend later!
We pressed on even though I couldn’t help but feel like we were going the wrong way. We ended up navigating a very steep rock scramble downward into the gorge. When we looked to our left, we could see a bridge over the gorge.
Were we supposed to cross that bridge back there?
But how would we have gotten down here?
There didn’t appear to be a clear way down into the gorge but we managed to get here anyway. We decided to keep going and figure it out later.
Looking back at what we just climbed down, we immediately dreaded the way back up!
Anyway, we’d “cross the bridge” when we came to it! For now, we were melting in the sun and dying to get to the ocean for a swim.
Finally To Katholiko Bay
The high sides of the gorge kept us from having a visual on the ocean but we knew it was coming. Eventually, we rounded a corner and there it was—Katholiko Bay.
There were rocks to climb down to get to the water. and the rocks in the water were slippery to walk across. Eventually we made it into the water with our snorkel gear at the ready.
I went in first. The water was clear and cold and beautiful!
Ahhhh! So refreshing. I turned around to watch as Carolina made her way into the water. As she got in, she cried out that she was stung by something. She thought maybe it was one of the wasps nearby.
Eventually she got fully into the water and swam toward me. She complained of her sting and then suddenly said “I think there’s yellow fish in the water!”
“Yellow fish?”
“Yes, I just got stung again!”
“Oh, JELLY fish!” We were only 24 hours reunited and I wasn’t used to her Scandinavian accent yet. “Nawwww, I don’t think there’s jellyfish here. It probably was a wasp or something!”
“OW! Yes! I just got stung again! I am going to get out.”
“Oh seriously? Damn. I don’t see any jellyfish so I’m staying in for a bit.”
Now I was on alert. I searched the waters looking for jellyfish because, despite my bravery I really didn’t want to be wrong! In the video below, you can see me searching the waters for jelly fish.
Do I find one or not?
I don’t know if what I captured at the end there was a jellyfish. What I do know, however, is that I saw at least two once I turned the camera off. I already believed Carolina before this point. I turned around to not take my chances after seeing that last floater.
On my way back I saw the first jellyfish floating just at the surface. It was a white jellyfish, as they are called. It had no color—it was completely clear and about the size of a softball. You’d never notice them in this crystal clear water unless you were really looking and had a snorkel mask to see.
I saw another near where Carolina and I first got in the water, which tracks with when she was stung.
As a few hikers approached, we warned them that there were jellyfish. A few people went in the water anyway. While one of them didn’t get stung, another got stung all over her legs!
It seemed the people who got stung were the ones who floated at the surface and flailed their arms around a lot. For me, I gently kicked along the surface with my arms at my sides from the time I entered the water to the time I got out. I don’t know if this is why I didn’t get stung but who knows!
Out of the water, Carolina was definitely suffering a bit from the stings. She was stung on her arm and also the back of her legs. We got a clear photo of the tentacle stings—like scratches on her arm.
We found a shady spot against the cliff so we could change out of our wet clothes. Carolina also needed to try to take care of her stings a bit. There wasn’t much we could do here, except hope she wouldn’t have a bad reaction.
In the shady spot, we encountered lots of goat poop! The goats definitely take advantage of any shade they can find in this area and this was a popular one. Their poop meant we couldn’t exactly sit down and relax fully. We knew we needed to head back so we could properly take care of Carolina’s stings. At the same time, we knew it was about to be a difficult return.
Still, the views were beautiful! And the color of this bay was unbelievable, albeit deceivingly enticing!
After taking one last look at the views, we said goodbye and good riddance to Katholiko aka Jellyfish Bay!
Later on, we found out that jellyfish are extremely uncommon in the waters around Crete. El Nino and the tides that day are what brought them in probably mostly by accident. Our encounter with them was just unlucky. We happened to be there at a rare time in their little jellyfish lives.
To Katholiko Monastery
We made our way back along the trail through the gorge and decided to go right under the bridge that we saw earlier.
We didn’t find the proper path up because we still had no clue how to find it. Instead, we chose to ascend an off-the-beaten-path rock scramble next to the bridge and make our way to the top.
As it turns out, this bridge connects to the Katholiko Monastery. The Katholiko Monastery is absolutely spectacular! What remains shows how impressive it must have been when it was in full operation.
Of course, we had to ring the bell once we reached the top.
Carolina rang it first and did not anticipate how loud it would be. Oops, she almost blew her eardrum out!
This was only the first full day of our trip together and Carolina was already a mess! :D
I opted not to ring the bell. I like hearing, thank you very much! I got some nice photos of it instead!
The monks of Katholiko Monastery used to live in small rooms and caves in the monastery and all over the gorge. You can see their little dwellings along the cliffsides in the photo below.
Still in tact are some of the small rooms cut into the cliffside.
And up along the monastery wall, we also found another cave where we could cool off.
This cave had really awesome pillars where stalactites and stalagmites connected over the years.
Religious and ritualistic items are left in the caves, still used by locals today.
We spent some extra time exploring this cave just to cool off a bit. It felt so incredibly nice after trekking in the heat.
The Way Back
As we emerged from the cave, we saw stairs that went up to the right… and up and up!
Oh. I guess the Monastery is actually an intentional stop on this trail that we somehow completely missed on our way down… lol
Following the trail back to where we kept going straight toward the ocean, we realized the error of our way! At the time, it felt completely wrong to turn left and look for the trail in the direction of the Monastery. The ocean was straight ahead!
Alas, left was the correct way to go and we probably would have found the actual path down into the gorge!
The climb back up the rest of the way to reach Bear Cave again was pretty tough. The elevation gain and the relentless sun was a lot—especially now without water and with Carolina turning into a yellow fish, I mean jellyfish!
We took a last cool off pit stop at Bear Cave and soon we finally made it back to Tighty Whitey, our air conditioned steed.
The entire trip took about 3 hours. I thought it would take 1 hour of walking there and back total! Silly me.
In Conclusion
This hike was unexpected and wild! We chose the wrong path down, didn’t realize how long it would take, didn’t have enough water, received or narrowly escaped phantom jellyfish stings, and so much more!
Despite all the drama, this was definitely a fun and beautiful hike.
There were not many other people hiking this trail with us and the views were amazing! We also learned about Cretan climate and geography very quickly—the sun is hot and the shoreline is steep and rocky! There’s no way around both these facts when seeking out a beach and we would continue to face this during our time in Crete.
I would definitely go back to Katholiko Bay but I’d go the right way down and hope for no jellyfish the next time!
