Ever heard of Loutro? No, I didn’t think so. It’s a very small, some would say tiny, laid back village on the south coast of Crete. The only way to get here is by boat — unless you are very adventurous, or very stupid — when you will arrive here on foot by walking about 7 kilometres from the nearest road at Hora Sfakion. The village has no cars, no roads in, no roads out. It’s one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been.

We were invited here for Orthodox Easter by our Greek friends from Xania, and so on Thursday we took the small ferry from Hora Sfakion — a short but spectacular coastal run — arriving into this little natural harbour as the afternoon light was turning golden. We’re staying at the Blue House, a simple whitewashed room with a view straight out to the Libyan Sea.

Good Friday in Loutro is something special. At midnight the whole village — and I mean the whole village — gathers for the epitaphios procession. Candles, incense, chanting priests, and everyone walking slowly around the tiny waterfront together. It’s not for tourists (there aren’t any at Easter). It’s just life here.

Saturday morning, we decided to walk the coastal path to the village of Sweetwater Beach, named for the fresh water springs that bubble up through the sand at the waterline. The path hugs the cliff-face, in places only wide enough for one person, with a sheer drop to the sea below. I’m not entirely sure YM agreed to this walk fully understanding what it involved.

But we made it, and the view from up there — turquoise water, white cliffs, absolute silence — is one I won’t forget in a hurry. The Fix beer waiting at Pauvlo’s Taverna on the way back was well earned.

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Read next:
→ A Most Un-orthodox Easter — Part Two — the trek, the taverna and the raki
→ Would You Like Raki With That? — two weeks living in Crete
→ All Crete posts — the full Cretan story