Nature

East of the village Platia Peramata you will firstly meet the longest beach of Platia Peramata, called Psili Ammos, which is totally isolated and very beautiful. The beach is not very suitable for camping, as there is no shade from trees. However, at the eastern end there are large white rocks, called Asproharaki, which offer shade to their lucky “occupiers”.

The Cretan stone marten (scient. Martes foina bunites) is a nice mammal, arboreous, night owl, carnivorous and fruit-eater that lives alone (except for the mating season) in rock fissures, in tree hollows, in raptors’ abandoned nests, in desert underground galleries, in sparse forests, in bushy places and in gorges.

Fourni is a small lush green hill next to the picturesque Arhanes village, about 12km south of Heraklion. It takes its name after the local homonym preminoan cemetery, next to Knossano Gorge. Fourni can be accessed through Kato Arhanes, where you’ll meet signs leading there.

Fournoti is an amazing beautiful beach, located 57km south of Chania, 10km east of Sougia and 1.5km west of Agia Roumeli. It is very nice, with deep blue water, fine pebbles and surrounded by pine trees. The beach is secluded in one of the most beautiful Greek places, the rough Mountains of Sfakia.

If you climb the cliffs on the east side of Agiofarago beach and walk for a while to the southeast, you will meet a hidden saltish lake - cave, called Vourvoulitis, surrounded by vertical cliffs.

The two beaches of Perivolakia (Small Perivolaki and Large Perivolaki) and the beach of Timios Stavros are three adjacent coves, located 2.5km west of Chora Sfakion and 74km south of Chania. The beaches are located in a very mountainous area, in the middle of the distance between Glyka Nera beach and Loutro, just next to the European footpath E4.

At the plateau of Ziros and right next to the homonymous village we meet a very small wetland, covering only a half acre. This small pond is extremely important for the biodiversity of the dry Eastern Crete, as the existence of freshwater anywhere there is valuable.

East of the beach of Richtis, you can see the rough and steep mount of Liopetro, which housed the fort of Liopetro (at the site of current Prophet Elijah chapel). Below Liopetro there is the very old church of St. John, accessible through a very bad road starting from the main road connecting Lassithi to Sitia (initially cement road).