50 Garazo – Zoniana – Anogia

The village of Garazo in northern Crete is about 28 km from the coastal resort village of Bali and 38 km from Rethymno. It is a traditional settlement at an altitude of 270 m with a notable Folklore Museum and stands surrounded by olive trees. The route towards Anogia crosses through the Monastery of Diskori with fantastic views of the landscape below. 

The E4 route from Garazo to Anogia 

From Garazo (1), we follow the main road to Anogia for approximately 600 m. We then turn right at the fork (2), towards the village of Omala (3), where we arrive after 900 m on asphalt road. We pass through the village and follow the road for 200 m; this leads us to a crossroads of the main dirt road, which we take in a south-easterly direction. 

We continue on the main dirt road in a south-easterly direction. After 1.300 m, the road turns towards the north-east. After another 400 m, we come to the main road (4) that connects Garazo to Anogia; we follow this for about 1.800 m until the turn-off (5) to Diskouri Monastery, which is 800 m away. We follow the road to Diskouri Monastery and after 100 m we turn left into a dirt road (6) which goes along the southern slope of a smooth hill. After 400 m on the unsurfaced road, we distinguish an old footpath (7) on our right-hand side. This path runs parallel to the ravine on our right, for approximately 800 m, to the bed (8) of a stream which we follow for about 700 m. Having passed by a breeze block sheepfold, we see that the stream splits (9); we follow its right-hand branch and after 800 m we reach a football field, north of the village of Zoniana (10).

From the western side of the football field, we go up to the central road of the village; we follow this to the eastern exit of the village, where a small branch of the road on our left leads us to Sfendoni cave (11). 

From the cave, we return to the main road, which we now take eastwards; after 5 km, we arrive at Anogia (12).