Greekcitytimes.com reports that a highly exotic place exists in Greece and more specifically in Crete, where you can find two large palm forests. The most famous and biggest is that of Vai in the prefecture of Lasithi, and the other is the palm forest of the Preveli Monastery in the prefecture of Rethymno, about 40 acres big. Its name, as well as the wider area, is due to the homonymous historic monastery close by, which is dedicated to St. John the Theologian.
Most of the palm groves in Preveli were incinerated in the great fire that broke out in the area, at dawn on Sunday, August 22, 2010. Nearly 70% of the forest was destroyed. Everyone spoke back then of an enormous disaster of nature. Fortunately, the Preveli palm trees, thanks to their fireproof capacity -unknown until recently-that distinguishes Theofrastos palm, managed not only to regenerate, but also to keep the same “incinerated” adult palm trees of Theofrastos by next autumn.
Getting there
Preveli is about 35 km from Rethymnon and 10 km from Plakias.
You have two basic access options from land and sea.
The first is to drive from Plakias to the Preveli Monastery, following the signs. One and a half kilometres after the Lower Preveli Monastery, you will park your car in the large parking lot (2 euros for the car) and take the path that goes down to the beach. The descend lasts about 15-20 minutes. However, climbing is quite tiring. Make sure you do not do it on a hot day.
Alternatively, you can take the dirt road leading to the nearby Drimychian Ammoudi and walk the short path leading to Preveli in just 5 minutes. Saving downhill-climbing but losing sight. You choose.
There are also boats from Agia Galini and Plakias, which operate on Preveli (15 euros per person).
Read full story here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Uoaei1 License: CC-BY-SA
Source: greekcitytimes.com
