Walking on the Greek Islands - the Cyclades

The author has been able to check some of the most vulnerable sections on Naxos and Santorini,

NAXOS

Walk 15

P115, para 2, line 5: sign change, replace with: …and turn R where a concrete lane goes straight ahead.

line 9: spiky agaves mostly gone! Replace with …Do not take the first inviting monopati yo may see up R, but continue to a distinctive curve of wall where the lane bends L, and turn R up the steep rock path there.

para 3: Note: The route upstream changes every season, due to fresh blockages from vegetation or crumbled banks, fence-gates inserted or removed.You may need to engage your own self-guiding instinct, following the book’s directions and the course of the stream bed as much as possible, until you reach the ‘vertical rock-face cleft by a sometime waterfall.’

Painted red marks can indicate a way around obstacles (but sometimes conflict)

P116, para 2, line 2: … a gate-less gap, then go straight up an uneven rocky slope of grey limestone to the wall at the top and turn L onto a walled monopati. The path is earthy and crumbling in places, but new trails follow a contour along the hillside. Some red paint spots are reassuring waymarks. At a muddle of dirt tracks below L, keep level-ish and up, soon seeing an isolated trio of low, sloping boulders in front of a solitary olive tree, then head up the dirt trail R. Go N then E…..

P116, 3 lines from bottom, to 117 lines 1-3: …down to a marble-cobbled stretch ending beneath an impenetrable block of oleander, and climb up to the R bank. You now need to head diagonally up to find a stable route above earthy terraces that have been cut into gullies by winter rain to the top of a monopati that comes up L from the stream bed. Turn up and L, then follow the old working route to the village of Moni, keeping L where the path forks and ignoring a path way marked 8 that descends L. Brush through…

P141Naxos Strada/1 Replace lines 9-10 with:

Since this book’s publication, way marking is in place along the ‘official’ Strada route, although it is not always consistent or reliable and some changes made, most of which I have included in updates. In two key instances (Walks 20,23), however, I follow slightly different routes because they are in logical day-walk stages, and do not cross over other walks in this guide. It’s important to stick to the book’s instructions and only follow the Strada waymarks when they are in accordance. Skipping from one to the other will result in confusion.

P141, column 2, line 5-8; replace. …impassable. One completely blocked section (Strada 4)was fixed at the 11th hour, 4 days before publication, but has relapsed into overgrown state over the lockdown years, so I offer a diversion.

P142 lines 2-5. replace with: After 500m, pass* the ostentatiously signed start of the ‘official’ Strada; subsequent waymarking is unclear, and takes you along a lot of metalled road, so continue….*

P160. Terrain: delete lines 3-4 and replace with:
Note: This route differs from the ‘official’ Strada. Both go from Apiranthos to Koronos, but my route fits into the day-walk sections and is more direct, via the official waymarked path 8 instead of doubling back to the village of Moni (Walk 15).

P160, 4 lines from bottom. …’signed path’. [Replace from ‘Kink down’.. with:

Do not go through the gate above, but follow the path that runs slightly down L, to the R of the wall, and go through a rough fence-gate bearing a small sign denoting ‘public way’. After a few metres, turn sharp R to follow zig-zag, initially marble, path up. This turns into a clear earthen trail to a dirt road where you turn R.

P162, line 2 Replace with: A gate spans the track just before the next bend; climb over the RH side of it, and at the next bend, turn L……….

Line 5, ‘red spot’ no longer obvious, so:

At major fork downhill, keep uphill L up the stepped mule track…

Para 2 A mix of erosion, neglect, overgrown clearings and missing way marks have confused the course of this path, so replace paragraphs 2 and 3 with the following:

In parts, where marble gives way to schist underfoot, bands of eroded red soil and rubble, have overwhelmed parts of the path; try to cross these carefully rather than make detours into the scrub. At one of the bands, beneath a solitary Turkish plane tree, look diagonally down to see the ghost of a walled path thick with thistles, and thread your way through a thankfully brief section to join a trail through scrub to a fence-gate bearing a small, illegible wooden sign. Go through this and a second matching gate with sign, then follow the shallow valley ahead down to a stream bed. Turn L (waymark 8 on opposite wall no longer visible), and follow the stream course, initially walled on R and in early summer, with the sinister dark purple-spathes of dragon arum>.

Reach a junction where rock-slabs mark a sharp drop to the stream-bed below, bear R and follow a dirt trail up and over, to follow the R side of a fence, round a rise then down R to a wooded glade below the Moni-Stavros road. Turn L through a fence gate and down steps to go beneath the road into the ruins of upper Sifones.

At the next stream-bed crossing, keep R up, soon turning L where you see a church ahead. Keep on, steeply down, and R at a stone farmstead, over a concrete bridge R up to a randomly unsurfaced and concrete road. Follow this up and round to the R for some time until it swerves ..//R above terraces of vines and reaches a small house R. Opposite, up the steep bank is the entrance, way marked 12, 12A to a traditional path between broken walls.

This was cleared at the time of the book’s printing, but may have reverted to nature again!

SANTORINI

Walk 33

P226 last 2 lines, from….riverbed) to 227 line 8, …on the side of a cliff.: Replace with:

At a rough junction at the top, cross up onto a stony field above and R of the ravine, and look R to take a broken trail through the bordering scrub. Follow the increasingly narrow and crumbling trail up, keeping L above the ravine, passing storage shelters carved into the soft rock. Cross the valley head to the L and cross a band of hard rock over a water-cut gully. A landslip has destroyed the path so you turn steeply R to scramble up the L of it to the path that leads L and round the corner towards the magnificently solitary church of Ag Athina. Part of the field above has collapsed into the monopati, but try to keep to its course above the lower wall. Go R up the church entrance road lava-pebble, pass new dirt road R, to main junction and R, seeing the monastery of Taxiarchis (Archangel Michael) above. Take the stony trail R to shortcut bends and at the top, turn R to the monastery on its cliff shelf.

P226, para 2, lines 7-11… concrete-like rock. then Replace with:
Follow this diagonally down towards a triangle of sea to a dirt road and turn L. Now look to the scruffy smallholding on the hillside opposite and head to the R of it: either cut over open land along animal trails below line of black rocks, or follow the dirt road and turn R at the junction. Find a trail to R of the smallholding up to a small ridge behind it.
Go L…

P228, para 2, line 3-5. …. opposite side of. then replace with:

Cross the field to the line of feathery tamarisk trees and go through a gap at the seaward end, steeply down to trails that have been trodden over the soft, crumbling rock to Red Beach.

The author has been able to check some of the most vulnerable sections on Naxos and Santorini,

NAXOS

Walk 15

P115, para 2, line 5: sign change, replace with: …and turn R where a concrete lane goes straight ahead.

line 9: spiky agaves mostly gone! Replace with …Do not take the first inviting monopati yo may see up R, but continue to a distinctive curve of wall where the lane bends L, and turn R up the steep rock path there.

para 3: Note: The route upstream changes every season, due to fresh blockages from vegetation or crumbled banks, fence-gates inserted or removed.You may need to engage your own self-guiding instinct, following the book’s directions and the course of the stream bed as much as possible, until you reach the ‘vertical rock-face cleft by a sometime waterfall.’

Painted red marks can indicate a way around obstacles (but sometimes conflict)

P116, para 2, line 2: … a gate-less gap, then go straight up an uneven rocky slope of grey limestone to the wall at the top and turn L onto a walled monopati. The path is earthy and crumbling in places, but new trails follow a contour along the hillside. Some red paint spots are reassuring waymarks. At a muddle of dirt tracks below L, keep level-ish and up, soon seeing an isolated trio of low, sloping boulders in front of a solitary olive tree, then head up the dirt trail R. Go N then E…..

P116, 3 lines from bottom, to 117 lines 1-3: …down to a marble-cobbled stretch ending beneath an impenetrable block of oleander, and climb up to the R bank. You now need to head diagonally up to find a stable route above earthy terraces that have been cut into gullies by winter rain to the top of a monopati that comes up L from the stream bed. Turn up and L, then follow the old working route to the village of Moni, keeping L where the path forks and ignoring a path way marked 8 that descends L. Brush through…

P141Naxos Strada/1 Replace lines 9-10 with:

Since this book’s publication, way marking is in place along the ‘official’ Strada route, although it is not always consistent or reliable and some changes made, most of which I have included in updates. In two key instances (Walks 20,23), however, I follow slightly different routes because they are in logical day-walk stages, and do not cross over other walks in this guide. It’s important to stick to the book’s instructions and only follow the Strada waymarks when they are in accordance. Skipping from one to the other will result in confusion.

P141, column 2, line 5-8; replace. …impassable. One completely blocked section (Strada 4)was fixed at the 11th hour, 4 days before publication, but has relapsed into overgrown state over the lockdown years, so I offer a diversion.

P142 lines 2-5. replace with: After 500m, pass* the ostentatiously signed start of the ‘official’ Strada; subsequent waymarking is unclear, and takes you along a lot of metalled road, so continue….*

P160. Terrain: delete lines 3-4 and replace with:
Note: This route differs from the ‘official’ Strada. Both go from Apiranthos to Koronos, but my route fits into the day-walk sections and is more direct, via the official waymarked path 8 instead of doubling back to the village of Moni (Walk 15).

P160, 4 lines from bottom. …’signed path’. [Replace from ‘Kink down’.. with:

Do not go through the gate above, but follow the path that runs slightly down L, to the R of the wall, and go through a rough fence-gate bearing a small sign denoting ‘public way’. After a few metres, turn sharp R to follow zig-zag, initially marble, path up. This turns into a clear earthen trail to a dirt road where you turn R.

P162, line 2 Replace with: A gate spans the track just before the next bend; climb over the RH side of it, and at the next bend, turn L……….

Line 5, ‘red spot’ no longer obvious, so:

At major fork downhill, keep uphill L up the stepped mule track…

Para 2 A mix of erosion, neglect, overgrown clearings and missing way marks have confused the course of this path, so replace paragraphs 2 and 3 with the following:

In parts, where marble gives way to schist underfoot, bands of eroded red soil and rubble, have overwhelmed parts of the path; try to cross these carefully rather than make detours into the scrub. At one of the bands, beneath a solitary Turkish plane tree, look diagonally down to see the ghost of a walled path thick with thistles, and thread your way through a thankfully brief section to join a trail through scrub to a fence-gate bearing a small, illegible wooden sign. Go through this and a second matching gate with sign, then follow the shallow valley ahead down to a stream bed. Turn L (waymark 8 on opposite wall no longer visible), and follow the stream course, initially walled on R and in early summer, with the sinister dark purple-spathes of dragon arum>.

Reach a junction where rock-slabs mark a sharp drop to the stream-bed below, bear R and follow a dirt trail up and over, to follow the R side of a fence, round a rise then down R to a wooded glade below the Moni-Stavros road. Turn L through a fence gate and down steps to go beneath the road into the ruins of upper Sifones.

At the next stream-bed crossing, keep R up, soon turning L where you see a church ahead. Keep on, steeply down, and R at a stone farmstead, over a concrete bridge R up to a randomly unsurfaced and concrete road. Follow this up and round to the R for some time until it swerves ..//R above terraces of vines and reaches a small house R. Opposite, up the steep bank is the entrance, way marked 12, 12A to a traditional path between broken walls.

This was cleared at the time of the book’s printing, but may have reverted to nature again!

SANTORINI

Walk 33

P226 last 2 lines, from….riverbed) to 227 line 8, …on the side of a cliff.: Replace with:

At a rough junction at the top, cross up onto a stony field above and R of the ravine, and look R to take a broken trail through the bordering scrub. Follow the increasingly narrow and crumbling trail up, keeping L above the ravine, passing storage shelters carved into the soft rock. Cross the valley head to the L and cross a band of hard rock over a water-cut gully. A landslip has destroyed the path so you turn steeply R to scramble up the L of it to the path that leads L and round the corner towards the magnificently solitary church of Ag Athina. Part of the field above has collapsed into the monopati, but try to keep to its course above the lower wall. Go R up the church entrance road lava-pebble, pass new dirt road R, to main junction and R, seeing the monastery of Taxiarchis (Archangel Michael) above. Take the stony trail R to shortcut bends and at the top, turn R to the monastery on its cliff shelf.

P226, para 2, lines 7-11… concrete-like rock. then Replace with:
Follow this diagonally down towards a triangle of sea to a dirt road and turn L. Now look to the scruffy smallholding on the hillside opposite and head to the R of it: either cut over open land along animal trails below line of black rocks, or follow the dirt road and turn R at the junction. Find a trail to R of the smallholding up to a small ridge behind it.
Go L…

P228, para 2, line 3-5. …. opposite side of. then replace with:

Cross the field to the line of feathery tamarisk trees and go through a gap at the seaward end, steeply down to trails that have been trodden over the soft, crumbling rock to Red Beach.