Steep ascent on a track, then rough walking along a ridge. From
Kondokinigi a path and then picking your way through thorns.
This joins up with two other walks (to
Tsaliana and Plemeniana to
Vlithias).
Start at the bridge of Tsaliana on the Paleochora-Voutas road.
Follow the road north for a few hundred metres to where a track
leads up to the left (West) between two concrete pillars. (barred
and locked with a bent reinforcing rod).
Climb up the track which zig-zags high above the road, with
great views South East across Tsaliana. This passes a rock tomb on
the right hand side, and eventually comes out on the ridge top by a
small church. The track continues south along the ridge “to
Paleochora” (as I was told by the farmer who brought me here
in his truck).
Instead of this, follow a less clear track Northwards to the
right of the church. The track soon turns into a path, but remains
clear and keeping right of the crest of the ridge, passing a deep
rock cut tomb before crossing over to remain on the left (West) of
the ridge for the remainder of the way to the road. The path is in
places paved, in others cut into the rock. In some places it is
unclear which branch to take, but the correct route soon becomes
apparent.
Finally descend off the West of the ridge to a track (by a large
bounder in a small rock-fall surmounted by a metal irrigation pipe-
hard to spot coming from this side) which leads gently up a short
way to join the Kondokinigi-Voutas road close to a pass.
Turn right up to the pass, where a track leads right up to a
church on the ridge crest (open, no frescoes), and continue down
the road into the bridge and road junction of Kondokinigi.
At the junction, turn right (South towards Tsaliana and
Paleochora) and you soon come to a track leading off to the left,
leading to a white church that can be seen a few metres above the
road. Take this track and follow it past the church (mostly
white-washed inside, with new marble floors, but remains of some
frescoes in the apse) then it switches back to the left and you
come to a fork. Take the left fork which leads to a house, but
where the track turns left 20m before the house, you can ascend a
path up a steep earth bank to the right. This follows the left
(“True right bank”) of a stream bed, in a channel that
is sometimes quite deep and overgrown with grasses. A short way up
the hillside, the path crosses the stream and rises away from it,
past a cave, then switches back towards the stream, heading for the
lowest point of the pass, where it crosses at the same point as the
telegraph pole.
On the other side of the hill, the path is less clear, but goat
trails lead straight off the shoulder between two smaller valleys,
eventually settling into the left-hand one (the right contains a
couple of ruined buildings) and crossing its streambed at about the
next telegraph pole. Countouring through the thorns here is
possible, making for the next telegraph pole which marks the end of
a bulldozed track. This track leads off around the hillside,
descending gently all the way to a ford. Climb beyond the ford
passing a couple of houses and eventually coming into Vlithias
below the new church. From here you can return to the West side of
the valley to continue to Kalithea and
Plemeniana or ascend to the Plemeniana-Paleochora road.
All pages and photographs copyright © Andrew Senior 2005
Not to be reproduced or published without permission.