Parikiá - Panagía Thapsanoón - Pígados - Léfkes |
---|
Evaluation: This rather long hike passes by the monastery of the Panagía Thapsanoón, an impressive building, which actually is not very nice; you mostly follow beautiful trails, but sometimes you have to be careful to stay on the right path. The hike ends in the beautiful village of Léfkes, from where you can return by bus to Parikiá. Deserves ***. The little church of Agios Konstantínos on the kástro. The actual beginning of the hike is to be found at the large church with the double towers and the blue domes. You can follow the coastal road until you reach this church, but it is much nicer, of course, to first climb up the kástro and then descend from up there. You then go down via the tower with some striking old construction elements of an old temple, after which you turn to the west and you continue zigzaggingly through the old city – however, you should not move too much away from the sea. You then also arrive at the large church, which is the mitrópoli of this town.
(0h10) At the square in front of the church you do not take the road on the right of the church, but the road on the far right, to the left of the Kialoa-bar and the lotto-shop. Via a long, meandering street you walk inland; after 5 minutes you cross the ring road, next to a bridge and then you proceed straight ahead.
(0h15) At the first crossing, already after 15 m, you take a right; you pass two little streets on the right side and at the following crossing you go left, to the left of a wall and a blue wooden gate. In this way the road meanders between villas until, after 7 minutes, you get to a large villa, with palm trees and a pergola with a staircase on the outside – over here the road splits up. You take the narrower concrete road on the left of the green screen that screens off the villa and you follow this road for 5 minutes – you do not descend into the valley, which means that you have to keep a right at every junction. At a very modest chapel with a flat roof, the road turns into a narrower gravel road; after yet another 2 minutes this road gets to another concrete road.
(0h30) You follow this road to the left and going down and after 100 metres you take the small concrete road off the right, near a sports field on your left-hand side. After a few minutes, at the last big villa, the concrete becomes gravel and after climbing up for another 2 minutes you arrive underneath an electricity cable – on your left and right you notice some tumbled-down buildings.
(0h35) One minute later, the gravel road veers left and on this place you finally find the beginning of the ancient trail, straight ahead, climbing up the side of the hill. There is a rather wide rocky road in front of you (red mark), but the path to the right of the road is obstructed by vegetation and comes to a dead end a little further, because of the road. After one minute you keep going straight ahead and in this way you climb up for 10 minutes, until you get next to another electricity cable. From then on the trail starts going down and after 5 minutes you reach the bottom of the valley. While clambering in the rocky river bed... (0h55) You should watch out here: BEFORE this cabin you take a right leaving the bed of the river, just next to a heavy electricity pole (red mark); in this way you find an obvious and narrow path, which soon becomes broader. The following stretch is very beautiful, between flowering broom (on the 22nd of May 2007), while walking next to a deep gorge. A couple of minutes further you get between the two slopes of the small valley, but you do stay on the left-hand slope. Everywhere you look you see beautiful olive trees and flowering broom!
The path to the Panagía Thapsanoón, in spring, with the flowering broom. After 7 beautiful minutes the path continues on the left of a metal fence and it becomes narrower (red mark). The path keeps going up and you can see a small corner of the sea behind you.
The Péra Panagía and the path next to it. (1h15) Slightly further the trail gets into the bed of the river and – watch out – you cross the bed by keeping to the left, in the direction of the small church and the house next to it.
[This means that you DO NOT continue in the bed of the river, in order to go up the staircase to the hamlet on the right-hand side of the valley. On the other side of the bed, you DO NOT take a right – there is indeed a trail towards the monastery, but it is densely overgrown.] The huge building only dates from the year 1939 and it is a nunnery – only decently dressed women can get in. You also have a beautiful view of the coast of Páros with in the sea Náxos (to the left) and the island of Ios (to the right). The monastery of the Panagía Thapsanoón. (1h28) From the entrance of the monastery, you retrace your steps for a while and you take the little gravel road on the right, a little after the angle of the wall and the fence that surround the complex. Soon you can enjoy a beautiful view of the modern monastery.
The monopáti to Pígados. After about 13-14 minutes you thus reach the bottom of the river, and you follow it sharply to the left (red marks). The path runs in the direction of Léfkes. Nice panoramic views, here with Maráthi. You continue to descend towards the turn of the asphalt road and the bridge next to it. After a few minutes, you pass a small white building and your path becomes more stony and difficult. After another 7 minutes, you get to a vague gravel track: you follow it to the right, then LEFT and right again. You now continue straight to Léfkes. The old Byzantine bridge, not that far from Léfkes. The road signs to the Byzantine road and to the bridge. (2h46) You thus go up to the: the path still has on many places the old pavement, the climb is very nice and occasionally very steep. The old Byzantine road climbs to Léfkes. Above, you get to the asphalt road, where you take a right. Once arrived at a bifurcation, you go left and after a little more than 3 minutes, you see in front of you the beginning of the paved main street (sign Léfkes). It is here that you find the bus stop. (2h56) View on Léfkes.
|