Aetofoliá - Plomári - Kolymbíthra

Evaluation: This hike takes place in an unknown and very lonely part of  Tínos and begins in the beautiful village of Aetofoliá, which is known for its museum of ceramics. The trails are beautiful at first, but later, it becomes rather difficult to stay on the right path. The descend is long and gets finally in the wide green valley of Kómi, which ends at the wide bay of Kolymbíthra - but at the end you have to follow the asphalt road to reach the beach. Deserves ***.
[The translation of this walk was made with the help of Google translate - so, do not mind the mistakes...]

Estimated time: The beautiful path between Aetofoliá and the asphalt road takes, in actual walking time (AWT), half an hour; you need then a little over an hour to follow the vaguer trails until the valley of Kómi and finally it takes another 25 minutes until the beach of Kolymbíthra.
The actual walking time thus amounts to 2 hours – as for us, we walked in TWT time 5 hours, from 11am to 4pm.

Route description: [To reach Aetofoliá, you have to take a taxi - unless you arrange with your friends, who can drive you up to the village – at the end of the day they could take you on the beach of Kolymbíthra ...]

(0h00) You start on the parking lot - with the big stone eagle -, located just below the village of Aetofoliá; you follow the paved street that goes up between the houses (sign-post mousío). You pass the museum of ceramics and after a little more than 3 minutes, you can make a detour to the left to have a look at the church: the stone  roof of this church is very beautiful, and you can even climb by an external staircase to the roof, from where you enjoy a beautiful view!
You go back to the main street and you follow it, while keeping to the right a little further. You see some picturesque spots and a little later – where a gutter crosses the street - you go up to the LEFT. This street passes a watery source with a beautiful washing-place. The staircase turns right and after 6-7 minutes, you reach a triangular cross-roads, next to some stables.

(0h07) You take a RIGHT and you follow now a beautiful trail that continues horizontally between walls. You pass above irrigated terraces planted with young olive trees. You go down, you pass again beside some gardens and you finally arrive at a splendid spot with a beautiful arched bridge, underneath 4-5 magnificent plane trees - there is still water flowing in the river (1^st of May 2010).

(0h13) You continue on a beautiful staircase and you get a beautiful view over the green terraces, with Aetofoliá, the distant Xóbourgo and even the top of the Tsikniás. After a stretch that is more ruined, you go up again on many old steps: 6-7 minutes later, you are almost at the culminating point, but just before a rebar gate, you can take a little break to enjoy the view over Aetofoliá (with Kalloní behind the village), over the terraces and the road you have followed.

(0h19) You pass through the gate and an obstruction of branches, and you again follow a beautiful rocky trail that climbs not so steeply. A little further on, you twice keep to the left and the path that follows is still very beautiful - you always climb with the wide valley to the right of you.
You again cross a gate and after 9 beautiful minutes, you arrive at a bifurcation: you do not take the right path, but you continue STRAIGHT and you climb on a narrow dirt path up to the asphalt road.

(0h31) You follow the road to the right for a while, but just BEFORE the bus shelter there is a path that goes right between eroded rocks. You pass a few stables and then be careful: you do NOT continue down to the left, but you go up to the right towards other stables.
During the short stretch of asphalt, you thus crossed the crest of the hill, and you now continue to the left of this crest. The trail is heavily eroded, but still very passable - and after 5 minutes you arrive again on the crest. You then descend on a trail that is overgrown, between two walls and in the depression between the crests of two hill. A few minutes later, your narrow path arrives between frýgana (thorn bushes), to the LEFT of the left wall - it is impossible to continue between the two walls!
You thus continue to the left of the left wall - but do not veer to the left, following a third wall that descends to the left!
About 11-12 minutes since you left the asphalt road, you get a clearer outlook in front of you: the path is fairly obvious, but sometimes it goes away from the 2 walls. It passes between some white rocks and still continues in the same direction to a sort of pass. The left wall disappears, but then there is another wall that appears to the left and you continue between converging walls up to a narrow passage.

(0h50) You thus walk again between two walls and you are already seeing the plain of Kómi in front of you. Shortly after, you reach a kind of crossroads, dug in in the field: there is a path that comes from the left between walls, and there is another path that descends quickly to the right. You proceed straight on a path that roughly continues horizontally on the slope of the hill - you have a beautiful view over the plain and Kómi. After a while, you veer a little to the left and in this way you get again to a pass.

(0h58) The walls diverge and converge again; after 3 minutes, you descend a rocky slope up to a point where a narrower path starts to the left hand between walls. You turn here RIGHT and continue between walls, that are quite distant one from the other, in the direction of a small stable. You veer right and the walls diverge and converge again - you must seek the best passages between the frýgana. The dense bushes almost prevent you from moving forward and you descend while turning right - for a few moments, you see the beach of Kolymbíthra on your left.
The walls disappear, but the brownish trail is now very clear. You come again to the right of walls – with twice a beautiful view over the bay - and a little later, you keep of course to the right in order to arrive again between 2 walls.

(1h12) One minute later, you suddenly discover a unique view over the valley, with all those green fields, with Kómi and the height of Xóbourgo. You descend faster now and you pass after a few minutes past a concrete stable. A little less than 4 minutes later, you pass to the right of a chapel and you finally get to a small gravel road. You take a right for a while, you pass below some stables and an alóni (threshing floor) and the gravel road zigzags between two other alónia. You arrive at the bottom of the valley, with small fields that produce artichokes and strawberries – the fields are surrounded by rustling reeds.