Estimated time: Leaving from Agia Marína you first walk on a gravel road for about 35 minutes until you reach the hill of Agia Thékla; you then continue for half an hour on beautiful paths to Kefála and the difficult descent to the beach of Karavás will cost you yet another 30 minutes. The return route will take a little longer: the stages to Kefála, to Agia Thékla and finally to Agia Marína will take about 35 minutes each time. The total actual (stopwatched) time (AWT) is about 3h20. Our total hiking time (TWT) was quite a bit longer since we hiked from 11am to 5h45pm.

Route description: [It is impossible to reach the point of departure by bus, so your best option is to rent a car. The gravel road between Agia Marína and Agia Thékla is in a rather good condition; if you want to you can continue to the hill of Agia Thékla, which will shorten your hike by two times 35 minutes...]

(0h00) On the asphalt road leading from Chóra to Méga Livádi and Koutalás you should try to find a parking space a little before Agia Marína, at the point where there is a gravel road going to the right with two clear signposts and one sign: the sign reads "Sklavogiáni", the regular signpost points to Agios Giánnis and a beautiful little signpost in marble indicates the road to Sklavogiánnis, Pródromos, Agia Thékla and Liómantra.  

The marble signpost at the beginning of your walk.

You take the gravel road leading directly to an aerial. After a couple of minutes you keep to the right, you then get to a stretch of concrete and after another three minutes you pass a vague track off the right. Yet another three minutes later you pass a small road off the right and four minutes later there is a small road off the left – you keep going straight ahead on the main road all the time. Some five minutes later you keep to the right, you curve to the right and you then see the island of Kýthnos straight ahead in front of you. On your left you already notice the large chapel of Agios Ioánnis and you pass this chapel after 23 minutes all together. You could have a closer look at this chapel, but unfortunately it is closed. The two long concrete tables in front of the chapel tell you that a lot of people come here to celebrate the annual panagýri.

Agios Ioánnis.

The landscape around Agia Thékla.

(0h23) A little further you reach an elevation and deep down you can already distinguish the beach of Karavás; on your left there is the height of Agia Thékla. Your path continues to the rock of Agia Thékla: on the right of the gate leading up, you find the beginning of a trail, between the rocks and a low wall with a fence on top of it.

[It is really worthwhile to walk up to the church; this will take you 3-4 minutes and the panoramic view is marvellous. Inside the church there is a marble ikonostási dating from 2002, outside you notice the marble tables waiting for the believers...]

(0h34) You thus take the beautiful trail on the right of the gate. After a few minutes you pass some stables with a lot of junk and a barking dog. Thereafter, the stony monopáti descends quickly and after 9 minutes you arrive at a kind of pass between two hills. You turn to the left, around the hill and you get a magnificent view on the beach of Karavás – seemingly a lot closer already. 

The monopáti to Karavás.

The bay of Karavás.

You then start to go down slowly and you thus arrive at a hill crest. Have a look in front of you: you will now go down quickly to the little white church with a flat roof of Agios Geórgios, near the hamlet of Kefála, located at the foot of a pointed hill. You will then continue to the right, more of less horizontally and then descend towards the left again, on a hill crest, until you get to the valley.
You continue on the hill crest, past a few tumbled-down buildings. In the valley on the left you can see the terraces that are still being cultivated; the hill of Agia Thékla behind you already looks very high. The path continues on the right of the hill crest, with again a beautiful view on the valley on the right.

(0h52) You gradually descend between walls and at the point where the walls move away from each other – notice the great view on the beach of Kýthnos – you keep to the left. In this way you arrive between two walls again. Watch out now: slightly further you have to go through a breach in the wall on your right-hand side (there is also a small cairn), because the old trail is overgrown. You thus follow a track on the right of this trail. Another 2 minutes later you get between the walls again and you now descend rapidly on a rocky crest in the direction of the very modest chapel of Agios Geórgios. Some 50 metres before this chapel your path descends on the RIGHT, between tumbled-down walls.

[You can of course first go to the left to pay a visit to the church: behind the church you notice the run-down hamlet of Kefála, with the ruins of a Hellenistic tower converted into a stable. You then return to the trail.]

The tower of Kefála.

(1h04) You follow the path to the right for about three minutes – at this point the path is completely overgrown by dried grass. You reach a number of small stables and you take a left: you now descend straight to the beach of Karavás. Also this trail is getting more and more overgrown so you might as well walk on its right-hand side. After six minutes the right-hand wall moves to the right and at this point you keep a little to the left; some three minutes later it is easier again to go down between the walls.  

The overgrown path to Karavás...

When you are almost down, the walls diverge again: be careful now, since you should NOT descend into the valley on the right. Instead, you have to follow the left-hand wall more or less, until you get to a side valley. You cross this small valley and only then you can curve to the right by following a vague and meandering track. The bed of the valley is too stony to follow: this means that you go down on a winding track between the grass and on the left of the stony valley. All the time you should not move away from the valley for more than 10 metres. You then arrive at the bottom of the stony valley – on the way down we left two cairns behind in order to mark the path on the right of the rocky bed and thus easily find the way back.

(1h23) You can then first take a trail between walls, but a little further down this becomes more difficult: the road to the sea, on your left, is cut off by walls enclosing a vineyard. This means that you have to go to the RIGHT, following the right-hand wall in the direction of some reed. For the next two minutes you really have to struggle your way through the tall grass, right next to the right-hand wall. You finally arrive in the bed of the main valley. You can now follow an easier trail, a vague track on the right of the bed; you cross the bed and sometimes you also walk in the bed itself. You continue for another six minutes until you reach the very broad and really magnificent beach with small and large pebbles. There is no one else, so this is a great place to have a peaceful swim. (1h33)

The pebble beach of Karavás.

(1h33) For the return route you follow exactly the same trails, but since the road is difficult we do give some extensive hiking directions.
You depart from the same point on the beach and you follow the small side valley going inland, between reed and walls, until you reach a kind of stony trail alongside a wall. For a short while you walk in the bed of the river and then you continue on its right-hand side. The path then crosses the bed and it continues in the valley. After a few minutes the trail splits up: you take a left, straight across the main bed. You thus reach the left of a field with reed. Finally, the trail arrives between walls, on the left of the bed.

(1h42) You should now watch out: when you reach a cairn, immediately besides the bed of the river, you should cross the bed to the right. On the right of a wall you then have to force your way between the wall and the overgrowth. For a short while you walk between two walls; thereafter, you DO NOT take a left but you proceed straight ahead and in this way you get to the beginning of the small valley, on the RIGHT of a little white building. You notice the cairn we have left behind earlier today and you go up on the right, where the second cairn indicates the beginning of an obvious path on the slope.

(1h45) You now follow a trail meandering between small bushes: you have to get to the point where a wall crosses the stony valley, above the right-hand of two diverging walls. After seven minutes you reach a wall and then you have to go up on the left, towards the two converging walls. The trail is overgrown and a few minutes later you easily get to the left of the old monopáti. After a couple of minutes you have to watch out again: when you get to another wall you should definitely NOT go down on the left. Instead you have to go up on the right and in this way you reach the track of the ancient trail again. You continue up on this trail – the past six minutes were really strenuous so you can take some rest while enjoying the wonderful view on the bay of Karavás.

A view back to the bay of Karavás.

(1h58) You climb further up between the walls, on a trail with is in good condition now, until you get to the right of the lowest of two grey-brownish buildings – already quite a long time ago you could distinguish these buildings on the slope. You go right and you follow a rather flat trail, midst sometimes tall grass. After a little over three minutes you reach the little church of Agios Geórgios and the deserted hamlet of Kefála.

The hill and the hamlet of Kefála.

(2h07) Over here you have to go up on the left – this turns out to be a steep climb between walls. Another six minutes later the path leads you on the left-hand side of the monopáti, which is densely overgrown. After three more minutes, at a cairn, you can continue between the walls again. After this difficult climb of 12 minutes all together the slope becomes less steep – the tall Agia Thékla already seems fairly nearby.
When you reach the top you keep to the left, of course, and by passing a couple of houses you arrive at the beautiful hill crest. Over here you can see the sea on both sides.

(2h22) For a short while you walk on a flat trail and you curve around the hill – have a look at the deep valley on your left with the countless terraces! You now pass the houses of Agia Thékli – one of these houses is still occupied.  

The path that passes between the houses of Agia Thékli.

(2h32) After another 10 minutes you get to the final climb and some 11 minutes later you arrive at the side of the hill of Agia Thékla.

(2h43) When continuing on foot you now have to follow the road on the left, to Agia Marína: the first ten minutes you walk on concrete, you then pass Agios Ioánnis, you climb further upwards, mostly on gravel, and after 36 minutes all together you reach the asphalt road again (3h19)

At the highest point of this hike, between the aerial on the right and the side road to Agios Mamás, you were at an altitude of 500 metres – this has been a strenuous climb indeed…

To get the printer-friendly version
with only the text
in one column
click here.