Akrotíri - Panagía Kímisis -
Mésa Pigádia -
Lighthouse
- Akrotíri
Evaluation:
This walk is after all
a pleasant walk, which takes place in a part of Santoríni which remains unknown
to most visitors to the island. There are some beautiful trails, but
unfortunately this walk follows some sections of gravel roads and a long stretch
of asphalt road - at least if you want to continue up to the lighthouse. It
remains interesting that this walk
take place quite often among the vines and that it offers, above the village of
Akrotíri, a splendid view of the caldera. Deserves **.
[The translation of this
walk was made with some help of Google translate - so, do not mind the
mistakes...]
Estimated time:
It takes 25 minutes to
arrive in the village of Akrotíri, then another 20 minutes until the Panagía
Kímisis and half an hour until the beach of Mésa Pigádia.
The walk up to the lighthouse takes 40 minutes, including 20 minutes on a gravel
road and another 20 minutes on an asphalt road...
The actual walking time (AWT) of the way out thus amounts to a little less than
2 hours.
The way back from the lighthouse to the village of Akrotíri requires an hour
(always in AWT) – with almost 40 minutes on the asphalt! -, so that the total
AWT mounts up to 3 hours.
If you choose to return from the beach of Mésa Pigádia by the same route, it
will take a little less than 50 minutes to reach Akrotíri - in this case, the
actual walking time amounts to 2h05...
Route description:
[There are fairly frequent buses that connect Firá to Akrotíri; you can get out
near the excavations or slightly below, where the road ends near the seaside. In
this case, you should return until the excavations, which only takes 2 minutes.
In 2008, there were buses back to Firá at 2.20pm, 3.50pm , 5.35pm and 8:35pm.
The excavation site was closed for quite a few years, bus it reopened in the
Summer 2012...]
(0h00) From the black beach of
Akrotíri, you retrace your steps on the road for a little over 2 minutes, until
next the excavations. Once there, you cross the large parking lot until the
other side. In the left corner, to the left of a small white building, there is
a faint trail that goes up to a terrace where you go right. You follow a basalt
supporting wall on the left side and you get in this way to a nice path which
runs at the foot of the hill. You go to right -
at the beginning, the trail has an uneven pavement, made of black and
red basalt stones. To the right, you see the covered site of Akrotíri and
further on the Profítis Ilías; soon enough, you discover in front of you the
village of Akrotíri. Shortly thereafter, the monopáti continues in the midst of
a lot of daisies (1 May 2011); later on, it continues on volcanic ash or
pumice stone, between basalt walls - these are the remains of the great eruption
of the 17th century BC.
(0h16) You are approaching the
village: you veer right in front of a beautiful orchard of almond trees and you
arrive at a parking lot, located below the village. You follow an asphalt road
to the right and you thus get to the main road, which you follow to the left
until the second turn, just after the bus stop. You take a left there
onto a narrow asphalt road that enters
the village; you get to a little street that goes up until you get near the
neoclassical building of the primary school "Spíros Marinátos."
(0h25) You continue left and at the
left side of a church that seems too
restored: the white staircase going up here on the left leads up to the wooden
gate in a narrow passage to the kástro.
[This kástro was built in red and black lava stones; it offers a beautiful view
of the village, the volcano, Firá and Ia. For the moment, the kástro is being
restored.]
Back at the bottom of the stairs, you continue straight along the wall of the
church, and you get again to the asphalt road that you follow to the right. In a
sharp right turn, you continue straight into staircase-street; further on, you
take the first little concrete street to the left and you thus continue through
the village - and you get a beautiful view over the village and the plain with
vineyards.
You continue climbing white steps and you reach at the end of the village a
small concrete road, with on the left side a chapel - here you go up to the
right.
Once arrived at a fork - with a minimarket right - you go left and you follow
the concrete road up to another fork, with to the left with a small church with
a blue dome. You go up to the right here, on a concrete road, and soon you get a
magnificent view on the slopes all around Akrotíri with further the Profítis
Ilías and on its right side the silhouette of Anáfi - and lots of flowers in the
spring. You climb until you reach a left turn, and there you take the beautiful
trail in front of you, that passes underneath a large ocher villa, next to a
black retaining wall.
(0h37) In the next turn of the
monopáti, you get in front of you one of the most beautiful views of Santoríni:
below, there is an ocean of yellow flowers with behind those slopes the whole
archipelago of Santoríni, with Thirasiá to left, then Paliá Kamméni and Néa
Kámmeni with its volcano, the caldera with Ia to the left (and behind it the
island of Síkinos), then Firá, Pýrgos, the Profítis Ilías and the plain of
Akrotíri.
The 3-4 minutes that follow are really beautiful: the trail continues on ashes,
on pumice or small black stones. You meet two bifurcations, where you should NOT
take a left towards the fields. So you continue straight, just above the road,
but finally you get to this road. On the left side, there is the chapel of Agios
Ioánnis, with to the left concrete steps leading down to the Panagía Kímisis.
Usually, there is on the right side a little stall with a choice of wines of
Santoríni and other local products.
(0h44) You go down the concrete steps
on your left and you thus arrive quite at the bottom, next to the big church,
which in reality is a small monastery. You find a path, which at the beginning
is a bit neglected, but later becomes quite beautiful and continues between the
vineyards. After 4-5 minutes, you reach a gravel road, which you follow for 1
minute to the left; in a left turn, you discover another path in front of you.
It continues again for a few minutes between walls of black lava and vineyards,
which are strewn with black stones, which provide the heat required for the
Visanto, the famous sweet wine. This is still the island of Santoríni of
yesteryear!
(0h52) You get again to a gravel road
that descends to the left towards the beach of Kambiá (sign "Kambiá Beach").
However, you should take the gravel road JUST OPPOSITE, which winds down into an
eroded valley, between slopes that are covered with vineyards. Be careful now:
after exactly 10 minutes, next to a metal fence with behind it a fig tree, you
climb a narrow path; it turns to the right and it gets again to a gravel road.
[It is here that you will come back later on.]
(1h02) You descend to the left and
you finally get to the "beach" of Mésa Pigádia, covered with large black stones.
(1h16) After a possible break for
swimming or a picnic, you retrace your steps and climb the steep gravel road for
about 11 minutes. Just past a small road to the left and almost in front of a
house surrounded by a wall, the path you have followed a little while ago, gets
off to the right, to the right of a black wall.
[If you want to return to Akrotíri by the shortest route - the route you
followed during the way out – you should continue as follows:
- take the path to the right along the black wall -
it leads after a few minutes to the
gravel road (next to the fig tree)
- you go up to the left for 10 minutes
- you reach the crossroad, where you should take the path just opposite, between
the vineyards
- you get to the other gravel road after a few minutes, where you have to go
left for 1 minute, and then to the right on the path
- you thus arrive after another 4-5 minutes next to the Panagía and climb the
stairs to the right of it, until you get to the asphalt road – from there, you
can follow the walk described at the point
(2h39) below.]
(1h27) If, on the contrary, you
prefer to continue to the lighthouse, you should go STRAIGHT while following the
gravel road for another 4 minutes. You then get to the asphalt road, which you
follow to the left for 1.4 km.
(1h45) About 500 m before arriving
near the lighthouse, there is a bend in the road:
a small gravel road starts to the left,
on the left side of a few houses. You thus arrive at the top of a hill, crowned
with a geodesic pole (altitude 135 meters). You will enjoy a beautiful view of
the cape with its lighthouse. From the top, a path leads in 5 minutes to the
lighthouse. (1h56)
(1u56) In order to return to Akrotíri,
you should unfortunately follow the asphalt road: after about 20 minutes, you
pass the gravel road that comes from Mésa Pigádia which you followed earlier.
The road continues for another 1.4 kilometers or 18 minutes: you pass 2 small
asphalt roads on the right and a gravel road down to the beach of Kambiá.
(2h34) Once arrived near the next
asphalt road, you descend to the right. You thus arrive at the gate in the fence
surrounding the Panagía, which is mostly closed. To the left of it however, you
find a faint trail that continues to the left of a wall, and then on a terrace;
it leads to the stairs just right of the Panagía. You climb of course to the
left and get again to the asphalt road (with just opposite the stall of wine).
(2h39) You take a right, but soon you
see the narrow trail that continues to the right, just above the road. You keep
to the left at a fork, further to the right, and you go up with beautiful views.
Finally you get to the concrete road, next to the large villa.
(2h46) You descend straight ahead,
but after less than 2 minutes, you should keep to the left, and again 2 minutes
later, next to the store, you go to the right; shortly thereafter, you keep to
the to left, while continuing to descend.
You are already seeing the kástro in front of you and always descend in that
direction. You thus arrive at the asphalt road, but in the bend, you keep to the
left again on a concrete street. You arrive in this way in front of the kástro
where you go left: you pass the school and descend until the asphalt road. The
bus stop is on the right, and a little further to the right, there is the cozy
tavern Zaforá. (2h58)
[In April 2011, there was a bus at 5.50pm - but we advise of course to have a
look at the bus schedules before your departure.]