Aladinoú - Kouréli - Sasá - Aladinoú

Evaluation: The village of Aladinoú not only has a beautiful bridge, but also a little known cave - it even does not take 10 minutes to go and see this cave. Pleasant paths continue to the small villages of Kouréli and Sasá. This short excursion deserves *.
[Updated in October 2011 by Pierre Songis and on 2 October 2012 by Raymond.]
[The translation of this walk was made with some help of Google translate - so, do not mind the mistakes...]

Estimated time
: The short walk up to the cave takes about 10 minutes (AWT). A nice trail continues towards Kouréli – in about 20 minutes - and then to Sasá (or Orinó) – this stretch takes again 15 minutes. The actual walking time thus amounts to a total of about 1h10...

Route description
: [You only can reach the quiet village of Aladinoú by car or motorbike: starting from the by-pass road of Messariá, you take the direction of Aladinoú and Fállika. Already after a few minutes, you see in front of you the village and its beautiful bridge.]

The bridge of Aladinoú.

The old bridge crosses the "Megálos Potamós" ("The Great River"), which has its source on the other side of the island, near the village of Zaganiáris. Downstream, there is also the famous bridge of Stichioménis, where the walk [1] that leads from Messariá to the monastery of Panachrántou, passes. The river flows into the sea near Chóra, on the beach of Parapórti.
The spot is very picturesque - do not forget to go down, until under the bridge.

The bridge of Aladinoú, from below.

On the other side, there is an old sign, which indicates to the right the directions of Kouréli, Sasá and Aládou.

(0h00) On the other side of the bridge of Aladinoú, you can mount the stairs painted in white. A sign tells you that the 85 steps were built in 1975 at the expense of a certain Theófilos Dertoúrou. You climb up to the asphalt road, next to a source - behind you, you enjoy a beautiful view of the bridge site.

Looking behind you, towards the bridge.

In front, a staircase continues to rise (sign "Spíleo" (Cave)). You follow a beautiful old staircase, which climbs with its nice pavement between nice walls. After 5-6 minutes, you get to a bifurcation (sign "Spíleo").

(0h08) If you want to visit the cave, you continue RIGHT on the nice trail with a beautiful view over the valley. Pay attention: after a little more than a minute, you should go to the RIGHT through a breach in the wall - there is a blue arrow and the word CAVE on a rock. The descent leads quickly to the cave, which is enclosed by a fence. It is possible to ask for a guided tour by calling 697/0717137 - however the person in question is not always available.

The entrance of the cave of Aladinoú.

There is a table and a stone bench. You have a beautiful view of the houses of Messariá that form a long line, and also of Lámyra, above and to the left. After your visit, you go back to the main trail.

[The trail that continues to the right is quite promising at the beginning, after a few minutes, however, it comes to a dead end.]

(0h09) So you retrace your steps to the left, until you arrive at the bifurcation. You now take a right - and you can already see Kouréli to the left and above. The climb is quite beautiful, and when you arrive in front of some rocks, you wind up on a splendid staircase.

The path that leads from Aladinoú to Kouréli and Sasá.

You continue to climb for a few minutes and you arrive on the asphalt road, just between the road signs of the two villages Kouréli and Sasá.

(0h20) After crossing the road you continue straight on the path, then you come to a crossroads: on the left there is a sign "Odós 28 Oktovríou 1940"; the old road sign points to the left to Kouréli and to the right to Sasá
.
(0h22) You first can take a left: the trail continues more or less horizontally, later it becomes a small concrete path between scattered houses. After 4 minutes, you again get to the asphalt road, you go down the stairs on the opposite side and the pleasant path now goes around the valley. It turns left under a very nice mulberry tree, but a little later, you climb the stairs to the RIGHT (the path continues straight to the school and the church, but it is obstructed by vegetation). You again get to the asphalt road, which you follow for a few minutes to the left - and in this way you arrive next to the church and the school, located downstairs.

The church of Kouréli.

(0h33) You retrace your steps, so you follow first the road, then you go down the stairs to the right and you thus arrive at the trail. You go left and you still get to the road, where you continue straight. You finally reach the crossroads of  the "Odós 28 Oktovríou 1940."

(0h44) You now continue straight to Sasá and the pleasant trail already arrives after just a few minutes next to the church. A little further on, you cross the route of the walk [7], which comes from below.

[If you go down here to the right, to the road, you indeed will discover a red arrow, a trail marker [7] and a sign "Iera Odós pros Ierá Moní Panachrántou" - see the walk Agia Triáda - Panachrántou – Messariá.]

(0h47) You retrace once again your steps and soon you get to the bifurcation, where of course you continue straight down to the asphalt road. You continue just opposite and after another 2 minutes, you descend the 6 beautiful curves; you continue straight to Aladinoú and you reach the side trail, which comes from the cave.

(1h00) Again you continue straight, down on the magnificent staircase, you arrive between a few houses, you cross the road and go down the white staircase until you get in front of the bridge. Your car is waiting at the other side ... (1h07)

[An old sign indicates to the right the direction of the village of Fállika. If you go right and take the white staircase, you will get to a concrete road: you go right for some moments, then left onto the asphalt road - but a path starts almost immediately on the right. This beautiful trail climbs gradually, between walls. After 10 minutes, you climb some steep turns, and soon after you reach a fork: the left path is blocked, you go right ... but a little further, this path is also completely blocked. Too bad, because this path could lead you up to Fállika, from where you could continue to the monastery ...]

 

In order to get the printer-friendly version
with only the text
in one column
click here.