Walking, hiking ad trekking on ANAFI
BOATS ANAFI
- Aqua
Spirit
- Vintsentsos
Kornaros
- Preveli
(ANEK)
- Artemis
WALKS
(last update on the 26th of February 2013)
*** = very beautiful
**** = exceptional
N = new in 2011
NNN = new in 2013
1.
Chóra - Agia Marína - Chóra N
(French)
2. Chóra - Exo Roúkounas - Roúkounas - Megálos Potamós - Agii Anárgyri - Monastíri and back *** N
3. Chóra - Kastélli - Panagía tou Dókari - Roúkounas ***
4. Chóra - Katsoúni - Klisídi - Agios Nikólaos - Chóra N
5. Chóra - Psáthi - Stavrós - Panagía Vouvoón and back N
8. Moní Zoödóchou Pigís - Panagía Kalamiótissa and back ****
9. Roúkounas - Panagía tou Dókari - Kastélli - Agios Mámas - Monastíri and back **** N
Anáfi is a small island (38 km²), and also the most
southeastern island of the Cyclades. Because of this isolated location it has not yet been affected by
tourism, which contrasts sharply with the nearby island of Santoríni.
According to
mythology, the island "Anaphè" appeared from the sea by order
of the god Apollo, and this to offer a shelter to Iasoon and the Argonauts
after a heavy storm.
Because of the volcanic eruption in the year 1650 BC, which created the
present-day spectacular view of Santorini and its volcano, also at Anáfi
thin layers of pumice stone came down at certain places. Later on, the
history of Anáfi ran parallel to the history of the other Cycladic isles:
in the year 1207, for instance, it was also annexed by Marco Sanudo, the
king of the Latin-Venetian state of Náxos, and in the year 1537 it became
Turkish.
Because the island suffered a lot from invasions by pirates, it
depopulated almost completely – which still explains the absence of
terraces for agriculture and of donkey trails. In 1956 Anáfi met with the
same fate as Santoríni and it was almost entirely destroyed by the
earthquake.
The small island is
very mountainous with a relatively high summit: the Vìgla is
585m high. The interior is very dry, but still there are a couple
of deep and narrow valleys, remarkable because of the dense vegetation
consisting of all kinds of large cacti.
In earlier days there were only few boat connections with Anáfi, but in
recent times the island seems to abandon its isolation.
At this point there are connections from the Piraeus, via Santoríni,
to Anáfi, about twice a week. This boat (the Prevéli) then continues to Kássos, Kárpathos, Chalkí and Ródos
. Once a week there is also the Vintsentsos Kornáros, which
covers the route via Mílos, Folégandros, Síkinos, Ios and Santoríni,
also to Anáfi.
In addition, the Aqua Spirit (twice a week) and the Artemis (once a
week) take care of the connections between Anáfi and Santoríni,
Thirasiá, Ios, Síkinos, Folégandros, Náxos, Páros and Sýros -
these boats are the successors to the old Panagía Tinoú.
The
distance from the Piraeus is 150 nautical miles, about 280 km, which means
that the crossing takes a long time – up to 12 -14 hours. Therefore, it
is more interesting to first take a fast boat from the Piraeus to Santoríni
and then you can cover the remaining 12 nautical miles to Anáfi in about
2 hours...
The harbour of Agios
Nikólaos is very small and it is connected with the main town of Chóra
by means of the only asphalt road. Because of its amphitheatre-shaped
location and also because of the wind mills on the slope of the hill,
Chora is really very picturesque and attractive. Striking is that most of
the houses, also the newer ones, are built with a vaulted roof – which
offers better resistance against earthquakes. Also remarkable are the
baking ovens, although these days they are only used sporadically. All
together there are only about 300 people living in these two villages.
The island also
offers a number of interesting archaeological sites. On the slope of the
Kastélli (325m) you can find the remains of the ancient Anaphè; a little
downwards there is the chapel of Panagía tou Dókari with a very nice
Roman sarcophagus in front of it.
No doubt the most impressive sites are the two monasteries on the eastern
point of the island: the monastery of Panagía Zoödóchou Pigís at the
foot of and the monastery of Panagía i Kalamiótissa on the side of the
450-metres high Kálamos. The large monastery of Zoödóchos Pigí is
built on the rests of the temple of Apollo and it has incorporated large
parts of the old temple wall in the new walls. The big festival (the Panigýri)
takes here place on the 8th of September. The high monastery of Panagía i
Kalamiótissa is marvellously situated on one of the summits of the Kálamos
(hence its name). The panoramic view in itself (sometimes all the way to
Crete, usually with all the surrounding Cycladics, whereby especially the
island of Amorgós with a view on the monastery of Panagía Chozoviótissa
is remarkable!) is worth the trip to Anáfi.
Anáfi also
possesses a couple of beautiful beaches on the south coast, with amongst
others the beach of Roúkounas (which is the longest one), the beach of
Klisídi (which is closest and which can be reached on foot) and the small
beaches underneath Agii Anárgyri (also to be reached on foot from the
monastery of Zoödóchos Pigí).
There is a good bus connection between Chóra and the monastery and by
means of this bus you can also get to the beaches of Roúkounas and to the
ones underneath Agii Anárgyri.
Anáfi is not the most interesting island to go hiking, but the hike to Panagía i
Kalamiótissa is really quite exceptional. You will not find real old
kalderimia on this island, but the existing trails can be found easily –
although there are not a lot of trail markers.
There were basically
no maps of Anáfi - the Road-map no. 116 is nowhere to be found and seems
to be out of stock – and the simple map you can get for free on the
island itself is very rudimentary.
But in March 2010, we saw the publication of a very good new map in the
series of the Terrain Maps: this map gives 7 walks, and on the back side,
there is a description of these walks.
Since January the 1st 2004
you are visitor n°
Anáfi from the sea, the typical profile of the island
Panoramic view on Chóra
Chóra (view
from the sea)
The beautiful situation of the monastery Zoödóchos Pigí
The Panagía i Kalamiótissa on Mount Kálamos
Panoramic view from the Panagía i Kalamiótissa
The Roman sarcophagus near the Panagía tou Dókari
The nice beach of Roúkounas
One of the few green spots on Anáfi