Evaluation: This hike to Panagía tósou Neroú is really a unique one! It leads to a part of Sífnos where there are very few trails and where you probably have not been yet. You will discover a wild landscape with a great panorama on Kamáres and on the other side of the valley. There is an opportunity to have a swim on the rocky beach of Vlási, just under Panagía tósou Neroú. And…everywhere you come it is wonderfully calm. This hike is a real must and therefore we give it an evaluation of ***.

Estimated time: This is a fairly long hike, without alternative routes – unless you try to descend towards Kamáres on the way back. You have to consider two hours each way (actual hiking time) coming from and going to Apollonía. But you have to spend enough time in the three monasteries and you can picnic for about one hour at Panagía tósou Neroú. If you go down to have a swim at the beach of Vlási (do not forget that you also have to climb back up, a difference in altitude of 400 metres!), this hike will turn out to be a full day trip.

Route description: You can start this hike in a number of different ways – once you reach the monastery of Theológos tou Mongoú there are no more difficulties and from then onwards the path becomes very easy to follow. These are the three possibilities to start:

(a) The easiest and shortest start of our hike goes like this.

You walk from the platia of Apollonía back on the asphalt road to Kamáres. At the three-forked road you continue to the right for another 300-400 metres towards Kamáres until you discern a road going up on the left with a sign to Panagía Ródoon toon Amarántoon. On this road you take the flight of steps immediately on the right. You continue on this staircase for about four minutes until you get to a small and rocky plateau. Over there you go straight/to the right towards a white church. High upwards and in a distance you can see the monastery of Profítis Ilías. You now walk on the left hand side of the white church (with a beautiful view on the rest of this hike) and then on the right hand side of a church with a blue dome. You go in the direction of Theológos tou Mongoú, a monastery with a blue dome as well. You finally get to this monastery, which you can enter by means of a staircase on the left. You have now been hiking for about 15 minutes.

When you get back to the path, after your visit, you obviously have to take a left, going  slightly upwards. The trail gets vaguer in between the shrubs until you reach a concrete road. You follow this road for another 100 metres to the left till you get to a junction on the other side of the monastery. The road on the right leads to the monastery of Agios Elefthérios, high upwards.

[(b) Walking back from the platia of Apollonía to Kamáres on the asphalt road, you can again take a right towards Kamáres at the three-forked-junction. This time, however, you go, immediately past a small bridge, upwards to the left on a concrete road (there is a sign Tzamia, 50 m). You now walk straight towards the Profítis Ilías until you get to a group of houses. The concrete road turns into a gravel road and passes a graveyard on the left hand side (you have left Apollonía for about 10 minutes now). From now onwards you walk in a big curve around the valley in which Theológos tou Mongoú is situated. You pass a small road on the left hand side and when you get to the highest point of the road there is another gravel road off the left. You take a right here and then descend until you reach the monastery and there you find a junction: the road on the left, that goes further to the monastery of Agios Elefthérios, high upwards.

In order to visit the monastery of Theológos you can enter through a black gate, in between concrete poles on the right at the junction. This gate is closed with some wire, but you are allowed to unfasten it and to  walk over a fallow piece of land to a field with olive trees. Over there, the beautiful and very peaceful monastery is located. After your visit you have to return to the junction.

(c) This is another, even longer, way to begin this hike:

Leaving from the platia of Apollonía you take the pedestrian road Stylianou Prokou to Katavat. You pass the main church and the gymn´ásio (secondary school). After you have passed the curve of the asphalt road and just before the pandopolio of M. Sardi (where you can buy some supplies of drinks) you take a right on a paved street (you have now been walking for about 12 minutes). This street will zigzag downwards for some four minutes and will bring you to a church with a blue dome.  You walk past the church on the right hand side and you walk straight once you get to the street. A little further on you take a left and in this way you go straight towards the blue dome of Theológos tou Mongoú and the white monastery of Agios Elefthérios higher upwards. Again a hundred metres further you take a right: the path becomes concrete, it descends rather quickly and it goes down steeply as a narrow and rocky trail. After about 2-3 minutes you DO NOT go left on another, rather flat, path, but you continue to descend until you reach the bypass.  You cross this road and next to a kind of sewage pipe you keep on going down into a little gorge. From this gorge you go up again, to the left of two pigeon towers, following a rocky flight of steps in between walls, until you get to the left of the graveyard. This is a beautiful, well-shaded spot, underneath some pine trees – there is, however, quite a lot of rubbish, which is really a pity. You have now been on the road for about 25 minutes.

To the left of the graveyard you get to a gravel road, which curves around the valley in which Theológos tou Mongoú is situated, for about 20 minutes. Following this gravel road you pass a small road on the left. At the highest point of the road, where there is another gravel road going upwards to the left, you take a right  in order to descend to the beautiful monastery. At the monastery itself the gravel road splits up again: you go up to the left, towards Agios Elefthérios.

It is obvious that you have to devote some time to the visit of this monastery of Theológos tou Mongoú. 

After having taken one of these three “starting routes”, the remainder of the road to Agios Elefthérios is very clear and unambiguous.]

For a short while you follow the gravel road in the direction of Agios Elefthérios (there is a sign). After a bend to the left, you will see the beginning of a monopáti to the right of the road. This path goes straight to the monastery higher upwards, with next to it a huge radar reflector. The beautiful, rocky trail continues rather flatly for about five minutes, alongside some fields with olive trees. At this point we heard a man who shouted from an orchard "mía óra na páte" or "it will take you about one hour”. He knew where we were heading for, but fortunately the road was going to be much shorter. From now onwards you will soon start to climb rather steeply, following some 150 steps and some pieces of concrete or rock. When you get to the top of the hill, after about five minutes, you have a marvellous panorama: Agios Elefthérios is already much closer, high to the left you see the fortress of the Profítis Ilías and behind you you have a great view on Artemónas and Apollonía, all the way to the sea.

The trail now continues flatly, in between rocks – you should definitely try the echo! -, but then it goes up again steeply over some steps and over a rocky slope (these steps have been renewed in 1997 and you start wondering who is doing all this work). A little further you walk between dense shrubs of juniperus until you reach the modest buildings of Agios Elefthérios already after 20 minutes. The well is almost dried up, there are only a few names in the guestbook and there is a lot of peace and silence on this isolated location, at an altitude of about 325 metres. It is almost unbelievable that you have left Theológos tou Mongoú only half an hour ago.

The monastery of Agios Elefthérios.

Your trail now goes on the right of the buildings towards the radar reflector. Before you get to the reflector the path bends to the left, in northwestern direction. It is now an easy stroll over a rather flat path which sometimes goes up slightly. You have a beautiful view on the opposite side of the valley towards Kamáres: you can distinguish the two “guards” of the bay, Agios Simeoón and Profítis Iliís Troulakioú, the (smoking) mine of Vorini and the road zigzaging down from this mine to Kamáres. Also on your side of the hill you will see remnants of mine exploitation. After some 20 minutes the trail goes up again and in this way you will gradually get a nice view on the bay of Kamáres and then on the houses of Agia Marína, the port of Kamáres itself and the beach – 25 minutes after Agios Elefthérios.

A panorama of the bay of Kamáres.

A couple of minutes later on, when the port starts to disappear behind a rock, the trail goes up again on the rocky slope. Some five minutes after you have had the nicest view on Kamáres you will easily reach a stony pass, to the left of a big rock Kamáres disappears and in front of you you will discern another coast line, the sea and the islands of Kímolos and Mílos. You are now at an altitude of 410 metres and the wind can blow here very fiercely.

The path now zigzags down again. You will see goats once in a while and you will get a beautiful view on Panagía tósou Neroú and the coast line. 

Panagía tósou Neroú and the coast.

The trail now descends much faster and you have to be careful not to slip on the rocky trail. Some 30 minutes after the pass you will reach the fairly big monastery, still at an altitude of 150 metres: there is a draw-well (but no bucket), there is a kitchen with cutlery and a fridge, a large dining room, four beds and a church – there is even a bathroom.  Everything seems to wait for a large group of pilgrims, but at the moment there is only peace and quiet. 

There is a path descending further towards the coast and to the bay of Vlási, where you can have a swim.
At first the steps go down straight towards the south. After five minutes of descending steeply and immediately past a huge, jagged, brown rock you get to another trail: you have to go to the right, further down to the sea. You then continue to descend for another 15 minutes; the last couple of minutes you take a zigzaging flight of stone steps (176 steps), which begins immediately to the left of a valley full of  oleanders – they are magnificent  in the flowering season! In this way you will reach the idyllic little beach of Vlási, where the crystal clear water invites you to swim.

The route to get to your destination has taken about two hours and a half (depending on the path you have taken). The way back, though, will also go very smooth: first you have to climb up for 20 minutes till you get to Tósou Neroú (do not forget to go up to the left at the junction past the passage between two trees and underneath the brown rock). Then you have to climb up for another 40 minutes till you get to the pass, another 35 minutes to Agios Elefthérios and then 25 minutes to Theológos tou Mongoú. Then another 20 minutes to the platia taking the shortest route; so all together this is 2.20 hours. 

Back at the junction at Theológos tou Mongoú you have to take a left and at this point you might have some difficulties to find the path: after about 50 metres, just before a metal fence, you have to search in between the overgrowth to find the rather invisible trail. This trail gets clearer after some 100 metres, to the left hand side of a wall, which brings us on the left of the Theológos-monastery. You continue like that along side the white and blue little church till you reach some stairs. You take these stairs to the left until you get to the road. Over here you can wait for the bus to Kamáres (if you have written down the bus schedule in advance), but it is much more pleasant to wait at the outdoor café of Lákis on the platia.

[On the way back you can also try to descend from the pass above Kamáres straight to Kamáres. About 15 minutes past the pass you could climb over the slope towards the left till you get to the ruins of towers and of Mávri Spiliá. The trail is difficult to discern, but it starts on the level of a small fragmented wall, some 150 metres before a big cistern with remnants of walls – at the level of the third hill with the rests of some mine exploitation. For this path, see the hike Kamáres - Panagía tósou Neroú.]