Chóra - Moni Chozoviótissa - Egiáli

Evaluation: This is definitely one of the most fabulous hikes on Amorgós. You follow the spine of the island, you get to know the marvellous Chozoviótissa-monastery, you discover some unique landscapes and you finally arrive at the pleasant bay of Egiáli, where you can have a swim. This hike obviously gets the maximum evaluation of ****.

Estimated time: The actual hiking time (AWT) takes at least four hours, so it is necessary to depart fairly early – for example by taking the bus from Katápola to Chóra at about 9am. It is advisable to visit the monastery before the arrival of the majority of the tourists, so around 10am at the latest. You can then picnic after having been hiking for about two hours, close to the deserted village of Asfondilítis. You will thus get to Egiáli at about 4pm which means that you still have time for some relaxing hours at the beach. You can take your evening dinner in one of the taverns at the harbour and you can return to Katápola with the evening bus (about 45 minutes) or with the Express Skopelítis (about 1 hour).

Route description: From the bus stop at the entrance to Chóra you leisurely walk to the other side of the village, via one of the long streets, in eastern direction. Alternatively, you can take the route higher up via the little squares, or the lower route which ends at the post office and from where you have to continue going up on the left. In each case you will get to the pleasant square near the beautiful terrace of Kath' Odon. You then leave the village by passing the schools (the gymnásio and the dimotikó) until you get to the OTE-building (the telephone company) and the aerial (a walk of about 10 minutes). You find a sign pointing to the right to the monastery, but first you should definitely admire the marvellous view on the large open spot in front of you.

For 15 minutes you now follow the magnificent staircase going down, high above the sea. In this way you arrive at the asphalt road which you already saw running deep underneath. You take this road to the left for about 5 minutes, till the parking lot. You go through the entrance and immediately you get a first view on the impressive monastery. You go up a very beautiful staircase to the monastery, which is high and sparkling white and which seems to be stuck to the overwhelming cliff. You definitely have to spend enough time to visit this monastery at ease; you have to remember though, that you have to be dressed decently in order to enter (men have to wear long trousers and women a skirt or some long pants and covered arms – these long clothes are available at the entrance of the monastery). The oldest buildings here date back from the 9^th century, the current building is 5 metres wide at the most and there are 8 floors. Amongst others you should notice the beautiful Venetian arch above the low entrance (dating from the 15th century), and the beautiful icons in the little church. The monks offer you some water, loukoum and a glass of liqueur, so it is recommended to also leave a small gift behind for the guardians of the marvellous spot.

When leaving the monastery, you can now start with the actual hike. You go through the metal gate with a signpost and the red-and-white sign with the figure 1, which will be your guide for the complete hike to Egiáli. A staircase takes you up even higher, along the rocks and after 5 minutes you get to a second gate, with goats behind it. You cross a big slope with loose stones and then you get to an overgrown stretch. The landscape is impressive and the silence is overwhelming; high above you towers a huge cliff and on the right you see the sea deep beneath. Twenty minutes after the monastery you get to a platform, with remnants of stable walls – behind you, the highest top of the monastery is just disappearing.

You continue over the rocky and overgrown slope, going straight ahead all the time (you pass a path off the left which leads to the Byzantine church of the Panagia Theoskepastí and another path off the right to Agios Ioannis Chrysóstomos). You then go up towards the left to the brown line through the landscape; this line is a stony road which you reach after about 10 minutes. You follow this useless destruction of the landscape through an impressive and rocky wilderness. Some 20 minutes later you reach a kind of saddle with the two coasts of Amorgós both before and after you. There is a crossing of roads and also a well. You go on to the right and your trail runs on the left hand side of a stony road. On the right you notice the Xenodochio, the remnants of a kind of medieval hotel on the road from Chóra to Egiáli. The trail descends for a little while; little cairns show you which way to go until you get to another sign with the figure 1. You approach the modern road and you get a marvellous view on the carved north coast. The trail gets unclear for a while: after the first figure 1 you do not descend further to the main road (because this trail runs to a dead end). Instead, you stay more or less at the same altitude by following the cairns. When you reach the second sign with the figure 1 the trail gets more obvious again. For the next 10 minutes you walk almost horizontally at first; later on the trail goes up again in between overgrown rocks. You walk in the direction of the highest point of a grey cape in front of you - when you hesitate, just follow the cairns, the red dots and some red-and-white signs. Gradually you get a great view on the elongated island Nikouriá.

During the next 50 minutes nothing spectacular happens: you first descend for a while, you go up again; you then curve to the right in order to avoid a deep valley in front of you. You go down again with a grey rock on the right, until you actually cross this rock ridge. The trail is not always that obvious, but large (cemented) cairns are like beacons to show you the way.  A little further on your trail ends up in between walls; you walk more or less around a kind of top covered with walls and you continue through an opening in a wall in eastern direction. You now walk alongside a wall, you curve to the right and you descend from a stony platform. You discover the other coast of the island on your right hand side again and deep down in front of you you can already distinguish the walls where you will end up later on.
At last you get to a long wall, which you more or less follow to the left. The trail is strewn with loose stones (decent shoes are very important!) and it finally ends up in between 2 walls. You open a metal gate and you go up for a little while till the small church. This is Asfondilítis, a deserted village on a rocky plateau. You can wander around for a while among the abandoned houses. You can still see the chimneys, but sometimes the houses have been turned into stables – has this place always been that desolate? But still, this can be a good spot for a picnic, since there is some shade on the north-east side of the church.

You are definitely more than halfway now, because you have already been hiking for 2 hours and 35 minutes.
For the next 30 minutes the broad and clear trail goes up gradually till the hill saddle of Exo Meriá: most of the time it is quite difficult to walk because of the loose stones, but there are also a couple of beautifully tiled stretches. Before the crossing (with on the right a signpost to Chalara, 30 minutes hiking) you see the Hellenistic towers. For the final part you walk along side the electric cable that used to serve Asfondilítis in earlier times.

Also Exo Meriá is situated on a rocky plateau and on the left there is path in between walls leading to the deserted houses. On the hills on the left and the right hand side you can still see the ruins of two wind mills. It is hard to imagine how difficult and lonely life must have been on this desolate spot.

You walk straight ahead over the rock plateau, in between walls running towards one another. Your trail will now describe a wide curve to go around the deep valley in front of you – to not attempt to descend into the valley, but continue in a wide curve to the right more or less horizontally. You can already see the trail which runs in front of you on the slope of the huge grey rock mass - it goes in the direction of the chapel high up, Agios Mámas. The path now tends to be easier going; after the wide curve you keep to the right at the ruins of two stables and you describe another small curve around a smaller valley. At this point you have an absolutely marvellous view on the island Nikouriá; with it particular shape it resembles the tail of a dinosaur. Some 20 minutes after Exo Meriá you arrive at the chapel of Agios Mámas.

The trail now continues like a magnificent balcony: far away you can already distinguish the village of Tholaria and all of a sudden you get a great view on the bay of Egiáli.

You go down over a path or staircase which is sometimes nicely tiled, but sometimes also completely destroyed. You pass a well and you walk over some large cisterns. After 30 minutes you get to the first house of Potamós. A very long cemented staircase brings you exactly above the church with its concrete dome. Over here you first keep to the left and later on you take a right. In 10 minutes you descend to the asphalt road: there is a sign pointing to Chóra in 4 hours, to the monastery in 3.30 hours. You take a left, straight towards the harbour pier of Egiáli, a walk of 5 more minutes. Since Asfondilítis you have been hiking for 1h25 – so all together this makes for 4 hours.

On the right of the harbour pier you find the bus stop and also a couple of restaurants. And more importantly, the beach of Egiáli is a very pleasant place to spend some relaxing hours.

The bus trip takes about 45 minutes, but in a little office you can also buy tickets for the Express Skopelítis, the boat that goes back to Katápola usually at 8pm. The boat trip through the narrow channel in between the main land and Nikouriá is really worthwhile and in one hour you are back in Katápola.

[If you want to make this hike in the opposite direction, you have to depart from the harbour pier in Egiáli and take the street which leads straight to Potamós. Over there you follow the staircase which goes up to the church with the blue dome and then you go higher and higher all the time.
We would suggest though, to make this hike in the direction Chóra-Egiáli: climbing up from  Egiáli is quite difficult and long, while at Chóra you begin this hike at a higher altitude already. The most beautiful part is between Exo Meriá and Egiáli and it is more pleasant to do this when you are already a little tired. It is much better to visit the monastery in the early morning and…when arriving in Egiáli there is the great beach to freshen up!]

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