Ioulída - Agios Konstantínos - Mylopótamos - Fléa - Agia Marína - Plagiá - Písses
Evaluation:
This fairly long hike first follows the official hike
[2] and then it leads you to the green
valley of Mylopótamos, where in earlier days 11 water mills used to work by
means of the abundant well of Fléa. Unfortunately, the beautiful trail between
Ioulída and Korissía has largely been destroyed due to the construction of the
modern road. Only between the chapel of Agios Konstantínos and the valley of
Mylopótamos you can still find the ancient, broad path. After Fléa you continue
on gravel roads and a stretch of an unpleasant asphalt road, but also on a few
very beautiful trails. The valley of Mylopótamos, the strange tower of Agia
Marína and the trail from Plagiá to Písses are absolute highlights, lending the
hike definitely an evaluation of ***.
[Update by Raymond on October 25th, 2010 and on April 29th,
2018.]
[The translation of this
walk was made with some help of Google translate - so, please, do not mind the
mistakes...]
[If you want to avoid the 2 km of asphalt until Agios Konstantínos, you can
start this hike in Mylopótamos – see the hike Mylopótamos – Fléa – Agia Marína -
Písses and back.
If you also want to avoid the stretch of asphalt between Fléa and Agios Nikólaos,
you could continue by car until the crossroads at point
(1h16) of this hike…]
Estimated time:
You walk on the asphalt road for about 15 minutes and to cover the very
beautiful trajectory between Agios Konstantínos and Mylopótamos it will take you
some 18 minutes. You continue for about 20 minutes in the green valley past the
water mills, until you get to the well of Fléa. After another 35 - 40 minutes
you reach the tower of Agia Marína and from there onwards it will take you an
hour till Písses. All together this means an actual hiking time of 2h35, which
refers in fact to a fairly long hike of about 5 hours – we hiked from 11am to
4pm.
Route
description:
(0h00) At the parking place under the Piátsa of Ioulída you take the asphalt
road to the harbour of Korissía. After 1,5 minutes, when you get to the lower
situated parking place, you keep to the right, obviously, and you go further
down – on the left, against the medical centre, the well known Rakoménou-well
from 1871 has been rebuilt. You descend for about 16 minutes to cover 1,5
kilometres; when you arrive at the sharp hairpin bend to the right, you notice
on your left-hand side the remarkably broad trail going straight ahead. There is
also a sign (Mylopótamos 25' / Korissía 50') and you can see a trail marker [2]
on a pole. Slightly further the path passes underneath the chapel of Agios
Konstantínos with a well next to it.
(0h16)
The following 18
minutes are really marvellous: you walk on a slightly descending and broad
trail, usually beautifully paved with large stones, and with yellow thistles
between the stones (on the 9th of June 2007).
(0h34)
At
the end of this path you pass a small chapel and then you reach the bed of the
river Mylopótamos,
where the main trail curves to the right (see the hike Ioulída - Korissía). Over
here you take a left on a small gravel road.
Directly thereafter the trail [2] goes to the right, in
between two walls and shaded by large cypresses.
A little further you keep to the right and the trail narrows. You rise above the
very green and narrow valley and after some 9 minutes you see the first large
bordering stones of the kalderími. You hear the murmuring of water and one
minute later you reach the ruins of the first water mill. You go up on the
left-hand side of this mill [2] and after another 2 minutes you arrive at the
second, somewhat restored mill. All together there used to be 11 water mills and
they all used the water of the upstream located well of Fléa. The mill stones
were driven by a horizontally positioned wheel. Some two minutes later your
trail descends until it gets to the bed of the river. While looking at the
streaming water you notice a trail marker [2] on the house, on the opposite side
of the river...
(0h46)
The trail descends
to the right, with steps
(red sign on a rock),
and you easily reach the other side;
you get up on a staircase, next to two houses
(2 times [2]),
and, after
the second home, you continue
to go up BEFORE
arriving on a small
concrete road [2]. There is
water everywhere,
water comes out of
the rock, water
flowing from
a channel, and
on your left-hand side you notice the neck of a water mill (the rotating
wheel was in there) and also a water shoot. Slightly further you pass underneath
the Panagía and then you turn to the right sharply and you go up (you DO NOT
proceed straight ahead!). You thus get to a small gravel road where you find the
hiking sign "Mylopótamos 10' ". You continue up towards the right until you
arrive at the asphalt road, where you take a left.
(0h55)
You then get to the left of a concrete bridge; near a large nursery-garden and
past the bridge, you can see on your left-hand side the abundant well of
Fléa – in earlier times this well drove the water mills. On a stone you notice
the date 1877.
You DO NOT cross the bridge, but you continue straight ahead in the bed of the
river. A few minutes later you leave the bed on the left, but later on you cross
the bed again, in order to go straight ahead and up ... on an asphalt road, that
recently replaced a gravel road. You go up now, and the steep climb is not that
pleasant - but on the left, there is a very green valley, with lots of cypresses
and later on with beautiful slopes full of blooming broom and oleanders in the
bed of the river.
(1h16)
After some 20 minutes
you arrive at a junction where you take a right (note the blue dot). But after
20 metres already you go left on a small gravel road; after about 30 metres this
road is blocked by a metal gate – and on the right of this gate you find the
beginning of a beautiful trail between walls. The following 10 minutes are
really marvellous, on an obvious and almost flat trail: at first it is sometimes
nicely paved, later on it more or less runs in a bed between the tall walls.
After 10 minutes you get to a concrete road; you DO NOT go up to the right, but
you continue straight ahead.
(1h32)
And then, all of a sudden,
after 5-6 minutes, the surrealistic and incredibly high tower of Agia Marína
rises in front of you!
First you see on your left side a trail that goes up to the left (sign to
Sklavonikóla, hike [12]), see the hike Ioulída – Petrovoúni – Sklavonikóla –
Agia Marína – Písses.
A little further, you arrive to the right of the very dilapidated tower.
This is a Hellenistic
tower dating from the late 4th century B.C. – it had a double wall and five
floors. It takes its name from the small church built next to it. The tower was
seriously damaged in recent times, and as a result it is now very dangerous to
approach the tower too closely.
In April 2018, restoration works were going on…
At the cross-road, you DO NOT take the road on the left, alongside the church,
NOR the middlemost road, but the road on the far right. In 2009 wooden signs
were put here, and the trail was given the number [12].
[You could
make a detour of 3 minutes, going first straight to the source of Agia Marína:
it is dated 1959 and you see many troughs and a large washing-place - this
proves that this place once was very lively, which is not that surprising in
this very fertile valley! You then return to the cross-road.]
(1h32) You thus take the dirt road to the right
- a few minutes later, you see on your
left another trail that leads to the source of Agia Marína (sign).
You keep to the left near some houses [12] and further you veer twice to the
left. This dirt road, with occasionally a concrete section, continues on a
gentle slope above a deep and green valley.
(1h45)
You arrive between a few houses – this is the hamlet
of Plagiá – and with
some suspicion you can see the road going up against the following hill. But you
should not go that far, because already after 3 minutes you reach a narrow
gravel road off the left, which you follow (sign and [12]).
You pass a nice threshing floor (alóni)
and you arrive after again 3 minutes near some stables, where the road ends -
but there is a beautiful trail that continues (sign Písses coast 55’ and 2 X
[12]).
(1h51)
This is a great, natural trail with a wall on the left-hand side. The trail
gradually descends with on your left a truly magnificent valley, the valley of
Kremastí. The trail is
sometimes beautifully paved, especially the second part. You
slowly veer to the right and the broad fertile valley of Pisses appears in front
of you. A little later, the descent becomes steeper - there are steps, and the
monopáti is sometimes covered with tall grass. You discover rather quickly the
gravel road, down in the valley, where you will arrive. But you first turn right
again, then left and so you come down in the valley. After a pleasant descent of
some 20-21 minutes, you get to a dirt and concrete road, that you follow towards
the middle of the valley [12], between high walls, and you finally arrive in the
river bed [12].
(2h12) You follow this bed to the right and after 7 minutes you thus
arrive in the main river bed, which you follow for another 12 minutes to the
right. You pass next to the campsite Kéa and you soon reach the beautiful beach
of Písses - next to the nice restaurant Christóforos. (2h36)
The beach is wide and sandy, there are tamarisk that provide shade and there are
benches, awnings and umbrellas.
In front you see the coast of Attica, and if you look closely, you even can
distinguish the temple of Cape Sounion!