Ioulída - Episkopí - Péra Meriá - Sikamiá

 

Evaluation: This hike combines the beginning of the official hike no. [3] with hike no. [4], which actually leaves from Episkopí. A few parts of the monopáti, especially between Episkopí and Tría Maderiká, belong to the most beautiful trails of the island. After the hike, you can have a great swim on the usually deserted beach of Sikamiá.
This hike deserves an evaluation of ***.
[Update in May 2010 by Ivan Polunin, Mallorca]

Estimated time: One way, this hike takes 2h40 actual walking time. We hiked from 10.30pm till 3pm (total walking time), including a small detour to the height of Episkopí – as usual, this is almost double of the actual walking time. If you would like to also return on foot – with a difficult climb in the beginning -, this will turn out to be a long hiking day, so you better start early in the morning. The problem is that many taxis hesitate to follow the bad gravel road to the beach, when you call them in order to return. We thus had to walk back along the gravel road until we got to the asphalt near Péra Meriá – which makes for a rather unattractive trip of one hour and a half. You can also walk half of the hike back and then ask a taxi to come to the point where hike no. [4] crosses the asphalt road (not too far away from the chapel of Agios Mámas).

Route description: For all hikes departing from Chóra you leave from the parking place (with bus stop). You walk through the archway – stóa – with the small shop Kianos on your right. You enter a tiny square – the Piátsa, with the outdoor terrace of the café/estiatório I Piátsa. Turn right, through a modern vaulted archway, to the centre. Left leads to the Kástro. After some 20 metres you keep to the right at a large wooden hiking sign; in front of you, you can see the church with the red dome of the Agios Dimítrios. You pass the nice bar + terrace En Levkoó and via the Odós A. Lazarídi. About 80 metres after the wooden hiking sign you get to the central square, the "platía", with the "dimarchío" or town hall.
You continue and at the small electricity store you branch right; you then go up the staircase street (a small sign points to the "archaíos léoon", the "old lion"). After some 2 minutes you get to the junction of the important hikes [1] (straight ahead to the Lion and Otziás) and [3] (on the right to Karthéa).
The sign tells you that it will take you 35 minutes to walk to Messariá, the area around Episkopí. You thus take a right into the Odós Ilía Malavózou, which is a nice staircase street. After 14-15 steps you go up straight across and to the right [3] and further on you keep to the left [3]. After 77 steps you pass one of the three bakeries of Ioulída and later on there is a mini-market on the left – over here you might buy some more drinks or other supplies.
The street continues to go up and after 4 minutes you leave the village on a climbing concrete road – on the left you have a nice view of the site of the Lion (below). Some 2-3 minutes later you pass a nice well; from here, the view on the location of the Lion and on the trail of hike no. [1], running past the cemetery and above the Lion, is the most beautiful. Another steep climb and you then arrive at the asphalt road; the staircase continues on the opposite side of the road  (a small sign points to Elliniká and Karthéa + [3]). You have now been hiking for 19 minutes.

The nice path, which is a broad and paved staircase, especially in the beginning, runs past a couple of houses. After 4-5 minutes (at the crest of the ridge) it gets to a gravel road, which descends to an asphalt road in 100 metres. The gravel road continues straight across the asphalt road, with a no. [3] somewhat hidden on the left-hand wall. In 50 metres the monopáti continues (down) on the right [3], sometimes nicely paved. Some 6-7 minutes later, at a tall electricity pole, you get to a junction: trail [3] continues on the left and it runs on the left-hand side of a wall, slightly overgrown. You have to struggle through the thistles – some long trousers and sleeves are really quite handy - , you pass under a nice, knotty tree and you keep to the left again after 5-6 minutes. After 2 more minutes you walk through a typical Greek gate made of rusty iron and one minute further you follow a gravel road for a very short while. Straight across, however, your trail continues between walls. The trail is more obvious now and also somewhat paved. You cross a small stream of water after 3 minutes and you then reach a vague junction, where you keep to the left. You then arrive at a marvellous well with clear, potable water – the plate indicates the year 1879.

You take the beautiful staircase up on the left and after 2 minutes already you arrive at a very clear three-forked-junction, with a wooden signpost indicating three directions: hike no.[3] continues by going up on the right, but you have to proceed straight ahead in the direction of Episkopí. The marvellous trail, which is shaded by oaks and Mediterranean maples, keeps going up and some 2-3 minutes later you get to a well-indicated side-road. On the right, there is a sign pointing to Episkopí; hike no. [4] to Sikamiá begins straight ahead.  

[You can also take a right first and after 3 minutes you then reach a gravel road, which you follow to the left. At the sign "Náos Episkopís" you open an iron gate and you continue to the remnants of an old tower (some ancient construction elements are incorporated into this tower) and the impressive (but closed) church of the monastery. These ancient construction elements (also the altar has assimilated a Doric capital) indicate that an antique temple used to be situated on this spot. Unfortunately, though, the view is limited to the Profítis Ilías and its summit covered in aerials. After your visit you return the same way you came and at the wooden sign you take a right, obviously. Also on the main trail you go right, of course. ]

The path to Sikamiá is still nicely shaded, but it is also slightly more overgrown. After 3 minutes you have to watch out: you reach a couple of ruins and walls, in front of a deep valley: you SHOULD NOT go down on the left, but you have to take a right – a no. 4 trail marker and blue arrow clearly show the way . The trail is now unambiguous and pleasantly flat; after 9 minutes you pass a house – possibly via a small stretch of gravel road besides the house, and a little later you get to a concrete road. You follow this road to the left, but fortunately it becomes a nice trail after 1 minute already.

Your monopáti is now beautifully paved and it descends; after a flat stretch you pass a turn to the well of Sotíras, but you continue straight ahead. The following trajectory is beautiful, but it goes up quite steeply. After an uninterrupted and wonderful path of 18 minutes all together you reach a gravel road. You go left for a short while and at a junction of the road you take a right (this is nicely indicated by means of the trail marker [4]). You follow the gravel road for another 5-6 minutes and you then arrive at the asphalt road, next to the impressive, large grounds of a metallurgic company (reinforcing bars are folded over here).

[If you would like to return by taxi, but if this taxi does not want to drive to Sikamiá via the gravel road, you can then make the final part of the hike on foot and meet the taxi driver on this spot – see further.]

Straight across towards the right, at the small chapel and a wooden sign "Tría Maderiká 20' and Sikamiá 55'", your trail continues. You now go down on a nice trail until you have to open a wire-mesh metal gate after some 15 minutes. You thus get to a rocky terrain between walls. It is now more difficult to follow the right track: you have to stay as close as possible to the left-hand wall, also when this wall moves more to the left and also when it goes down slightly. Further down you notice a trail marker [4] and blue dots on the wall, and much more down you also find the continuation of the trail. The stony monopáti meanders between some low bushes until you get to a more obvious trail again, to the right. A little further you keep to the left, you descend and after 8 minutes you finally distinguish a reassuring no. [4] on a rock. After a few more minutes you pass the well of Tría Maderiká (dated 1955) and you keep following the wall on your left-hand side, also further down, at a vague junction. All of a sudden you will thus detect the bay of Sikamiá in front of you.
At a trail marker [4] on a triangular boulder you continue a little to the right, moving away from the left-hand wall. Keep above this wall and head for the two parallel walls that descend the ridge. Note the 4. at the ‘entrance’ to these two parallel walls. You descend pretty steeply now, meandering between the two walls. After 5-6 minutes the walls move closer to one another and then you walk on a narrow and rocky ridge. You can see the beach again, and the difficult descent in front of you, on the ridge, between the two walls. After ten minutes of going down steeply you get to a small wall, just before the alóni (threshing floor) which you could distinguish from far away already; you can notice a trail marker [4] on this wall and a small arrow to the left.  

You step over the low wall to the left and you find a very vague trail that zigzags down – the generally direction of the trail is towards the left-hand side of the beach, but the descent is very well marked with blue dots and red and white markers. After about 10 minutes you get to a (wire-mesh) metal fence; on the left you notice a red-white sign and not without difficulties you get through the fence. The path descends steeply now, towards the road, running on the right-hand side of a wall. After 2 minutes you get down and you then continue to the right for 3 more minutes – on a gravel road leading to the beach. The water is wonderfully clear, but quite cold until the 1st of June – because of the open bay. The beautiful beach is shaded by a few large tamarisks.  

[For the return route there are three possibilities:

- you can call a taxi and if the driver is willing to come down to the beach, via the bad gravel road, there is no problem. The taxi will cost you 20€ (in May 2006).

- you can call a taxi, but maybe the driver does not want to drive any further than the asphalt road. Then, there are again two options:
You can either meet at the far end of the asphalt road in Péra Meriá. This means that you have to walk along the gravel road for one hour and a half and climb up for about 250 metres. There are also a couple of junctions on the way, so a decent map is necessary. In the beginning, the panoramic view is great, though, to the right on a couple of nice little bays and to the left on a deep valley with on the opposite side the ridge with the trail you followed when coming down. After a while, however, the road gets monotonous and tiresome. Watch out, after walking for one hour, you get to a junction not indicated on the map – near a house with a blue chimney; you then have to go straight ahead, NOT to the right!
You can also meet the taxi driver at the point where hike no. [4] crosses the asphalt road, at the large metallurgic company. This means that you have to walk back following the trail – the beginning of the path along the wall is not indicated and the climb up the ridge is quite strenuous; this makes for a trip of over one hour as well. In order to explain to the taxi drive where you want to meet, you can say that the trail gets to the asphalt road between Sotíras and Tría Maderiká, or close to the road to Agios Mámas.

- you can also walk back the entire way, but this will only be possible for experienced hikers. There is one difficult spot, where the trail is not indicated at all. After crossing the asphalt road (after one hour) at the metallurgic company, you have to follow the gravel road for 5-6 minutes until you get to the junction; you then have to go left for a short while, but then you find the continuation of the trail on the right, on the left of a large, iron gate – and in May 2006, this path was not indicated at all! Besides this difficult spot, the return route should be quite obvious.