Kamáres - Agios Lázaros - Artemónas

 

Evaluation: Unfortunately, the first part of this hike necessarily follows the road to Agios Simeoón, which was turned into an asphalt road recently. Thereafter, from the church of Agios Lázaros, you follow a fairly nice trail to the left, underneath the Vorini-mine. You then get to the very beautiful trail that connects Agios Simeoón with Artemónas. The hike gets an evaluation of **.
If you would rather avoid the asphalt road, have a look at the beginning of the hike Kamáres - Agios Lázaros - Agios Simeoón.

Estimated time: This is a fairly short hike: ten minutes on the beach, then some 45 minutes (AWT) along the monotonous road to Agios Lázaros and finally a little under one hour over a pleasant and easy trail to Artemónas. This is a good hike for a not too active afternoon.

Route description: From the harbour of Kamáres you can take the main road towards Apollonia for a short while and then take the turn to Agia Marína. However, since you will have to walk on asphalt and gravel roads for a large part of this hike already, it is much better to walk over the beach in order to get to Agia Marína on the other side of the bay of Kamares.

In about 10 minutes you reach the other side of the beach; by walking on the right of the bar and then on the right of the wall and the stairs, you go to the little church of Agia Marína. In this way you get to the beginning of the asphalt road. On a signpost you can see that it is 8 km to the monastery of Agios Simeoón. After some 20 minutes you get to the provisional end of the asphalt road. A couple of minutes later - immediately before a large farm in a curve to the left - there is a road off the right leading to the Panagía Ta Langadákia. 

You have to continue on the gravel road, past the turn to Panagía Ta Langadákia. By gradually going up you describe a large curve to the left and then to the right, and then an even bigger curve to the left and to the right, until you see Agios Lázaros in front of you – about 22 minutes after the turn to Panagía Ta Langadákia.

In the bend underneath Agios Lázaros you should take some time to familiarize yourself with the surroundings: in front of you there is a small road, running more or less straight ahead towards Agios Lázaros. The gravel road on the left continues to Agios Simeoón; going down on the right you notice a stony slope which leads to a metal gate. On the right of this gate you find a concrete staircase, turning into a trail – this trail is the beginning of the hike to Apollonía (see Kamáres - Apollonía).

Today though, you look for another stony trail, midst a couple of ruins behind the bend of the main road to the left. This path basically goes immediately to the left. Slightly further, at an 'alóni' (a threshing floor) you keep to the left and when you continue a bit further you find a narrow path by keeping to the right (there is a blue dot). This path curves to the right pretty soon and via a beautiful rocky staircase it descends into the valley. You then follow a beautifully paved trail, which goes up slightly between walls a little further down. About fifteen minutes after your departure from Agios Lázaros you arrive at a fairly large and rocky bed of a river. You follow this bed to the left for a short while, but almost immediately you find a staircase going up on the right – you have now reached the nice trail leading from the summit of Agios Simeoón to Artemónas..

[If you were to follow the bed of the river for another 100 metres, you would get to a cistern and over there you would find the trail off the left leading to Agios Simeoón ..]

After a short climb you get to a cistern, and you take the trail on the right-hand side of this cistern. During the next 7 minutes you walk on a beautiful staircase and thereafter you get to a very pleasant and flatter stretch – on the right-hand side you have a nice view on the hills with lots of terraces.

About 15 minutes later there is a short descent into a valley and then the trail goes up again. Five minutes further down you can have a look at the beautiful little church of Agios Dimítrios on the right – over there you will find a well with some refreshing water. This spot also offers you a nice view towards the Panagía ta Mángana.

You return to the main trail and a little further on you keep to the right (there is also a signpost). After another couple of minutes you get to a gravel road (again there is a signpost): on the left the trail leads to Panagía ta Mángana (see the hike Apollonía - Ta Mángana), but you take a right here.

At the first crossing you curve towards the left, following the water pipe. At the second crossing you take a left again, moving away from the water pipe. Thereafter you should continue straight ahead. After about 10 minutes you reach the first houses of Artemónas: you then take a right into the village. You get to a house with grey windows and a grey door, where you keep to the left. At the palm tree - a church with blue dome is situated behind this tree - you keep to the left (this is the street Odos Groupári) and in this way you get to the main street. You follow this street to the right, past the beautiful churches of Panagía Kóchi (in the curve to the left) and Panagía tis Ammou (with a great ikonóstasis and with the date of 28 July 1788 written on its doorstep). You walk past some mansions and past the picturesque school – finally you reach the little square. You can now continue straight ahead to Apollonía, but you will probably be tempted to first visit the attractive bar Margaríta or the restaurant Liotrivi on the left. A little further on the left you can find the bus stop.