From Kástro to Apollonía via Exámbela

 

Evaluation: Especially the first half of this hike is beautiful because it follows a really nice trail with a marvellous view on Kástro. The hike can also be interesting as a continuation of  the hike Faros-Kástro, in order to return to Apollonía in a pleasant and easy way. Of course, you can also go back to Apollonía via Panagía Pouláti and Artemónas. This hike deserves an evaluation of **.

Estimated time: To walk from Kástro over Exámbela to Apollonía you will need about 1.20 hours of actual hiking time. This means that you can easily combine this hike with another route.

Route description: Leaving from Kástro the best thing to do is to start from the bus square, just outside the new entrance to the village. You take the staircase going down - there is a signpost to Serália, the small harbour of Kástro. After a couple of minutes you cross the asphalt road that leads to Serália and you keep going down. Some five minutes later you will get to the bottom of the sandy valley. Over there you go to the left, in between the bushes, for a short while and then you take the stairs going up immediately in front of you. You follow these steps for about two minutes, in southern direction, until you arrive at a junction.

The path on the left goes to Faros (see the hike Faros-Kástro). You have to take a right and in this way you follow the left side of the valley, continuously going up on a steep slope. On the right you can see a pigeon tower on the other side of the valley and a little further on there is a small white church. You climb higher and higher for about ten minutes – behind you there is a great view on Kástro. At this point the slope becomes less steep and Kástro disappears behind the hill. About 13-14 minutes after the junction you will reach another junction. Here, you first cross a couple of vertical stones and then you walk on the right hand side of a wall, on a rather flat trail.

You continue on this really magnificent path; behind you you will again see Kástro and in front of you you can discern the summit of Agios Andréas, very far away. You keep on going for about four minutes and then you descend in the direction of a chapel, near two trees. You walk on, first going down a little, and then going up again, still on the left side of a very deep valley. Gradually, the little chapel will move past and then also a very high and thin palm tree. You now walk in the direction of some white houses and a chapel on the other slope and you follow the curve to the left. After another three minutes the trail finally descends, near the houses and the chapel. All of a sudden it goes down abruptly, through a narrow gorge, to the bottom of the valley. Only one minute later you already cross the rocky bottom and you go up again on the left, on a trail that is partly hidden by some bushes. The next 8-9 minutes you climb up very steeply from the bottom of the valley to the top: in the beginning the path is sometimes blocked by shrubs, but later on it becomes a very clear trail/staircase again. You pass the gate of a house, you leave the little chapel on the left and basically unnoticed you get to the main trail, which comes from the left, from the Moní Vrísis. You take a right and a little later, just before a small church, you reach a kind of crossroads of four trails (from this place you still have a marvellous view on Kástro). The little church is the church of Agios Fanoúrios, with a flat roof, a double window and an arch with a bell painted in blue.  
The path straight ahead continues to Káto Petáli (see the hike Apollonía - Moní Vrísis), but today you decide to go up on the left. You climb up for another five minutes, on a rocky trail that turns into concrete. Just past a junction this path arrives at some houses. When you have reached the top you take a right and you continue to go up for another five minutes, in between houses and in the direction of the blue dome of the church of Exámbela. You have now been hiking for about 55 minutes since you have left Kástro.

Now, you follow the opposite route of the path you have already taken on the hike Apollonía -Chryssopigí - Fáros. Past the church with the blue pillars you go right and you descend for about 150 metres into this street. In front of a big white building you take a right on a tiled path. At the end of this path you go left on a concrete path, in the direction of the church and the eucalyptus tree. You pass this church on the right hand side and you go to the left of a pigeon tower. The trail then becomes a regular path again, it curves to the left, it becomes a little concrete road and it goes in the direction of some ruins of a mill. You walk all the way around this mill, you go to the left of a bend in the asphalt road and you enter a kind of dump. From here on you follow an ancient path and this brings you first to the left of an old stone mill and then to the right of a white mill. You cross the asphalt road and you continue on a narrow path in between walls - the path has a little bit of concrete in the beginning and it is somewhat overgrown. You will then reach the wall of the school and finally you will get to the pedestrian road from Katavatí to Apollonía. You follow this road to the right, past the main church until you reach the platia -  the hike from Exámbela onwards has taken about 25 minutes.