Katápola - Agios Geórgios Valsamítis - Katápola

Evaluation: This fairly short hike is a different version of the other hikes passing along Agios Geórgios Valsamítis, such as the hike Katápola - Chóra - Agios Geórgios Valsamítis - Katápola and the hike Katápola - Minóa - Agios Geórgios Valsamítis - Katápola. This hike gets an evaluation of **.

Estimated time: The actual hiking time is 2h10 all together, 65 minutes on the way out via the dam and the same amount of time on the way back via the pass of Stavrós. Also on this hike you can of course pay a visit to the excavations of Minóa.

Route description: You depart from the harbour of Katápola and you walk along the bay in the direction of Chóra and the camping. Immediately past the building with the town hall (dímos) and the medical centre (iatrío), and even before the bridge and the turn for the road to Chóra, you take a right to Rachídi – a signpost on the right points to Minóa. You pass the primary school (dimotikó scholío) and you go right again, in the direction of Minóa: in this way you get to a concrete road in the valley of the Sakkás.

You follow this concrete road for about 3 minutes and you then continue on a gravel road for another 7 minutes – you do not mind the side trails or side roads and you still go towards Minóa. Ten minutes after your departure from Rachídi and at the moment the road to Minóa turns to the right, you have to go straight: you can already see the dam in front of you.
It takes about 3 minutes to walk through an open gate and to reach the terrain of the dam. You could take the road on the right to get to the top of the dam by describing a wide curve, but you might as well climb up the slope of the dam on the right hand side. You then get on top of the wall of the dam on the right – behind this dam you see a huge mass of water, quite exceptional on an island like Amorgós.

You now walk to the left over the dam – this is contrary to what is shown on the small map in the publication "A travelogue of Amorgós" with the historical and cultural trails. You follow the entire ring road, first 7 minutes till the little bridge at the end of the reservoir over the Valsamítis river, and then another 4 minutes on the other side of the reservoir, until the ring road goes up towards the south. You then get to a beautiful and clear trail which goes up fairly steeply in southern direction. After 3 minutes you reach the merger of two splattering little streams deep down (this was on the 11th of May 2003). You then go up along the slope of the left-hand stream. You continue for a while and you zigzagingly move further away from the valley. After about 12 minuets you pass underneath a hill crest with a ruin and a large, grey rock on top – a little earlier you saw this rock high up in front of you. Some minutes later you get to a hill ridge, where you can relax for a while to admire the marvellous view over Minóa, the bay of Katápola and Chóra.
The point is now to continue on the left hand slope, just underneath the ridge – do not attempt to descend, in the direction of the green oasis on the right in front of you! The trail is still there, but it is more difficult to see now. You walk underneath a house, surrounded by lots of cacti. This house remains invisible for you on the other side of the hill crest. When you do see the house, you have to descend to the left for some 10 metres in order to reach the trail again. You get to a gate made of iron interweaving and fastened with a rope. A little further down you find a cairn and in this way you reach the large trail leading from Stavrós to Valsamítis - you will come back here on your way back. 
You now take a left though, and you follow an easy and obvious trail. After 7 minutes you have to watch out not to take one of the two trails off the left – you have to stay higher up and you should follow the red dots. A little further down there is a metal gate and immediately thereafter you can distinguish Agios Geórgios Valsamítis. You go through another gate and you then arrive on a little asphalt road which leads to the monastery.

This monastery is situated in a green oasis of beautiful gardens, probably on the location of an antique oracle.

After your visit and some time to relax you return to the small asphalt road and you follow this road to the right. Indeed, at first you return via the same route – the entire way back has actually already been described in the hike Katápola - Chóra - Agios Geórgios Valsamítis. You go through the gate in the wall in front of you (a gate which you should open and also close again – there are some red dots on the wall) and you continue on the trail straight ahead/slightly to the right; be careful not to go up towards a small building. When going through the second gate, some 200 metres further down, you can already see Katápola, your final destination, in front of you.

The beautiful trail meanders over some hills and valleys and after 15 minutes, just after the crossroads where you were an hour or so ago, you reach a scenic green valley with cypresses and reeds and even some water (until into Autumn). Above the valley you can distinguish some white cliffs. Again 5 minutes further you go through a gate made of iron interweaving; you continue steadily all the time, guided by red dots. Half an hour after the monastery you arrive at a gravel road and you take a right, in the direction of a chapel on the hill crest – this is the pass of Stavros.

After a short while you get to another gravel road, which comes from Agia Thekla. You go right and a couple of minutes later you reach the top of the hill crest. The trail then goes down fairly steeply on the “ugly new road”, but first you can take a left just past Stavros in order to hike in 5 minutes to the excavations of Minoa.

[In Minoa some excavations are taking place, which show remnants from the Bronze Age and the archaic period. There are remnants of walls from the geometric and archaic periods, a Hellenistic temple and a gymnasion dating back from the 4th century BC. The name Minoa reminds us of the period of occupation by the island of Crete, in the beginning of the second millennium BC. This settlement, situated high up and dominating the hill of Moundoulia, was continuously inhabited till the 4th century BC. Later on people lived in Katapola itself (this word means “low city”).]

You return to the road to continue your descent to Katapola. Fortunately there is still a large part left of the ancient trail between Katapola and Minoa: past a large, overhanging rock you follow the curve to the right, but a little further on you take the ancient path on the left hand side of the road. In about 5 minutes you thus go down until you get to the church with the blue dome of Agios Nikolaos. A couple of minutes later you are down at the harbour, where you arrive in between the bars El Greco and Telonio.