Thirasiá: Ríva - Agriliá - Christós - Potamós - Manolás - Ríva
Evaluation: Due to a lack of trails and to the fact that the landscape of Thirasiá is really monotonous, this hike is not very exciting. But still, it is quite interesting to experience the difference with the nearby Santoríni. Manolás and the panoramic views from there are definitely worthwhile. This trip gets an evaluation of *.
Estimated time:
You have to walk for about 50 minutes on the rather monotonous road from Ríva
to the chapel of Christós; the walk back and then continuing via the asphalt
road and Potamós to the main town of Manolás will cost you another 45 minutes.
The return route to Ríva takes 55 minutes, so this brings you to an actual
walking time of 2h30. The restaurant Panórama at the top of the staircase in
Manolás is a marvellous spot to lunch. With a fairly long break in Manolás
included, we walked from 9.30am to 3pm.
Route description:
[From the little harbour of Ammoúdi in Ia you can cross over to Ríva and Kórfos
on Thirasiá. If you stay in Firá, you can also get to Ríva via the harbour of
Athinió – but it is not really obvious to find a day on which there is a boat
to Thirasiá in the morning, and a boat back in the late afternoon. This works
out once in a while, with the Arsinóï, as it did for us, on Friday the 16th
of May 2008: the Arsinóï then departed at 8.45am and it returned at 3.20pm.]
(0h00) At
your arrival in Ríva
you take a left from the pier, onto a cobbled road; you walk past the very
simple little harbour and after 3 minutes you take the little concrete road
going up on the right. You curve to the right, around a chapel and after another
5 minutes you thus get to a gravel road, which you follow to the left. On the
right you notice the other chapel of Ríva, Agia Iríni, which actually gave its
name to the entire archipelago: Santoríni!
(0h08) Some
3 minutes later you
pass a concrete road off the left and you keep going straight ahead on the
gravel road. The road is pleasant and it follows the northerly slopes of Thirasiá,
which gradually run towards the sea. Over here there is still a lot of
agriculture and the farmers are working on the land with their donkeys. About 11
minutes further down you pass the elegant chapel of Agios Geórgios, a votive
offering of the family of Marínos Sýrigos - the ikonostási dates from the
year 1924. This is really a nice place to take a rest.
(0h22) A
little over 5 minutes
later you have to walk on the concrete main road for about one hundred metres.
The road then goes to the left, to Potamós, and you continue straight ahead, on
the gravel road (signpost to Agriliá). When we were there a car stopped at this
spot, to ask whether we wanted to have some coffee…
After yet another 5 minutes, you notice the large church of Agriliá, in the
eroded valley on your left-hand side. You do not walk to this church, but you
turn to the right – a little further you keep to the left. About 2 minutes
further down you arrive at a vague junction, where you keep to the left.
Far away in front of you, you can already see the large chapel of Christós. A
little further, you can walk on the ancient and paved monopáti for another 3
minutes; this trail runs on the left-hand side of the road, between walls made
of black lava rock. Very soon, though, you arrive at the gravel road again.
Slightly further there is another stretch of the old, and somewhat overgrown
trail. You approach the impressive chapel, with three aisles, of Christós, you
curve to the right and you then reach the beautiful chapel, which is closed
unfortunately.
[If you would like to
follow this road a little further, you can continue above the impressive
southeasterly coast for about fifteen minutes and thus reach the cape of Kímino.
There are no other usable paths over here – also the trail off the left that
you could have taken some three minutes BEFORE you got to Christós, and that is
indicated on the Road-map, looked promising at first, but after about 9 minutes
it got very vague and overgrown.]
(0h49) Leaving
from the Christós-chapel,
the best thing to do, is to go back the same way you came. After 14 minutes you
pass on the side of the enormous church of Agriliá again- in front of you and
towards the left you notice the islands of Ios, Síkinos and Folégandros (from
right to left).
(1h09) After
exactly 20 minutes you
arrive at the crossing again and unfortunately you can now only take the
concrete road on the right, going to Potamós and Manolás. After 5 minutes you
already walk through the very quiet village of Potamós, where there are again
some strikingly big churches. There is no traffic at all and there are not even
shops – when talking to some of the rare inhabitants we did ask whether there
was a staircase ("skála") or monopáti going up, but that did not
seem to be the case.
You set out on the strenuous climb, by following a (too) broad concrete road,
while in front of you, you can already distinguish the big church and the first
houses of Manolás. After climbing up for about 20 minutes, you can walk to the
church with the blue dome. You pass on its right-hand side and then on the left
of the school – when we were there we counted six pupils and one teacher on
the playground. You go to the right for a short while and then you turn to the
left sharply – you are now in what should be the main street of Manolás. Also
over here everything is very quiet: in contrast with Santoríni there are almost
no stores and very few people.
(1h37) Almost
at the end of the street, at the cashpoint of the Emporikí Trápeza, you
take a right on the first steps of the large staircase – the steps are in
concrete at first and you go in the direction of the restaurant
"Panorama". This restaurant boasts a marvellous panoramic view,
indeed! Some tourists come to this place after having visited the volcano and the
thermal springs with the little boats – but even so, this place is incredibly
peaceful. Also Santoríni on the opposite side seems quiet, but you know that
the reality is quite a bit different!
[If you want to, you can
descend the staircase in about 20 minutes and thus reach the little harbour of Kórfos:
there are 150 broad and sloping steps. You can take a donkey for the way up.
Down at the water, there are sometimes boats to the little harbour of Ammoúdi
in Ia – this could spare you the return route to Ríva, but you should
definitively inform beforehand. In May 2008 there was a boat at 4.30pm, passing
in Ríva at 5pm, in order to cross over to Ia.]
(1h37) You
walk back via Potamós.
This means that you go up the staircase and you walk through the main street
again; you pass the little and simple church of Agios Ioánnis Pródromos and a
modest pantopolío. After 7 minutes you pass the church with the blue dome, you
turn right, you take the street on the right and you thus walk back past the
school – the teacher with her six pupils were still sitting outside.
You descend the concrete slope underneath the church and next to the modern
store you take the concrete road going down. The steep descent takes some 12-13
minutes and you pass the four blue domes of Potamós again. After 25 minutes all
together you reach the crossing with the gravel road to Christós.
(2h02) You
continue on the concrete road, so to the right, but some 100 metres later, when
you get to a curve, you go straight ahead on the gravel road.
You pass the chapel of Agios Geórgios and far away in front of you, you can
distinguish Agia Iríni at Ríva. To the left, in the sea, you notice again the
islands of Folégandros, Síkinos and (to the right) Ios.
(2h24) You
thus arrive at the chapel that is situated a little lower. Over here you take a
RIGHT and in this way you walk down, on the right of this chapel, until you get
to the little harbour.
(2h30).
Also over here it is really
peaceful – not even a café or a restaurant where you can wait for the boat -
the Arsinóï will definitely be too late...