Vathý - Agia Anna - Panagía tou Kargiávli - Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná - Agios Andréas - Apollonía 

Evaluation: This hike combines a beautiful ancient trail, which starts from Vathý, with a deserted path via de Panagía tou Kargiávli and the marvellous hike from Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná to Agios Andréas, a hike we already got to know in the hike Apollonía - Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná - Agios Andréas. This is another great hike which definitely deserves the maximum evaluation of ****.  
[Update by Raymond on the 16th of October 2010.]

Estimated time: Until the Panagia tou Kargiávli you will hike for about 50 minutes (AWT), and then another 15 minutes until you are close to Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná; the roundabout to this beautiful monastery takes about 10 minutes each way – this monastery also makes for a nice picnic spot. Again 40 minutes later you will get to the base of the hill of Agios Andréas, but to climb all the way to the top and to visit this site you have to allow for one to one and a half hour. Finally, you have to walk for another 30-40 minutes – depending on the route you follow – till the platia of Apollonía. This hike will thus take a full day, with some three hours of actual walking time (AWT): the best thing to do is to take the bus to Vathý at about 9.30 am; you will then be able to depart at 10.30 am. If you want to visit all of the interesting sites on this hike, it will be about 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening before you will reach Apollonía.  

Route description:  [Leaving from Kamáres and with a transfer in Artemónas or Apollonía, the bus trip to Vathý will take about one hour.]
 In Vathý you can get to the peaceful beach in a couple of minutes by taking a small concrete road from the bus terminal. You follow the beach for about 60-70 metres until you get to a house, where the beach becomes very narrow - there is an old pay phone next to it and two houses further on you can see the taverna Manólis. At this point you take the sandy gravel road going inland (in eastern direction).
You first walk in between walls for some 200-300 metres (a couple of minutes) on this gravel road. The road then continues straight ahead, while you take a right just past the house with number 43; there is a stone with "To Apollonía" written on it.  
You go to the right, turn left and at this point a path continues like a beautiful staircase.
After a short while this staircase curves to the left; you then climb up for some 8 minutes and you cross the asphalt road. You go on towards the left/straight ahead and in this way you zigzag up the hill in eastern direction.

After some 15 minutes this staircase turns into a regular monopati, which goes up less steeply. Again a couple of minutes further on you have to keep to the left (a red dot shows you where to go) and then you go up steeply again, in the direction of some antennae and the little white building to the left.
About 6-7 minutes later you have to pass a little wooden gate; the trail gets broader now and at the bottom of the white building it leads to a narrow gravel road – a red arrow indicates that you have to go right. You follow this road towards the antennae for some 3-4 minutes, but in a curve to the left you will again find the old trail, going straight ahead. Although the red arrow points to the left you have to take this old path straight. You pass the antennae on the right hand side and you continue on this path, which will take you to the very simple chapel of Agia Anna after some 6-7 minutes. It has now been 40 minutes since you have left the beach of Vathý.

You have now reached the gravel road again, which could take you in the direction of Apollonía and the new asphalt road. Leaving from the chapel you have to go back up to the hill top with the antennae. After about three minutes you get to a large gate underneath these antennae.
A narrow rocky path goes up on the left of this gate and this path brings you above the four antennae. There you have to open an old wooden gate, with a red arrow. The trail continues to go up and some 2-3 minutes later you have to pass another gate, with an arrow and a big red dot. At this point you will be able to distinguish the beautiful church of the Panagía tou Kargiávli, in between the trees and bushes. You can reach this church via a new flight of steps. At this deserted church you find a great picnic table and you have a fairly nice view towards Platýs Gialós.

To continue your hike, you have to go back for a short while on the newly constructed path and after some 15-20 metres you will find the trail to Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná, off the right in between some green (there are also orange-and-red dots). This looks like a rather recent path, which is not indicated on any trail map; it runs rather flatly in between a lot of green. At first you can see the white dome of Agios Nikólaos high up on a hill far away towards the left in front of you. After about 8 minutes you bend towards the left, in the direction of two white houses high up in front of you (later on you will see that these houses are located in the shape of a big stone circle). The landscape now gets more open and you have a great view on Vathý on the left hand side. You are now guided by orange dots and big red dots and arrows. The trail goes up and down, continuously heading towards the two houses. You bend to the left, underneath the houses, and you eventually get to a big wall – it has now been fifteen minutes since you have left Panagía tou Kargiávli. A large orange arrow and a red dot point towards the left, in the direction of the now invisible monastery of Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná. If you want to make the detour via the monastery, you first have to walk on the left hand side of the wall until you get to a vague three-forked-junction. Straight ahead/to the right of the wall you could go to Apollonía, following the hike described in the hike Apollonía-Vathý via Agios Nikólaos. For the present hike, though, you have to go left, on a vague path (with a couple of dark red arrows) in between the juniperus bushes, in south-western direction. All of a sudden you get to the rim of the plateau and you have a beautiful view on the bay of Vathý. At this point you are also able to again clearly discern the trail, which continues towards the west, keeping Vathý on the left. After some minutes, by following the red arrows and dots, you reach the picturesque and dazzling white monastery of Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná.

The nickname of this monastery refers to the fact that it is often very windy on this open spot. It is a really marvellous and very peaceful place, ideal to take a rest or to have a picnic. To continue this hike you have to go back to the big wall, some ten minutes walking. If you have already visited this monastery on a previous hike, you can skip the detour.

Back at the three-forked-junction next to the wall, you have to take the path that goes up towards the corner of the wall on the left. Before having reached this corner you curve towards the right (there are dots and an arrow). You now walk above the path you took a minute ago and you have a great view on the walled in fields behind you. You walk on a kind of plateau and after about four minutes you bend to the left. You pass a first stone wall on the left hand side and then a bigger, somewhat high up wall on the right hand side. After another five minutes you get to a rocky plateau with plenty of green bushes: Vathý disappears and Platýs Gialos appears straight in front of you. Also this is a nice picnic spot; you actually sit on a platform and from right to left you can see the islands of Mílos, Kímolos, Folégandros, Síkinos and Páros.

The trail now continues almost flatly, in a really wonderful way. You are guided by orange and blue dots and you have a panoramic view on the winding asphalt road, on the monastery of Taxiárchis, on Platýs Gialos, on the Panagía tou Vounoú and on all of these walls scattered throughout the landscape.
About fifteen minutes later you have to pass a wooden gate. From this point onwards the path gets rockier and it curves towards the left. A couple of minutes later there is another wooden gate, just before the little church of Agia Ekateríni. 

Immediately after this second gate there is a junction: you take the path on the right if you DO NOT want to climb to the fortress and the church of Agios Andréas – which is really worth the effort.
[In this case you thus take a right: the trail gets rocky and runs alongside a beautiful wall. After a couple of minutes you curve towards the right, following the wall and the dots. The trail keeps quite rocky, it goes in between a lot of green and it descends somewhat. About ten minutes later you will suddenly get a beautiful view on the summit of Agios Andréas, rising above the bushes and the trees on the left hand side. You keep going down and some twelve minutes after you have passed the gate you get to the road from Apollonía to Vathý: over there you will see a big signpost to Agios Nikólaos T' Aeriná. You follow this asphalt road for about 200 metres and you then take a right on a small concrete road, in between a wall and an iron gate.]

If you do want to climb to Agios Andréas, you take a left after you have passed the gate at Agia Ekateríni. The stony path goes up gradually, on a green slope to the left of a hill with a stone pyramid on top. After six to seven minutes you will again discover a marvellous panoramic view: the hill of Agios Andréas in front of Kastro far away in the distance, and more towards the right the bay of Faros. The trail now goes to the right of the wall, which surrounds the fields in the valley in front of the hill of Agios Andréas; already after one minute you reach a three-forked-junction and there you have to follow the wall by going to the left. You continue to walk alongside the wall until you again get a beautiful view on Kástro, after about five minutes. High up on the left hand side you see Agios Andréas. The trail now gets a little vague and sandy and it continues to surround the hill steadily. It then descends some more until you arrive at a staircase (with a sign post to Agios Andréas). The staircase zigzags upwards and this will turn out to be a steep climb of about fifteen minutes. Finally you will get to the top of the akropolis, about half an hour past the gate. This akropolis has an altitude of about 400 metres and from this point onwards you have a great view on the eastern part of the island, from Artemónas over Kástro to Platýs Gialós. On a clear day you can even distinguish Sýros, Páros, Antíparos, Ios, Síkinos and Folégandros! On this hill top there are some ruins dating back from the Bronze Age, surrounded by a double wall. And in the middle you will find the church of Agios Andréas, dating from the 13th century.

On the way back you have to take the same staircase and you continue past the junction till you get to the road (you thus go down for about 20 minutes) – you are now on an altitude of 230 metres.