Walks in the Stoupa Area - updates
David George of Frodsham has provided a number of comments on walking in the Stoupa area following an early May 2002 visit. With his permission, I have included a summary of two as follows:
Kastania
Kastania village is situated off the Pyrgos to Saïdona road, and is highly recommended by David. There are a couple of tavernas. The early morning/early afternoon buses to Saïdona pass by, but it was confirmed by locals that these buses do not run on Saturdays, despite the timetable!
Thalames to Trahila
There are at least two paths between these villages, one (signed 'Trachila') arriving at the northern end of Trahila, the other at the southern end.
Update and corrections from June 2005 (to 2002 edition)
Walk 1.
Paragraph 2, last sentence, should now read: “From the church, follow the exit concrete road to the right, to then join and go sharply left on the road into upper Lefktro.”
Paragraph 6, 2nd-4th sentences, “Ignore... ...Turn right.” should now read: “Eventually the track reaches a well-used junction - turn right (onward).”
The alternative route to Neohori is now preferable.
Paragraph 7. The road is now surfaced. The cairn is gone.
Paragraph 8. The walled narrow strip is not now obvious.
Paragraphs 10-11. the “rocky path on the open hillside” is now a bulldozed track through to the main road into Neohori. The “white building” is now a stained-concrete-coloured building. The beehives have gone.
Paragraph 13. The war memorial at the main church is no longer blue and white.
Paragraph 15. Kostas cafe-bar is now a house.
Alternative Route to Neohori
Paragraph 1. Fork immediately right after turning left onto the dirt track. It passes a house (left) then tiny church (right) and finally a house (right).
Paragraph 2. Shrubby growth means the red cliffs are less visible, as is the “sea ahead”. Where the path swings right, towards Stoupa, it becomes a dirt track.
Paragraph 3, At the “staggered cross paths”, cross a small road into a walled path. The house at the start of Neohori no longer has red shutters.
Walk 2
Paragraph 3. The track opposite, across the main road, is now a road beside a large supermarket. This road runs up beside the Hotel Kolokotroni. Turn left above the hotel (and just before another accommodation complex) into the hillside dirt track. The “overgrown half-circle of track” now leads to new houses, but the raised path is still there just to the right of them.
Paragraph 4, penultimate sentence. The path now emerges onto a surfaced road. The mulberry trees have gone.
Walk 3. Development and traffic have made the outward section to Pyrgos and the return from Agios Nikolaos to Stoupa less attractive.
Paragraph 2. Stay on the asphalt road until you reach the main road to Neohori.
Paragraph 8. The Pyrgos cafe (+ hat-shop) is gone.
Paragraphs 16-17. The descent from Pyrgos is now straightforward, and none of it badly overgrown or blocked. Follow the long dirt track down, until a clear junction where a dirt track comes in from the right (from the hillside on the Neohori side of the gully), where you go left and down. Swing left pass some new houses, then follow the further long track down to two large new houses (left). Go right at the junction immediately beyond these. The flat, gully-edge path not far beyond, at the bulldozed edge to the left, is now very easy to find as it is next to an electricity substation. A little way down it you need to step over a new, low, stone wall to flat rocks on the left.
The Alternative Route from Neohori to Pyrgos is too disused and overgrown to be found without prior knowledge, so is no longer practicable.
Walk 4.
At the time of writing (June 2005), much of the coastal path and dirt track had been converted to a 4m wide gravel road with preparations being made for asphalting the surface. Theoretically it is to be a cycle track, but it seems unlikely that other traffic will be excluded - and it will of course permit commercial development along the coast.
Walk 5.
Paragraphs 3-4. Change of route. Just after the bridge at Pantazi beach, turn left at green sign (for Pigi/Platsa) onto a dirt track. At a junction, go right onto a path. Fork right before a new tower house and then keep ± straight on until you have crossed a gully and reached the bend of a well-used dirt track. Go straight on (right). Where the track swings right (and before a new house), look out for a path (kalderimi) up to the left. This is the path in the last sentence of paragraph 4.
Paragraph 6. After the path in deep shade just before Pigi, turn left onto a concrete road by a chapel.
Paragraph 8. The path from the little square is now a concrete road and not marked by a blue dot. The alona is not obvious. Just beyond the cemetery, the concrete road swings left - continue onward (right) on a dirt track.
Alternative Route from Kotroni
Paragraph 3. The path by the spring and pond can be very muddy after rain. If impassable, retrace your steps back to above the church and continue on the dirt track, then turn right (onto the same downhill track you would have joined after the pond). The later T-junction is now onto a concrete road.
Walk 7.
Paragraph 5. The Mourtzinos fortified complex is now a museum (open 09:00-14:00, Tues-Sun, but most of it accessible at other times; entrance free).
Paragraph 7. The road through Agia Sofia is now part concrete, part asphalt.
Paragraph 9. I have now come down the old path up to Exohori, and just managed to get through, but the bottom part of it has been destroyed by an avalanche and part of the top end has virtually disappeared under vegetation. It is not recommended.
My stated minimum time of 45 minutes for walking from the Sotiros Monastery to Kardamyli has been queried, so I tried it again in June 2005 and discovered it is still possible for a middle-aged bloke to do it...
© Lance Chilton June 2005
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