"Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. "
-William Blake.
Mount Zas (Zeus), Naxos, from the top.
Harnessing John Krakauer’s[1] mantra “The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences.”, I dove in deep and booked a Self-Guided Walking tour for eight days of my time in the Cycladic Greek Islands. This was a new experience for me, as usually, I either do all the planning myself or, on rare occasions, participate in an organised tour with others and therefore let the tour organisers do all the work. This tour was a blend of the two, with activities and accommodation structured, but some functions such as catching local buses left to you to ‘problem solve’. This meant sometimes arriving at an airport or a ferry wondering if your transfer is going to be there or if you will need to chase them up and much time deciphering pages of information, downloading navigational apps and reading maps. And working that each Greek island has a different system for bus ticket purchase. After cramming as many museums, walks and dinners as possible into my three days in Athens beforehand, I actually welcomed a wet day instead of my first scheduled hike in the island of Naxos on day 1. The hotel chosen by the tour company, Anaxis, in Chora, the port city of Naxos, was well situated in the old town, amongst the charming narrow laneways, crazy paving and blue and white buildings. My cosy little studio room boasted views of beach sunsets, little Greek chapels and the spectacular Portara, a huge marble gate and the single remaining part of an unfinished temple of Apollo of 530 BC, the island’s emblem and main landmark, so I was quite content to lounge around, catching up on emails and listening to the rain on my first day off in three weeks of travel. By day two of the tour, I was raring to go and had used my day off to digest the instructions for the tour, purchase bus tickets (in Naxos, you must purchase them prior to boarding; in Santorini, you purchase them on the bus, just like in on Melbourne trams in the old days) and enjoy the sumptuous hotel breakfast which included homemade Greek yoghurt, freshly squeezed orange juice, (good coffee), omelette and spinnakers (spinach in filo pastry). My tour instructions for each day suggested starting early, around 7am, but after several reads, I realised that these instructions were targeted at Summer hikers, to avoid the heat, and I was travelling in early May; I rejoiced in the free breakfast (which was only available from 8am), banter with the other travellers at the breakfast table, a sleep-in and a leisurely walk to catch the 9.30 bus.
The stunning Portara or temple of Apollo of 530 BC Gateway to Naxos
Joining the other tourists and locals on the 9.30am bus over two days, I noticed a pattern. A local woman got on the bus every morning and sat in the single seat at the front and enjoyed a sustained conversation with the driver before alighting at a random corner. The uses for a horn on the bus were multifarious: to greet people the driver knew, people he didn’t know but may have something in common with (i.e. another bus, a truck or service vehicle), to warn other drivers if they were double parked or blocking the lane or if going around the corner to warn oncoming traffic. Unlike strict Australia, you could ask the driver to let you off anywhere along the road, and locals and hikers did this frequently. Each ‘station’ was announced with a yell ‘Halkiiiii! Filottttiiii!’). Our young driver proved that men too could multiskill as he turned the 50-seater bus around hairpin bends whilst talking on the phone or crossing himself three times if passing a church.
Hiking from Chalki to Melanes
St Andreas Monastery, just beyond Ano Kastro
My first actual hiking day involved a walk from Chalki (known locally as Halki) to the town of Melanes passing by a Venetian Fortress on a Hill, Ano Kastro. After leaving the town along the narrow road I witnessed the most gnarled olive trees I had ever seen. I read that some of these trees are over one thousand years old. It appeared that they were pruned back just revealing the stunning gnarled stumps. The tour provides an app, which shows the tour route and (as long as your mobile is charged) you can easily tell if you are off track. Unlike Google maps there is no shaded directional line however, so, when trails were vague I found that I needed to walk for a while before I could tell if I had taken the correct route. I used mainly the app rather than all the convoluted pictorial instructions, otherwise I would be forever cross-checking maps, step by step instructions and the app, not much fun for a wild traveller like myself! However, this meant that sometimes I forgot the main sites we were meant to see along the way. I somehow missed a ten-metre-high 6th century BC statue (Kouros) but thought I was meant to actually climb up the steep hill (altitude of 420 metres) towards Ano Kastro; after persevering for some time and going off trail somewhat I looked up and faced a group of inquisitive goats. Fearing that I may be attacked by the large billy goat, I descended down the hill again, so near but yet so far!
A goat 'guarding' the Venetian Fortress on a Hill, Ano Kastro
Foliage on the Chalki to Melanes hike
Stones and more stones on the walk from Chalki to Melanes
Most of the route featured large stoney cobbled paths and ancient quarries, and I barely passed another human for the whole three hours. When I arrived at Melanes, with around 45 minutes until the bus, I found a large café, and, when I asked for coffee in English, the mature waitress fetched an equally mature man who proudly spoke a few words in English and I made my way to the window to a spectacular valley view. Thinking I’d burnt off a few calories in the walk, I noticed a large tray of Greek honey cake and requested a piece. What I presume were pre-school age granddaughters ran around the café and one presented her Littlest Pony to me. The grandmother let one of the girls help with clearing a table and they both squealed with excitement. When I proceeded to pay, the grandmother proudly exclaimed ‘5 Euros!’ which I happily paid, a steal for honey cake, coffee, a view and entertainment. This bus was not the last one so there was only myself and a German born Frenchman alighting the bus; this meant a front seat and first class views all the way back to Chora, Naxos.
Ano Kastro ‘Upper Castle’ was known as the strongest castle of Naxos in the Middle Ages. Although it has had some modifications, most of the ruins are from the 13th-14th centuries. The castle was an ideal refuge when the pirates attacked, but never became a settlement for the population of the island.
A typical monastery on the way uphill to Mount Zas
A must do walk for experienced hikers in Naxos is the hike to Mount Zas (or Mount Zeus) and this was the focus of my second day of hiking. Not knowing what degree of difficulty actually meant, I wondered what I was in for, as I ascended the mountain, with repeated signage indicating ‘Degree of Difficulty: High’. I kept going anyway, humming ‘The only way is up’ to keep momentum up. Suddenly, I noticed, yet again, goats on the track! But this time they were running away from me! As I neared the top of the mountain the evidence of tracks disappeared and were replaced by large rocks and, even with the app, one had to look closely for markers such as piles of stones to indicate which was the trail.
View from Mount Zas at the top
Pathway to Mount Zas with more goats!
Now which path will I take? Mount Zas at the top
Feeling pleased to have reached the top, I took the obligatory selfies, fought the wind and headed down. After a while I noticed that my descent was rather steep and remembered reading in the trip notes that there were two ways down and that one route had not been checked regularly as was particularly difficult. As I didn’t want to risk sliding downhill, I had to ascend partway up the mountain again before finding the correct pathway.
Looking down on Naxos on the way to Mount Zas
A more challenging second day of hiking meant catching the last bus back from Filotti at 4.30pm. This time quite a large crowd had grown at the bus stop. This robust driver didn’t seem to have the patience or English of our younger driver and bellowed something at us all in Greek; as most of us were international tourists, we all sat in stunned silence and bewilderment. He yelled again. Eventually a Greek woman told us that he wanted some of us to get off and get onto another bus as he had to collect more people from Halki. Once I was convinced that the second bus was indeed returning to the port of Naxos (my stop), I agreed to move onto the other bus, along with several brave others. So a bit of shuffling around was endured, all for 2.60EUR (around $3.80AUD), somewhat cheaper than at 30EUR taxi fare option.
Sad to leave the cute old town laneways of Naxos, I joined the ferry to Santorini and participated in two more hikes, a climb to the highest mountain of Santorini, the Profitis Ilias and the iconic Fira to Oia trail. These two trails were of similar distance yet contrasted markedly. During the journey from Perissa to Pyrgos I was the only one hiking up the hill at the time. Maybe the trip note warnings were off-putting: ‘Between the saddle to Ancient Thira and Profitis Ilias there are some sections that are challenging for people suffering acrophobia. If you suffer severe acrophobia, you may skip Perissa-Pyrgos and start in Pyrgos.’
Nearly at the top: Perissa to Pyrgos. On the other side of the mountain is the monastery Profitis Ilias that most tourists visit by bus.
Unsure as to what to expect I soldiered on and did not find it any more threatening than the other walks such as Mount Zas in Naxos.
Perissa to Pyrgos trail
View partway along the Perissa to Pyrgos trail
Fira to Oia is one of the most popular and populated walks. If you commence in Fira you will walk between all the flash hotels with their individual swimming pools and white washed stone overlooking the beach. A popular honeymoon location, I witnessed a wedding waltz on my way. Around halfway along the track does change and hikers need to walk along heavy gravel. Anyone wishing to take this trail should wear appropriate shoes for this purpose. As you near Oia, you join the throbs of tourists arriving in buses but the reward is great cafes to choose from and either a bus station or in my case, a ‘transfer’ paid by the tour company.
Gardens, beach, and whitewashed buildings along the Fira to Oia trail.
Individual pools and fancy hotels along the Fira to Oia trail
Nearly at Oia on the Fira to Oia trail
Cute outdoor cinema on the Fira side of the Fira to Oia trail.
Fira, the wedding destination.
A castle or fort ruin along the Fira to Oia trail
The end of my hiking tour did not mean the end of my hiking. I had already completed a 15 kilometre hike in the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus only using google maps and occasional passers-by. At the time of writing, I have moved on to Milos and have already hiked to the Venetian Castle, the beach at Klima and the ancient amphitheatre.
Tours can provide the security of knowing where you are going, and the safety of travelling alongside other travellers, away from the unpredictability of locals. However, depending on what your aim for travel is, the local experience or the journey itself can be as entertaining and educational as the destination.
In A Philosophy of Walking, Frédéric Gros analyses the different reasons for walking, citing famous walkers (albeit only male, but it’s still a good read). There is the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, and the nature hike. Thoreau wrote of characters walking to seek isolation, Rimbaud walked in anger, Rousseau walked to think and Nietzsche walked to write. I look forward to reading Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews which discusses female walkers from 18th century Elizabeth Carter, who walked the wilds of southern England, to contemporary walkers, Nan Shepherd and Cheryl Strayed, with Virginia Woolf who found walking helpful in coming up with her novels whilst walking around Bloomsbury.
I continue to find walking, whether it be on formal hikes or in an unstructured manner an enjoyable, thought provoking (and inexpensive!) way to travel.
[1] Krakauer, John Into the Wild (quote from Christopher McCandless)