Our last volunteer this spring was Wouter from Belgium. This is what he wrote about his experience working for Skopelos Trails.
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End of our Season
The last volunteer leaves today. We started this season on 13 February. Alex and Mitchell cleared away a fallen tree at Kimissia then worked very hard reopening a very old trail at Kyperisi, Pirgos from 14-18 February. It may have only been 225meters long but was utter jungle. On 19th February we moved on to Ag Ianni Skleri forest where 4 fallen trees were removed, then on 20th we worked at Moutero. On 25th and 26th we worked at Kangelia,Raches. Although three volunteers arrived on 9 March, we couldn’t work because of the snow until 15th!!! Together with an independent volunteer, we worked at Prof. Ilias and then Glysteri Monks trail part II until 17th (329m). On 19th we worked at Abuzali for a couple of days and on 24th at Polymistria Kambos to remove a fallen tree. Back to Abuzali on 25th and 26th. The girls left on 29th March. On 4 April we strimmed the Skalas Variola and on 7th/8th April Vromoneri. On 13th we worked on The Loop Vouno Klima until 16th. From 27th-29th April we cleared behind Episcopi . From 10th-13th May, with a new crew we continued the work at Klima and even installed some steps. 18th May Panormos valley towards Moutero and 19th and 22nd Retsina trail strim. That’s all folks! See you in September.
Some good publicity
Kyperissi
December drew to a close the eighth year of hosting volunteers via www.workaway.net.
Anne, a very fit 70 year old from America and Simon from South Africa were the last volunteers of 2021. During their month’s stay, we reopened a closed trail between Sotiros monastery and the lower mast road, carried out maintenance on part of The Retsina Trail in Pirgos and and made a start on reopening a long disused trail between Pirgos and Kyperissi spring.
Luckily there were no volunteers booked in for January. Luckily because the weather was so bad we wouldn’t have been able to work anyway. Just as the weather became drier (although sadly not warmer) two new volunteers arrived; Alexandra from France and Mitchell from Australia. Our first day straight in at the deep end was cutting a fallen tree from the Kimissia trail (see pic). It went surprising well, first cutting off the branches and then rolling the trunk away. Job done.
The following day we drove out to Kyperissi which is a little known area of Skopelos, nestling in a small valley in Pirgos. It has several houses and it’s own spring. It’s there that we have been working the last four days, reopening a disused ‘scalapaty’ (ladder path). Thankfully there aren’t too many of these scalapaties on the island; they’re extremely steep.
Continuing the work of December volunteers Anne and Simon, work out at Kyperisi has not been so straightforward as this trail has been abandoned for a very long time. No wonder. It is a straight slog up from the spring to the Pirgos hill. Still, it’s finished now, all 225m of it.
A bit of publicity
posted in: 2021, General Announcements, publications, Publicity, The Retsina Trail, Uncategorized |
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For the non Greek speakers amongst you, here’s your chance to hone your Google translate skills…
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4906631696065810&id=100001570836921&sfnsn=mo
Back to Work
We are happy to welcome new volunteers again and we’ve cleared the Kambos end of the Kimissia trail. We’ve made a start on the Polimistria trail but the Spanish broom is making it hard going.
We need to warn hikers of a newly errected fence near Djelili. If you take either the valley trail from Glysteri or the section by the deers, the exit beyond the spring is very tricky. The route was very badly damaged anyway by the floods a few years ago and a hole was created by the water. One could navigate around this hole but the new fence has made it rather dangerous.
NEW TERRAIN MAP 2021
The eagerly awaited updated Terrain Map is now available and I am so proud and pleased to have been able to contribute to it. The hikes and trails are now more clearly marked and there is info on the map about the View Ranger app.Printed on Polyart Technical material,a polymer with excellent mechanical strength i.e it does not rip and tear and is very lightweight.
Available now from the Shop – https://skopelos-walks.com/shop/
SHORT & SWEET
The spring clearing has finished as we enter summer season and the heat it brings. Manual work is impossible in these temperatures. Volunteer Mel from Canada has moved on to Turkey, Madeline is walking The Camino in Spain and sisters Lauren and a Jordan have returned to the States.
During their stay we cleared a forest trail from the Plane tree Michalakis to the old water source, Kimissia trail, Vouno Glossa towards Ag Iannis, Ag Reginos Pirgos to Platanakia and Moutero to the spring and Panormos valley. A petrol strimmer was purchased thanks to a generous donation, which made work so much easier. Sadly the battery strimmer just isn’t strong enough . One tries to be eco friendly but the battery machine can’t compete with petrol.
Thank you girls for all your hard work. It was a pleasure to host you.
Work starts again in September.
BEFORE & AFTER on the Retsina Trail below Ag. Reginos
A VIEW FROM THE LOOP
Where did the time go?
So here we are in April and what have we been up to? Due to travel restrictions, we haven’t been able to host volunteers this year until now, with the arrival of Joe who is from the Lebanon, lives in the US and studying environmental studies in Germany! He is strong and makes light of lifting and cutting. So far we have tidied up the Sendoukia Adventure trail and around the Mikalakis Water Mill, the short path behind Episkopi and the old main route out of town – Aloupi to Kangelia/Raches. This trail has really been abused over the years; dug up by OTE and not put back so cement was dumped here and there, dug up by the water company and a pipe unprofessionally installed leaving a huge gully and holes everywhere plus the inevitable bulldozer damage resulting in mounds of soil to be sermounted. Very heavy work with lots of brambles and full sun. It does have lovely views of the Stafilos valley though.
End of Year Roundup
In spite of the obvious disadvantages encountered in 2000, we still managed to reinstate 4 old trails as well as maintenance work.
In February our first volunteer arrived; Kiki Kamo from Japan. Due to transit problems she was here for just ten days but we were able to carry out maintenance at least.
Next up was Avery and Julia from the USA. However, their stay, 7-10 March, was curtailed due to the first lockdown. We made a start on the huge Mikalaki clearing project plus the Loutsa tower project which I finished off alone during lockdown.
In May, I was lucky to have the help of Zoe and Leo from France. They had decided to spend the lockdown here on the island. During that time we reopened an old trail from Pera Karia up to Sendoukia. It took us 5 days and included not only the clearing of vegetation and fallen trees but also the installation of ropes to help hikers up/down steep cliff faces.
There was a long break until the arrival of Emanuel from Romania, who stayed 3-30 September. Emanuel was an amazing volunteer. He didn’t want any days off or feeding and arrived by car with 4 hand made metal gates ready for installation. Emanuel has his own forge in Romania. During his stay we had the use of a forge, kindly put at our disposal by the Patsis family. The gates replaced fences at Kimissia and Ag Marina and Emanuel worked very hard installing them. He also worked extremely hard in flighting through to expose the beautiful aqueduct bridge at Mikalaki.
From 12 October-1 December, Camille and Aris from France became part of the furniture (one month intended and then extended due to Covid restrictions.) During that time, we also hosted Vailva from Lithuania (26 October-23 November). Here is the list of work that was carried out during that time:
4 days at The Mill, clearing away more vegetation, exposing walls plus an old path beyond the aqueduct. We also attempted to find the spring water source.
6 days clearing the Palouki forest trails between the examini, Ag Triatha turning and Ag Anna turning.
3 days reopening 147m of blocked trail near Ag Iannis Kambos.
2 days of trail maintenance at Abuzali – 359m.
3 days back at The Mill Mikalakis
2 days maintenance behind the Episkopi monastery – 105m
3 days in the area of Tjelili near the deer enclosure plus on the valley floor towards Glysteri – 576m
4 days maintenance at Diakopi – 299m
2 days maintenance on the Tower Loutsa trail – 374m
6 days maintenance at Ypermaxou
I also had a few hours local help from Maria Papavasiliou, Nana Kobra, Turid Stokkeland, Lefki Sohou, Kerasia Tamouridou, Ioanna Petsa, Georgos Papadavid, Silje Kramer plus a young French girl called Sofia! Thank you all! Thanks also to Peter Broadley for allowing us to use his home for volunteer accommodation. It made a huge difference and helped enormously.