Join us on a guided hike from Skopelos town to Panormos bay. Return by municipal bus. Meet at 9am outside Kohilis bakery/cafe Thursday 6 June.
The Van
January news
What a fantastic start to the year. Joe and Lewis from Liverpool and Amber from Australia have been helping me clear the trails. They’ve been excellent company too. After dinner, we’ve been out dancing until the early hours several times and on the full moon we drove up to Palouki, made a fire and had our dinner there. We’ve also been working hard on the Palouki trail, making it passable for mountain bikers as well as hikers.
2018 RECAP
What a fantastic year it’s been. Starting on 13 March with Sam and Monique from Canada, we had a total of 19 Workaway volunteers and 9 tourist volunteers who donated days of their holiday.
Trails cleared: Potami to Diakopi, Kokala, Tzukala (Monks trail), Tzelali, Kimissia, Retsina trail (Pirgos area), Panormos and Moutero, Vromeneri/Potami and behind Episkopi. Emmanuel also removed one huge tree at Kimissia, another at Pirgos plus two enormous ones at Ag Iannis Skleri. He’s my chainsaw hero; brave and tenacious.
Here are the names of all the volunteers for 2018:
Sam and Monique (Canada), David (Spain), Jenna (US), Liesa (Germany) Steve (UK), Eleni (US), Nikos (Canada), Che (Scotland), Hannah (Wales), Alexa (US), Jennie (Germany), Leigh (Australia), Gloria (Majorca), Rory (Ireland), Allie (Canada), Polly and Austin (Australia) and Audrey (Singapore).
Tourists: Jackie and Dee, Anita, Felix, Bankje, Pamela, Dan, Clive and Amy plus locals Dimitri Palaeologos and Emmanuel Palaeologos.
A huge thanks to them all.
More Autumn News
We continue to keep busy. The Retsina Trail from Diakopi, up to Ag Georgos (Anania hill) and back down to Nancy, Pirgos, has been cleaned. Many thanks to volunteers Rory from Ireland, Allie from Canada plus Austin and Polly from Australia, for all the hard work.
We also spent two days reopening a blocked portion of trail from Vromoneri spring near Potami up to Raches.
There’s a route change in Kambos too on the Panormos walk. Note that the Kimissia trail up to Pirgos now starts earlier via a new dirt road. We’ve put signs up.
The Retsina Trail
Maintenance is being carried out and we’ve just completed the portion that runs between Diakopi and Pirgos (near Anania).
Autumn 2018
It’s been a very busy start to the clearing season with volunteers from Majorca, Spain, Australia and Germany already come and gone and now from Ireland and Canada. A new piece of equipment has been purchased, a hedge trimmer and it’s proving very successful. So far, we’ve carried out maintenance at Kimissia, on the Panormos trail in the Potami area, cleared a thicket of brambles below Raches and are now widening the trail that leads from Diakopi up towards Pirgos (part of the Retsina Trail).
I was unable to get a hotel room at the beginning of the season and I can’t thank the Bonini/Kosma family enough for their generosity in allowing the volunteers to stay at their town house. It was a godsend and works very well as it’s located close to my house.
I’ve also had dialogue with the Forestry department and shown their agricultural policeman (agrofilikas) several problem areas to see if we can take some kind of official action.
THE LATEST
So the spring is well and truly gone. Emmanuel and I kept going clearing July evenings until the heat got silly and we decided to call it a day for the time being. So now September is nearly upon us and trail clearing will soon resume with a fresh intake of volunteers from Germany, Spain, Australia and Ireland. Regular volunteer Anita will also be back to help out during her holiday.
The most popular guided hike continued to be Skopelos to Panormos, a swim and late bus back. A portion of this trail is endangered by a sneeky land-owner and a close eye is being kept on the situation.
An official complaint was lodged at the town hall regarding fences on the Kimissia trail. The council handed the situation over to The Forestry the week before our tragic fire at Amaranthos. What’s our little fence problem compared to that? But it has to be resolved eventually.
Geocaching continued to attract a few enthusiasts but some caches disappeared and others needed some maintenance. The Moutero spring GPS got sorted at last via a proper GPS rather than an app.
We also experienced The Most Amazing solar eclipse. I wonder what the next season has in store?
LOVE FOR EVER
For those of you who think they know Skopelos, this is an area you may not have stumbled across. I remember it as being a small footpath beside a narrow brook that lead to the spring of Lalaria. I couldn’t believe the change due to the floods of 3 years ago. Now we have a wide canyon, forged by the water pouring down from Palouki. The Spring has gone. We are left with beautiful plane trees lining a dry (at the moment) river bed, which ends at a sheer rock face with a natural spring, the waters of which are being harnessed by someone to supply water to their nearby vegetable garden. This route can be used to get further up the Old Stafilos Road. See my sketch map page 19 of the guide book and page 21, image 4. 
