5 Aug 2026

The Unsung Heros

by | posted in: General Announcements, Uncategorized, Volunteers, Volunteers | 5

Between the 1920s and 1950s, islands with fewer than 25,000 inhabitants could mandate that able boded adults of both genders provide two days of manual labour. This was called Personal Labour (prosopiki Ergasia) a statutory civic duty run by the community councils, tailored to maintain vital infrastructure depending upon exact local needs. This included cleaning and digging out communal springs and stone paths (calderimia) plus building and clearing the trails connecting the kalyvia across the island.

For those who had moved away, the municipality allowed a fee to be paid (antitimo) equivalent to two days wages so somebody else could be employed.

During my years of finding and reinstating these calderimia, I could tell the difference between the good and the bad workmen. Some were works of art, exquisitely pieced together. First a trench was built, then the stone fit together like a puzzle, then filled in with smaller stones to prevent vegetation from growing through. Upon finding various stretches of calderimi, once all the shrubs had been cut away, it was just a question of getting hold of the edges of the vegetation then pulling very hard. It would come away in one turf piece, revealing the beautiful stones beneath. I might add, this took the Skopelos Trails volunteers weeks of toil. The calderimia were built wide enough so that two loaded mules could pass each other.

This volunteer system could do with being reinstated as labour costs prevent the council from employing full time workers and our newly signed trails are at risk of becoming overgrown as my organisation is scaling back the service we have provided over the last 30 odd years. The Personal Labour system was officially abolished in 1995.

So far, we have found 5 Trail Angels; residents who have volunteered to be responsible for a portion of trail near their homes. The areas covered so far are Karia, Kimissia Kambos end, Michalakis, the municipal tip down to Glysteri and Paleo Klima village down to Kosta beach. Please let me know if you would be prepared to be a Trail Angel.

3 Feb 2026

2025 REVIEW

by | posted in: 2025 Clearing, General Announcements, path clearing, Uncategorized, Volunteers | 9

Below are details of how many volunteers we hosted and how many trails we reopened and cleaned in 2025. Bearing in mind we no longer have teams of volunteers as before, we cleaned more than I imaged.

In other news, it seems that our now ex accountant had never informed us of our tax situation resulting in seven years of non payment of tax. Plus a penalty, we are now trying to pay off this enormous debt. It seems that even if you have no income, you still have to pay tax. This has made us think hard about the future of Skopelos Trails. Soon, we will have no spare room in which to house volunteers as we are moving to smaller accommodation. Someone else wanted to take over the reigns but they have no spare accommodation or money to pay the regular tax of 400 euros a year we now realize we have to pay. Yes, my friends, on top of buying all the equipment required, hosting and working alongside volunteers and paying for their meals, paying for petrol for the machines and for the car as well as website expenses, it seems the gods are still not content.

5 Nov 2025

November News

by | posted in: 2025 Clearing, Uncategorized, Volunteers | 2

Having been advised not to arrange volunteers for this month due to the imminent start of the Trails Project, I haven’t actively been looking. So, of course, the start date has yet again been delayed as the papers have been sitting on someones desk waiting to be signed and returned. We are so close now, I can’t say more.

The last trail to be cleaned was Abuzali on 15 October.

Lene, a retired nurse from Sweden came to help at this time but it rained every day and she got so bored with lack of work, she left! We did manage to go round and check on some of the Geocaches, remove a couple that weren’t working and place a new one that got found two days later!

Abuzali

On 12 October, I GPSed a long circular hike starting from Milos, then Ag Konstantinos, down to Glysteri, up to XTA, Chickpea, Pera Kariya, Kriavrissi, The Gorge, Djelili, Prof. Ilias and back to Milos – 13k. A route for the next edition of Skopelos Trails.

The next group hike, weather permitting, will be on Sunday 16th. I’m thinking Mill on the Hill via Kimissia, returning by municipal bus.

We are now gathering information for our next publication which will be about Mammals and Bats. If you have any high resolution images of mammals or the fallow deer, please contact me. You will receive full photo credit.

Skopelos Trails: A British woman uncovering — literally — paths of Greek island’s simple past

3 Jun 2025

JANUARY-MAY NEWS

by | posted in: 2025 Clearing, Karia trail, path clearing, publications, The Retsina Trail, Uncategorized, Volunteers, Volunteers, Wildlife conservation | 0

At last our latest publication, over a month later than expected, has arrived and is on the shelves. We are very happy with the result, after putting in a lot of hard work plus toing and froing between us and the printer. We have already started on our next publication which will hopefully be ready by Easter 2026.

We started trail clearing this year on 24 January and stopped 23 May. In spite of a lot of rain in February, altogether, I worked 42 days and with the help of three Workaway volunteers throughout that period and six others, we reopened and carried out maintenance on the following trails:

Vouno Glossa, The Gorge, Klima to Kosta, Ag Marina, Anania, Dymaka, Platanakia, Abuzali, Myli spring, Moutero, Petrovrissi, Prof. Ilias church, Djelili, Karyia and Skleri.

I’d like to mention and thank my Workawayers: Chris Stofel from Austria, who played a huge part in reopening the old Gorge trail from Djelili to Kriavrissi, Sina and Jana from Germany plus local helpers Marko Kazandzic, Thomas and his wife Andrea, Chris and his wife Angela plus Johan Uthus.

We start again in September.

30 Apr 2025

MICHALAKIS

by | posted in: 2025 Clearing, Uncategorized, Volunteers, water and springs | 1

Regular visitors will have noticed that vegetation has been removed around the area and steps cut into the slope near the archway to enable access to the upper level, where the remains of the water canal that fed the mill can be seen. This work has been carried out by Georgos Papalapas. He seems to have adopted the area and we can all benefit from his enthusiasm to keep it looking beautiful. He’s also dug in some steps near the water source where a trail leads up to the dirt road. Someone else has cut down several plane trees however, which has changed the landscape. This has been reported to the Forestry department.

As well as the above, Georgos has placed a bench beside the pond, no doubt made in his family workshop Made of Wood www.madeofwood.gr

This got me thinking…. would you perhaps like to sponsor a bench like this in memory of a loved-one, pet or simply because you’d prefer to rest comfortably and admire the view on one of your favorite trails? The bench can also be engraved with words of your choice. Skopelos Trails would install and maintain it. The cost would be €185 plus €50 for an engraving.

2 Apr 2025

February/March News

by | posted in: 2025 Clearing, Ancient sites, General Announcements, path clearing, The Retsina Trail, Volunteers, Volunteers, Wildlife conservation | 0

Chris Stofel from Austria arrived via Workaway. A landscape garden by profession, he had a lot of hiking experience, loved flora and fauna, could handle a chainsaw and made You Tube videos about his adventures! After doing a bit of maintenance work at Djelili and Potami/Diakopi, we decided to go for it and reopen The Gorge. In fact he welcomed the challenge. In spite of many rainy days, it took us just 9 days. It was also great that he was here for the Carnival as he was able to include that in his video about Skopelos Trails. This is a link to his You Tube video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJfDm8KFE6U&t=63s Skopelos Workaway: Hidden Paradise of Greece. He has made many other travel videos under the name STRAWANZA.

Next up was Sina, a 23 year old medical student from Germany. She was strong and willing to take on any job that presented itself. We tried unsuccessfully to find a better trail head for the Gorge but at least cut away a lot of undergrowth to reveal the ruins of a lime kiln. We then cut away a A LOT of smilax that was blocking a portion of the Gorge. During her stay, we also carried out maintenance work at Ag Marina (3 days), Palouki (1 day) Anania, Pirgos (3 days), Dymaka, Pirgos (2 days) and made a start at Ag Reginos/Platanakia (1 day).

On Sunday 6 April, I will be conducting a guided hike of the Gorge. We will drive to the trail head from Kastro car park, setting off at 10.30am. The Gorge itself takes about 1.1/2 hours to walk, one way. There are trees to crawl under, rocks to climb over and narrow paths with a sheer drop. Hiking here is at your own risk. Please let me know if you intend to go/want to car share. Please remember that this gorge has been the undisturbed habitat for many species of flora and fauna. We must respect this.

My April volunteer has recently cancelled so it looks as if I will have an enforced rest. Let’s see!