If you get the opportunity, please do this short walk down to the beach via Keramoto. It’s cobbled all the way down to the little harbour. I’d been told the route was closed and so decided to take a look for myself. It wasn’t.  You have to cross over the stream twice. The first one is rather smelly. It takes less than an hour to get to the sea. Just one place is a little overgrown but it is just stunning. The steam was in full flow yesterday and the walk down extemely pleasant, although it’s quite a slog back up.

Carried out my first walk with a couple from Germany on Saturday. He had some expensive photographic kit with him so I asked him to get some shots of the bee-eaters that were flying around overhead. I took them on the Petrovrissi hike and was shocked to see how overgrown the track has become beyond the pile of sand at the end of the dirt road. There was also the remains of a dead goat there!
On Sunday I took a very long investigative hike on Palouki hill. I found the old way through to Palouki (via the goat station and The Cross). All very overgrown and I’m glad I took it out of this edition of the book. If it.were cleared, one could walk practically all the way there by track. I was also trying to find a way through to Mili from the end of the Lower Mast Road. After 3 attempts, gave up… this time. What I did find (after a tip off) however was a couple of Violet Bird’s Nest Orchids, in the strangest place, just beside the road.
Yesterday was the first Coast to Coast hike. I had 5 people and it was a great day out, ending at Asterias, Panormos with mixed mezzie plates. On the way we saw amongst other things, a variety of orchids, include the white bee orchid, Heart-Flowered Serapias and Tongue plus a leopard snake.  One point to note, page 57 image 110. Don’t follow the good path off to the right and up (after you enter the olive grove). Keep left, almost paralel with the gully (down on your left). The next time I do this hike, I’ll put up another sign.

purple bird’s nest orchid

Today I showed a new friend the above stretch of calderimi. He is Greek but not from here. He’s from Crete. The way is as bad as it gets; totally overgrown with rock rose, sage etc. plus trees upright and ones that have fallen across the path.  He’s volunteered to start clearing it, starting at the bottom. Whenever he has a couple of hours to spare, he will go there.
At the end of the month, students from the Georgia Perimeter College, USA will be arriving to give a helping hand.  Whether we’ll get the entire segment open remains to be seen.
So where is the forestry department I ask? Playing backgammon of course…

In anticipation of the arrival of the latest edition of Skopelos Trails, will those of you who have already applied, please reapply. You will receive a copy at the ‘old’ price.

Many thanks.

The printer has promised that my book will be here by next Wednesday (14th).

The envelopes have already been written out and I’m ready to leap into action just as soon as they arrive. Thank you all for being so patient.

Meanwhile, I spent last Saturday driving round putting signs up; 40 in all. I just need to measure the distances now. Any volunteers?

A lovely day on Sunday and was able to get out and explore a different route up to Palouki. Success! Better luck than last week when I explored one of the old tracks from Stis Stathou spring in a roundal back to Tria Plantania. There were 5 fences! We got over 4 of them but had to give up at the fifth. Also, I couldn’t find the old way from Sendoukia down to Karia. Too overgrown. All the bulldozer damage down in Cyperisi was for nothing really too. It’s growing over again. So what was the point of destroying the path?

Nearly finished the rewrite. It’s taken a while and I still won’t have time to add maps, as I’d wanted.

After planning to get the majority of the updates in place over the Christmas period, due to computer incompatibility problems, it wasn’t possible. I’ve been back 2 weeks and had further computer problems which I think are now resolved. It’s alarming just how many changes have taken place since the last publication: the old brick kiln has gone, a huge bulldozed road nearly to the lighthouse in Glossa has annihilated the track, other paths have just disappeared. For years I would walk around the island, going back time and time again and finding the paths still open. It’s a totally different story now. If I don’t go out with my clippers on a regular basis, in just six months, you wouldn’t even know a path had existed in some places.

I have a meeting with the forestry people tomorrow and hope they will remove all the fallen trees below Ag Reginos in Pirgos so that the calderimi can once again be used.

Sifting through some old photos, I had the idea of every month offering a free hike to locals or a half price one to tourists, who can correctly identify the location of the image. So, where is it?