Ano Meria - Livadaki - Angali - Chora
Evaluation:
this is the longest and probably also the most beautiful hike you can make on
the island of Folégandros. You walk on a couple of marvellous monopátia and
along the way you can swim on the beaches of Livadáki and Angáli. Obviously,
this hike deserves an evaluation of ***.
Estimated time:
The hike all the way back to Chóra takes more than three hours of actual hiking
time – some pauses and stops to swim on one of the beaches will turn this hike
into a full day of about 6-7 hours. Therefore, you should definitely take the
bus from Chóra at about 10am. On the way back you can decide to return by bus
from the road above Angáli – this shortens the hike by 50 minutes, but you
should not forget to write down the bus schedule before departing.
Routedescription:
You can take the bus at the southern side of Chóra. After a 20-minutes-ride you
get off the bus at the last stop in Ano Meriá – this is Merovígli (the café
over there is called To Iliovasílema = the sunset). You follow the asphalt road
straight ahead for another 5 minutes and you then take a left (there is a
signpost to Livadáki).
At this point you find the beginning of one of those wonderful monopátia: at
first the path runs horizontally, thereafter it is tiled and you descend in the
direction of the Anárgiri-chapel.
After about 7 minutes, at the foot of a small hill, you can get to the chapel
via a concrete staircase. From this chapel you have a beautiful view on the beach and the
lighthouse. After this short detour you return to the main trail and you
continue past the hill top. The
trail curves further to the left, in the right direction, with a view on the
lighthouse. On the right you also get a nice view on Mílos and Kímolos. Another
5 minutes later the trail gets vaguer, while you descend on a rocky slope. You
keep more to the right, you walk in between some cairns and underneath the slope
you go left sharply – the trail is clearer again. After another 2 minutes you
get to a stony slope which leads to a trail; you follow this trail to the right
sharply (there are some worn away green arrows).
The monopáti now clearly
runs in between walls; after 5 minutes you walk on the left-hand side of ruins
and further down you go left. The following descent runs beautifully in between
walls, straight towards your aim Livadáki. After a couple of minutes the trail
gets narrower again and it continues on some rocky terrain in between – at
least for Folégandros – a lot of green. The lighthouse appears again in front
of you and you descend on the rocky trail – the sea is still deep down on your
right-hand side. After descending for 5 minutes you are down, on the marvellous
little beach with sand and white pebbles. At the end of the valley you can
distinguish the chapel of Agi Anárgiri high up – on the spot where you were
standing a couple of minutes ago.
You can go for a swim
before continuing your trip: some 20-30 metres away from the water you have to
go up a steep slope to follow the opposite side of the bay. You climb up an
obvious trail until you see the lighthouse in front of you again, after some 10
minutes. Guided by cairns you go down again. However, as soon as you get to a
low wall, where you cannot continue, you should stop going down – in contrast
with what Marc Dubin seems to suggest. With some difficulties it is still
possible to reach the lighthouse in about 5 minutes, but from there onwards the
trail is almost impossible to find – or you should return to this point.
So, at the moment you
arrive at this wall, you have to go left and you climb up for the next couple of
minutes - you walk at a distance of about 10 metres on the left-hand side of the
wall (traces of donkey dung indicate that you are still on the right track).
Close to a kind of hole in the rock, against the right-hand wall, you find the
first cairn, which shows you that this is the way to go. You continue to go up,
still with the wall on your right; you can still distinguish the lighthouse, far
away towards the south. You walk immediately next to the wall and all of a
sudden the trail becomes a lot more obvious. At the point where the walls come
together I have left a cairn as beacon; from there onwards the path continues
horizontally in between walls – you can already distinguish the town of Chóra
very far away in front of you.
The red-brownish monopáti gradually climbs up the slope of the hill and
basically all the time there is a low wall on your right-hand side. After 12
minutes you can clearly see the trail continuing on the next slope in front of
you. Halfway this second slope the wall curves to the right and you continue to
go up on the left until you reach the next pass. From here you have a marvellous
sight on Chóra and on the coast with the bay of Angáli – this is a great
spot to have a picnic.
A couple of minutes further you get to a rocky plateau
and from there you descend towards the left, on a beautiful trail in between
walls and in the direction of some ruins. At the end of the trail, near some
olive trees, you arrive at a stony three-forked-junction, with the ruins on the
right. The trail on the left leads to Stavrós (see the hike Chóra - Ano Meriá).
You take a right, in the direction of the bay.
The fairly broad trail
descends rather steeply in between two low walls, in the direction of the bay
and with a view on the terraces above the bay of Agios Nikólaos. Further
down the trail runs horizontally again, but it is more difficult to follow
because of the rocky terrain. You
should walk in the direction of the bay of Angáli and when you have a good look
you can see the trail continuing on the next slope. Very far away in front of
you, you can distinguish the idyllic little church of Christós, where you will
arrive later on. Also some cairns and green dots help you to find the right way.
On the left of a number of olive trees you reach the lowest point and then you
go up again for a little while. A little further you keep to the left and you do
NOT follow the trail between walls that goes to the right. The next descent -
again between walls - is really steep; it continues in between the cliff and the
wall, towards the bay of Agios Nikólaos. In front of you there is a remarkable
hill top with a ruin on top of it.
In this way you reach the
valley of Agios Nikólaos, some 20 minutes past the junction and about 45
minutes away from the lighthouse.
[At this point you could
descend to the right, towards the beach; thereafter you follow the trail along
the sea till the beach of Angáli.]
You go straight ahead on
the rocky monopáti in between walls; at first you walk on a stony slope and
then on a beautiful flat stretch. At the end you get to a low barred fence and
you just have to step over it. On the left there is another low barred fence and
thereafter you just continue. The beautiful trail curves to the left gradually
and after about 7 minutes you can see a ruin and the “famous” palm tree in
front of you – “famous” because Marc Rubin uses it as a beacon. A little
further there is a path coming from the left – it comes from Agios Pandeléimon
in Ano Meriá (see the route no. 3 with Marc Rubin). You go all the way to the
ruin and the palm tree. From here it only takes about 10 minutes to descend to
the valley, which leads to Angáli – the trail is sometimes steep and
sometimes it descends gradually. On
the way you pass some olive trees, which is rather unusual on Folégandros.
You thus get to the concrete road, on the left-hand side of a large cistern.
[At this point you can
shorten the hike by taking the concrete road going up on the left; on the large
asphalt road you can then wait for the bus.
You can also take the gravel road on the opposite side of the road; this gravel
road brings you to the asphalt road Ano Meriá - Chóra in about 15 minutes. You
then have to follow this road for more than a kilometer, before you can take the
path to Chóra off the left – see the second part of the
hike Chóra - Angáli - Chóra.]
Instead of all these
options, you choose to follow the concrete road, some 500 metres going down on
the right; in between oleanders and in the shadow of tamarisks you thus reach
the large sandy beach of Angáli.
After some rest on the
beach you walk to the other side and over there you take the concrete slope past
the first house starting from the beach. In this way you walk in eastern
direction towards the beach of Firá. An obvious path zigzags up and down
between the rocks; after some 7 minutes, past a small rocky beach, you have to
watch out and keep to the left – you should not start to climb on the
overhanging rocks. About 10 minutes later you arrive on the beach of Firá.
On the left-hand side of
the small house at the far end of the beach you find the beginning of a rocky
trail – there is even a red dot. Almost immediately you can distinguish your
next aim, high up, and not too far away in front of you: the chapel of Christós.
After some 2 minutes you get to a law wall; on the opposite side of the field in
front of you there is a small building. You should climb over the low wall and
walk along the edge of the terrace to the right-hand side of the little house. Behind
the house there is another wall with a barred gate on top of it and a red dot. You
should climb over the fence and meander up the slope – you go in the direction
of the highest green spot halfway the chapel (there are a couple of red dots to
show you which way to go). Behind the bushes you then even find a trail: at
first the trail is a rocky trench, later on it becomes a gravel path or a rocky
trail – until you finally reach the chapel. This is a wonderful spot, with a
great view on the north-west, with the bays of Firá and Angáli and the rest of
the coast.
The sometimes beautifully
tiled trail continues; after 2 minutes, with the three mills far away in front
of you, there is a sharp bend to the right. The following stretch is a
marvellous kalderími, unique on the island of Folégandros! Some 5 minutes past
the chapel the trail gets rockier, then there is a gravel path, and then again a
nicely tiled stretch. After 15 minutes, this beautiful monopáti gets to the
asphalt road, on the right-hand side of the three windmills and immediately
before the little modern church with a kind of protruding balcony.
You follow the road for
about 350 metres, you describe a bend to the left and thereafter (at a traffic
sign) you take a left on the gravel road that goes down.