Kóronos - Liónas and back

Evaluation: This is a very beautiful and fairly easy walk which takes you to a very lonely area, with stunning mountain views: it leads you to the pleasant beach of Liónas with its multicoloured pebbles. Because of the mountainous nature of the walk and the beautiful trails this walk gets the maximum rate of ****.
If you return to Kóronos, you have no problems with transportation. If you prefer a shorter walk, you could make the walk there and back Kóronos – Tzoumagiá, or you could ask the very friendly man of restaurant To Delfináki to bring you back to Kóronos…
[Update by Raymond on September 25^th 2011 and September 28^th 2017 .]
[The translation of this walk was made with some help of Google translate - so, please, do not mind the mistakes...]

Estimated time: The way out of this walk is 6,18 km long and takes about 2h10 (AWT) –  the time for the way back to Kóronos is nearly the same. The total AWT thus amounts to 4h20 - with the necessary breaks, this will easily become a 7-8 hour-hike, in total walking time – we had lunch in the restaurant To Delfináki...

Route description: [Also this time you can first enjoy the bus trip, even though it takes a long time. The bus ride starts off really slowly; through the sloppy outskirts of the town and the plain of Chóra the bus goes up to Galanádo. Slightly further on you have a great view on the green plain of Potamiá on the left. If you have a good look, you might even discern the site of Agios Mámas. It is only past Chalkí and especially past Filóti that the views are truly spectacular: between Filóti and the turn to Danakós and also just before Agios Ioánnis you have a magnificent view on the large town and on the entire valley. After Agios Ioánnis you will have a view on the valley between the Korakiá-hills and Apíranthos. Also when approaching Kóronos the view is wonderful!]

(0h00) You start the walk on the asphalt street, near the statue of Nikifóros Mandiláras, a local politician who was killed in 1967, in the first year of the military dictatorship (hiking sign Liónas 2h20). You descend to the right in the village, until you get to a small parking lot. At this point you continue straight ahead by following the same street – the street is named after Mandiláras. You have to take a lot of steps until you arrive underneath the church. You might have noticed the blue dome of the church earlier – when passing this church you should note the marvellous old roof, made out of flat stones.

[Just past the church you could first go to the left and across the inner court of the school with a marvellous tree. You walk around the tree and in this way you will go up on the left till the large building with the red roof that is clearly visible from far away. This is the Information and Culture Centre, but unfortunately it is often not open. Thereafter you walk back, past the church and then further straight ahead.]

At the church you descend a few steps, but BEFORE the end of the street, you take the first street on the right, you pass underneath an arch, and you thus zigzag all the way through the very quiet village. You pass under another arch and you go through a steep street, which leads you to the traditional café (kafenío paradosiakó) 'tou ippóti' (The Knight). Just before you reach the café, you descend to the left and you arrive at a beautiful little square with a washing place and a well, and the nice green outdoor terrace of the restaurant "I Plátsa" next to it.

(0h07) You take a left here; a signpost points to the "káto gitoniá" or the neighbourhood at the bottom of town - there is a hiking sign Skadó 30' / Komiakí 1h40 / Liónas 2h15 + [9] and [10]. After some two minutes and 88 steps, you keep to the right on the descending street, next to a house with a red roof (hiking sign Liónas 2h10 + [10]) – you DO NOT go straight ahead.

[Walk [9] continues straight (hiking sign Skadó and [9]) - see the walk Kóronos - Skadó and back.]

You thus take a right, you cross a small bridge and you continue to the LEFT in between the houses. A short while later, you go right (red arrow) and then left again [10] – you thus leave the village in south-south-eastern direction. You walk on a narrow concrete trail, on the right-hand side of the valley. Very soon your monopáti becomes alternately paved and stony, still running above the beautiful green valley: you have a view on the village of Skadó on the opposite side and after about five minutes you are also able to see the village of Kóronos behind you.

(0h18) After 6-7 minutes, you get to a new stretch of concrete - it was made in 2009 -, but it soon turns into a gravel road. 
Pay attention: the continuation of the old path begins sharp to the LEFT, approximately 1 minute after the beginning of the gravel road ([10] on a stone). This path turns to the right immediately and you are now descending on a nice monopáti, paved with uneven stones. A couple of minutes later you reach a junction, where you go down on the left and after some more minutes you take a right - don't continue straight ahead, but do take the narrow and stony path on the right ([10] and small red arrow on the a wall). The following descent in the narrow valley is really beautiful and rather steep; some five minutes later you walk across a small arched bridge. On the opposite side you take a right.

(0h28) You now walk on the left-hand side of the dry bed of a river, with large white stones -    pity that there is so much plastic detritus. After another 2 minutes, your trail moves away from the bottom of the valley and the next stretch is rocky or beautifully paved – the landscape is astounding.

(0h36) Mind also the two inscriptions on the rocks to the left, with dates as 1947 and 1949 and with the letters IBP, NIK, etc. Some 6 minutes later, you can notice, high up on the opposite side of the hill crest on the right, the remnants of the famous cable way, which was used until 1989 to transport the emery iron to the harbour of Mutsúna. 

(0h40) You continue on the beautiful trail and far away, deep down in front of you can already see the gravel road you will end up later on. A couple of minutes further you walk on the right-hand side of a stable and then the descent gets steeper. After a few beautiful turns of the monopáti you arrive at the second arched bridge, where you cross the same river bed – this river, which flows into the sea, much lower on the beach of Liónas, is called the Tzoumagiá.

(0h55) The trail continues for a little while and then it gets to the gravel road which you follow somewhat up and straight ahead. Slightly further, at a big stable, you open a large double gate.

[Some days, two men are into the fold, who are busy preparing the famous local cheese, the myzíthra. If you see them, you can ask them "Boroúme na perásoume =  can we pass here?", and there is the chance that they will invite you to take a look inside ...]

Beyond the stable, you descend slowly for 5 minutes, you pass through a gate again and, at a junction, you keep sharply to the left (big red mark) - and you meander downwards till you reach a modern concrete bridge.

(1h08) You continue straight ahead, again on the left-hand slope of the valley. After about three minutes, the gravel road goes slightly down until it arrives at a small bed of a side river.

(1h12) When the reddish road descends to the right, a wonderful rocky trail continues uphill, between olive trees and to the left of a wall (red arrow). The climb that follows is beautiful: you continue first on a very rocky and stony path next to a fence in reinforced steel, and after a few minutes on an impressive number of uneven steps, most of the time next to a heavy wall. You thus arrive high above a grand gorge, on a protruding rock. The panoramic view from up here is unbelievable; you can see the trail behind you, the valley and the gravel road and even further the path that meanders to Kóronos – the houses are just visible underneath the hill with the aerials on top of it. On the hills on the opposite side you can notice lots of traces and holes of mine exploitation. This is really a great spot!

(1h24) After leaving this great viewpoint you continue more or less horizontally – far away you can already distinguish the sea. You get to a second cape, from where you descend into a sort of plateau, dotted with pale rocks.
Here there is a vague bifurcation, where you need to go down to the RIGHT – indeed, you should pass to the right of the largest triangular rock. You descend a bit, then the path becomes clearer again and continues to the right of brownish rocks. For the next ten minutes you walk fairly horizontally, going up and down once in a while, in between nice walls [10] and terraces with olive trees. In this way you arrive again high above the descending bed of the valley,  with to the right many remnants of mining.

(1h38) You pass through a gate in reinforced steel, the trail is very pleasant and varied - sometimes it continues on pale rocks, sometimes it has an uneven pavement, sometimes it is an earth path. In front of you, you can notice the chapel of Panagía Afdeliótissa, and after 30 splendid minutes, you get to a concrete bend of a road, which you follow of course to the right [10].
After some 5 five minutes on this slightly descending road, you get to a junction, where you keep to the a right (red arrow). After 2 minutes, you walk above the chapel and a little further you find a small trail with a signpost pointing to this chapel. The road itself meanders further for about five minutes; in two large bends right and left the road goes down and after another sharp turn to the right, you continue for about 20 metres, but then you see a path that descends to the LEFT (red arrow on a cairn).

(2h00) This path descends quickly now, straight towards the beautiful bay; all the way you walk in between two little walls. You get to a concrete trail between the first houses and you go down to the beach. (2h11)

Because of the multicoloured pebbles this beach looks quite unique and it is a real experience to have a swim here.
Further in the valley you see three tavernas – the choice is difficult, especially since all of the owners try to attract your attention. But To Delfináki offers you a delicious sweet home made white wine with a nice mezé. The food is excellent and the reception is very kind – there are even two rooms!

[If you do not want to walk the whole way back up to Kóronos,  you should call a taxi from this place, but that is expensive – in May 2004 the beautiful one-hour-ride back to Chóra cost 40 €.
If you stay for lunch in To Delfináki, the host will perhaps offer to bring you back to Kóronos…]  

(2h11) The way back begins at the other end of the beach, where you take the stairs nearly three tamarisk (hiking sign Kóronos 2h15 + [10]); the staircase becomes a small concrete path that continues between the houses. After a little more than a minute, you have to take the concrete staircase that goes up RIGHT; it veers to the left and a little farther it becomes a path that goes up very fast on white rocks next to a wall . After a few minutes, you arrive against a wall, where you continue to the right, and then left. The trail becomes quite rocky and continues first along a wall, then on the slope - and so you get to a small gravel road (cairn and red mark).

(2h23) You go to the RIGHT, because this road veers further to the left - you will follow it for about 800 meters. It winds right and left and after 8 minutes, it passes next to the footpath down to the Panagía Afdeliótissa.
You pass next to the chapel and after a total of 16 minutes, you see in front of you and in a sharp right turn, the clear path - it starts to the left of a high wall (small cairn).

(2h39) The path that follows is very nice and varied: it rises slowly in the middle of a lot of flowers in Spring. After 5-6 minutes, you pass through a gate that is closed by a double knot, you continue easily next to the valley that becomes deeper and deeper, with the remnants of the emery mining on the slopes on the other side. You pass underneath gnarled olive trees and later on between terraces planted with olive trees. Further, the climbs gets steeper, you pass under large rocks and you reach a plateau, dotted with pale rocks. The trail disappears somewhat, but you continue to go straight ahead and pass in this way to the left of the big rock - and your path becomes more obvious. You thus arrive at the culminating point, a wonderful spot between the pale rocks with bizarre shapes.

(2h59) In front of you, you already see a few houses of Skadó (right) and Kóronos, and also the gravel road to where your path will go down now - and you even see on the hillsides the monopáti that will continue beyond the bridge, that is still invisible. The descent is initially quite pronounced, sometimes on steps, but then it becomes slower, on a stony path, that arrives near a wall after 4 minutes. After a stretch with uneven steps and a very stony part, you get to the reddish road.

(3h09) You go to the right, in between two large olive trees, and you thus continue in the narrow valley until you get near the first concrete bridge. The small road goes up while zigzagging and after 5 more minutes, you get to the side-road that you follow sharply to the right. You climb gradually up to the large gate next to the stable, and then it takes only a few minutes to get to the second bridge.

(3h23) You follow the monopáti that goes up meandering. You must really be careful to follow the turns – so after some 3 minutes you go right, next to a cairn (you should NOT continue straight on, because you would end in the riverbed!). After another minute you definitely have to turn left! Sometimes, the path is crumbled away, but after five minutes it gets much better; you will now gradually mount, with high mountains on your left, crowned by the rotating windmills. The path is sometimes paved with large stones and sometimes rocky, but always there are heavy border stones. After having followed a beautiful path for about 10 minutes, you pass the sheperd's hut and a little later you go through the gate.

(3h40) After uninterrruptedly climbing up for 17-18 minutes, you get to the most beautiful stretch, more or less flat and covered with large stones, in a desolate landscape. Pay attention to the 4 metal pillars and the remains of the cable car for the exploitation of emery, high up before you on the left. Note also the eroded river bed deep down in the canyon. And on a rock on your right, you notice some graffiti, with three times the date 1947... After this beautiful stretch, you pass along a wall - high before you you can already see some houses of Kóronos. You descend a little and you arrive next to the river bed, strewn with big white boulders – it is again a nice and easy stretch of about 4 minutes, but the litter in the river bed is really a pity! After two minutes you go through a gate.

(3h51) You cross the river bed on the arched bridge to the left and from now on you will mount without interruption for a little less than 10 minutes, most of the time on a very uneven path, paved with pale cobbles. At first the path is very narrow and steep. Then you go left and immediately thereafter you continue straight ahead. You mount for 5 more minutes, now on a broader, but still unevenly paved path.

(4h00) After this rapid climb you reach the new gravel road, which you follow to the right, of course. After 1 minute of gravel and 1 minute of concrete, the path starts again: you mount again on uneven cobblestones for about 5 minutes and after 2 minutes of concrete you reach the first houses. Midst the houses you first go right, then left, then you go down some steps straight ahead and you take a right over the bridge. You climb 31 steps and then you go left for the last 88 steps up, and so you arrive at the square with the restaurant I Plátsa.  

(4h13) You go up on the right of the well and, by keeping to the right at the cafe 'tou ippóti’, you arrive at the main street. You go left through an arch or kamára, a little further you go up a staircase on the left, and then again through an arch. In this way you arrive next to the church, where you go up on the left. You have to climb up many more steps and then you first arrive at the parking lot; a little further, after the concrete road, you get to the asphalt road. (4h20)

[If you don 't have dragged, it may be possible to catch the last bus back to Chóra: it usually passes at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
If you come by car, you will have the advantage of having plenty of time to do this exceptional hike.]

Gpx-files:

https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=20904868

https://www.routeyou.com/en/route/view/5002512/hiking-route/naxos-koronos-lionas