Patitiri (Alonissos) Circular Walks.

Greek Island of Alonissos Patitiri Hiking Guides including visits to Chora, Plakes and a stop off at a lighthouse - these are both circular walks.

Patitiri-Chora-Meghalos Mouritas-Vithisma-Plakes-Faro-Patitiri With your back to the sea there are two main roads which go inland from the harbour - the road on the right is where the taxis and buses congregate and the one on the left (near the town beach) goes up passing the tavernas and shops - take the road on the left. The road climbs a little and passes a garage on the right and just after this look out for the start of the moni-path on the left - this is very clearly marked with a notice board and map - the path is marked 4. Follow the path as it starts climbing - stay on the main path ignoring side paths until you reach a concrete road and house directly in front of you, turn right in front of the house to continue along the moni-path - do not take any side paths and eventually you arrive on a dirt road.

Cross over the road and regain the moni-path - to arrive after a while on the main road - turn left and then after a short distance take a smaller road on the left. Continue down this road (there are paths which cut the corners on this road but they all were heavily overgrown with thorn and scrub and not worth the effort) to reach the beach at Meghalos Mouritas - there are tavernas on the beach here.

At the opposite end of the beach take the steps steeply up to climb out of the beach and quite soon join a track which starts here - continue on the track and keep a lookout for a small car-turning circle on the left. Just by this on the right a fairly wide path goes quite steeply down to Vithisma beach - follow the path down, then it levels off and then goes downwards again - just before a "double" tree on the right a very narrow path goes off on the right switching back sharply.
This path is very narrow, quite crumbly and nearer the beach has several parts where you need to be very careful to avoid falling/sliding onto the beach below.

The path comes out above a ruined small drinks kiosk - just here find and climb down a "ladder" to get onto the really nice, quiet nudist beach: there are no tavernas or beach umbrellas or anything much here - maybe just you and one or two other people. (The reason for not continuing on the main path to the beach is that its ends up still fairly high above the beach and the only way down the final 4 or 5 metres is on your bottom via near vertical scree - not a good idea - we did it once).

Return back up to the track, turn right and continue on this really lovely track through the pine forests. On reaching the tarmac road turn left (a right would take you to Cape Marpunta - a VERY organised and noisy beach area with people marching about/tannoys blaring etc... we stayed only long enough to take a quick photo and then ran for our lives/sanity). The tarmac road is also very pleasant to walk along as it heads back towards Patitiri and has quite good shade from trees during the later part of the afternoon which is quite welcome. After passing Rocks camp site on your right look out for a brown/red coloured gate by a fence - a narrow stony path leads from here down to Plakes beach - this beach is mostly flat rocks and has just a small shingle beach area too.

Return back to the road and turn right and keep going until you see the track on the right signposted Faro - follow this track down towards the coast to reach a crossing track. If you go left a small track leads to a hotel and to the left of the gates there is track down to the beach. If you however go across this cross-track you come to a gate - go through the gate and then continue on a narrow path to reach the rocks/headland.
Return back to the road and turn right to now follow this back towards Patitiri - when the road eventually turns sharp left continue straight on via a concrete road - this brings you down to the harbour.

Patitiri-Chora (Old Town)-Kalovoulos-Lighthouse-Mikros Mouritas-Patitiri With your back to the sea there are two main roads which go inland from Patitiri harbour - the road on the right is where the taxis and buses congregate and the one on the left (near the town beach) goes up passing the tavernas and shops - take the road on the left. The road climbs a little and passes a garage on the right and just after this look out for the start of the moni-path on the left - this is very clearly marked with a notice board and map - the path is marked 4. Follow the path as it starts climbing - stay on the main path ignoring side paths until you reach a concrete road and house directly in front of you, turn right in front of the house to continue along the moni-path - do not take any side paths and eventually you arrive on a dirt road. Continue straight ahead on the moni path until you come to the main road, turn left and head up into Chora - on your way up lookout on the right for the threshing circles.
Stay on the main road and continue past the square in Chora then on reaching the cemetery take the track on the left, then when the track splits keep right - stay on this scenic track as it winds round the hill going past a track to the goat station below and eventually ends on a flat concrete structure - we think probably used once as military lookout or similar. Here you get great views of the coastline both ways, the small islets of Agii Georgii as well as of Skopelos in the background.

Return all the way back to the track junction but now turn right and lookout on the right for the paved start of the path going up to Kalovoulos - this is path 2 but only has yellow markers. This delightful but narrow path immediately starts climbing up through low shrubs but soon enters fir trees where it comes as a surprise to find a picnic bench - the path continues fairly flat through open ground and then climbs again to reach a fairly flat rocky area - turn right and pick your way up via very rocky and sometimes thorny goat paths to the actual top at Kalovoulos at 333 metres.

Retrace your steps down the path to the start of the moni-path on the dirt track - turn right and follow this track as it winds down through the hills - ignore a track on your right which goes to a house - eventually the dirt road comes to a dead end. A few metres before the end take a fairly hidden path on the left which goes down with several bends through the olive groves heading towards the sea - this is quite an overgrown path which sometimes almost disappears but does have the occasional red blob marker. When the path splits by a wall keep to the right and continue zig-zagging down towards the sea.

As you finally come out of the olive groves you will see a lone pine tree and lots of old stone walls - keep to the right of the tree on the walled area until you pick up the coastal path. Turn right and follow this wandering path as it more or less follows the coast (don't forget to close the gate some way along) to eventually arrive just above the lighthouse at Cape Kokino - note this path is heavily overgrown and rocky so making walking it quite difficult in places.

Return back along the coastal path but this time continue straight on at the original entry point - in fact just stay on this path until it arrives above and then goes down to the beach at Mikros Mouritas - again this is a very narrow and heavily overgrown path most of the time. The beach is not that special, has no facilities and also enjoys a large but wrecked concrete building which enhances it's beauty somewhat - also when going into the sea the seabed is quite muddy with silt - however once into the water the sea was as usual lovely and clear.
From here walk out of the beach to immediately pick up a narrow potholed path in front of you - this path zig zags up to reach a dirt track on the right of the valley. You can now turn left and follow the track back up into Chora but really don't do that - instead go across the track to pick up a really great path (yellow one) which takes you up the side of the hill

This is a path not to be missed but if you are walking mid-late afternoon bear in mind it can be very hot walking up it since it is fully exposed to the sun. The path comes out just beneath Chora - it goes along a quite grassy area and then via steps which take you up into the narrow streets. Make you way back to the main road by the square and turn right and follow the road down to the start of the moni-path to walk back into Patitiri

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