Chorio - Stravros Polemou - Chorio From the village square by the cafe go on up past the bars (the kiosk is on your right) and keep going - passing the grocers, the bakers and the old pharmacy - when you come to a shop on the left (a takeaway place selling rotisserie chicken) take the steps on the right next to a supermarket (you cannot miss it since the supermarket has it's produced stacked up all over the place on these steps). Continue along the alley, passing a small boutique on the right, and shortly afterwards where the alley splits go right up the steps - now the way is marked with blue and red dots.
Just follow these marks until you come to a more open area which has a lot of derelict buildings
on the right, there are numerous red and blue markers on the walls around here
but carry straight on until you reach a T-junction, turn left and then keep to
the right of a supermarket.
Turn right at the next alley and now follow the
markers again until you reach an open area with a church slightly back to your
left. Carry on in the same direction and then
take the steps on the left - these will take you up to the donkey path.
Continue on up the path and just after a wire gate the path splits - take
the left hand fork and now start climbing up on a fairly steep zig-zagging
path. Just below the main road the path deteriorates - we found the best
way up was to go slightly left and climb up by a telegraph pole. Turn right on the main road and stay on it (ignoring the road going off on
the right to Taxiarhis Michali Roukouniotis) - when you reach a very sharp left
hand bend look out for the old moni-path leaving virtually straight ahead - go
onto this path and follow it between old stone walls until you come to the
monastery Aghia Ekaterini.
The path continues to the left side of the and comes
out on a small road - carry on up the road to re-join the main road. Turn right
and continue going slightly uphill and as the road starts to bend to the left
take a concrete road going off to the right. Ahead and below is what appears to
be a stone wall but this is in fact a re-established moni-path - take this path
but note it is very hard to walk on, the best place to walk is on the large
stones on the sides but take care since already there are bits missing. 
Around
here if you look up you can see the monastery at Stravos Polemou way above you
perched on rocks. Follow the path to rejoin the main road, turn right and after a short distance look out
for and follow a path which goes round the right hand side of an orchard below
and then again re-joins the main road. Turn right on the road and soon
come to an open area - ignore a track on the right to Ag. Nikolaos but just
beyond this climb up the bank to pick up a marked path (blue crosses with
red centres). This really nice path (there are meant to be tortoises around
to be seen but we didn't see them..) goes through the forest and eventually
arrives at peculiar concrete section which you climb over - then a little
further on the path arrives at the church of Panaidi
Continue on from the front of the church going alongside a wall on your left
then when you come to some huge boulders climb up via these (this is all well
marked) - just keep climbing up as the path winds via woods and huge boulders to
arrive at the monastery of Stravos Polemou - this is the highest
monastery/chapel on the island at around 500 metres. This is a great place to sit and
have a drink - there are good views all over the island including a distant view of Panormitis.
Opposite the church there is a small wooden door which is the
entrance to the monasterys kitchen - there is a fireplace for cooking, table and chairs plus a well in here.
Return back down the path towards the church of Panaidi but when you finally climb down to the path from the boulders turn left - follow the path through the woods and pick up a path on the right going down through woods - this eventually arrives at a large open area with a fence on your left. The way on from here is not too obvious - go over to the fence and then follow it round (fence on your left and there is old rusty fridges and junk all over the place too) - the path swings to the right - lookout for a large tree with a sign marked "to Ag. Nikolaos".
You should see on your left a large field surrounded by a stone wall
and probably containing goats. Pass to the right of the tree on a stoney path
which goes slightly right and slowly descends into some fir trees - after the
woods the path comes out on a more open area and then goes for some distance
going easily along the side of a gully. Eventually the path zig zags down, crosses the gully
and turns back along the other side of the hill - now climbing - there are
excellent views round here.
Simply stay on this path - eventually the small church of Panagia Stylou
comes into view ahead so when the path splits go right and walk up to the
church. From the church continue on a concrete road and go left at the next
junction - this will take you back to the monastery of Aghia Ekaterini. From
here retrace your steps back down the moni path/road/donkey path to Chora.
Chorio - Yialos - Toli - Emborio - Chorio. From the Old Village Square head down the Kali Strata to the harbour - turn left, go along the harbour front and then over the bridge, now turn left round the edge of the square until you reach a road going off to the right (this road goes to the cemetery). Go up this road - it soon becomes very steep as it climbs out of the harbour - after passing a builders yard on the left and when the concrete road starts to climb steeply turn left - the Grace Hotel will be in front of you. Go to the right of the hotel and take a path going behind it to walk up steps (this is now a marked route) to pick up a donkey path.
The quite often rough path zig
zags up hill and now is accompanied by a large water pipe on the right,
then passes through a gate to go into a very rough area.
Keep going
straight on still following the pipe to reach a sort of stone wall - turn
left here and this is in fact the old donkey path which takes long zig
zags up the hill (quite often meeting the water pipe in it's travels). As
you near the top the church of Ag Fanourios, surrounded by fir trees,
comes into view - you now have to make your own way across to it - aim for
a dirt road clearly visible near a house and then walk up this track to
reach the church. This a big-time goat meeting zone and smells
unbelievably - also there are several small military outposts nearbye so
take care if you want to take photos. The church was very securely locked
and had a big
anti-goat
fence round it.
Turn left on the tarmac road above the church and walk on the few metres to the main road.
Turn right and follow the main road to the large monastery of Taxiarhis Mihail Roukouniotis -
there is a walled area outside the monastery where you can sit under trees
for a while and also it is possible to go into part of the monastery
grounds. Take a concrete road passing the monastery on the left - this
winds down passing the monastery of Panagia Katholiki on the right and
also lookout for the threshing circle on the left. The road continues
winding downwards and then passes the monastery of Ag Dimitrios on the
right - then changes into a dirt road and starts to climb a little to reach cross tracks.
Go left and then almost immediately pick up on your right a quite rough
but wide track which heads
down
hill towards the sea - this track gets narrower and very much rougher and
then becomes more or less a wide path. When you reach a concrete drinking
trough take the left
fork - the path now gets even rougher and continues on down to a small
derelict building which is just above the beach. There are several ways down
onto Toli beach - some need more care than others since the whole area is
very rough. The beach itself is not really anything special, and is composed
over very large pebbles. However just off the beach is a very large old tree
which has some makeshift seats - an ideal place to sit and watch the beach
and to have something to eat and drink. You may well have the company of
some very large bees which are quite keen to share your fruit (without even
asking first..).
Return back up to the drinking trough - turn left and follow the path up
to the ridge to get views of the various beaches nearbye including the beach
at Ag Isidoros. You can continue on the path to go round the lower side of
the ridge to a
rrive
back at the drinking trough or you can simply return back to the trough on
the original path. Walk back up the original path and then track to arrive
at the cross tracks. Go straight across (don't take the path to the farm),
and after a few metres climb down over really rough ground.
Go past two
large white water tanks off to the right - cross a track and then climb down
to head to the left of a fenced area - go through the fence then bear right
to pick up a very narrow path (there are path markings but they are somewhat
hard to find).
Carry
on along this not too good path heading for the sea, eventually passing the
small church of Ag. Georgios Kylindriotis above on the left. From here the path
is in a poor condition and care is needed - also this part of the walk involves
a little climbing/scrambling.
There are great views of
Emborio
Bay and the coast road going off to Yialos - also below on the right you can see
the ruins of what must have been a very grand building and it's walled gardens.
(You can also see the monastery of Ag. Georgios Drakoundiotis
up on the hillside on the far side of Emborio and the moni-path
which leads up to it). The path comes out at some stone steps, take these to
reach the beach. Continue along the beach - there is a taverna where you can
also hire beach chairs - and it is also possible to get a boat back to Yialos
from here.
For walking back to Yialos to there are 2 options:
1: Just continue along the road out of the beach area, passing the taverna and then the church to follow the coastline as it winds on round to eventually pass Nos beach and then back into Yialos and it's two harbours. From here walk back up the 400 or so steps of the quite flat Kali Strata to reach the Village Square in Chorio.
2: Much nicer - continue along the road out of the beach area and having
passed the taverna and houses -
look out for the monastery of Ag. Georgios
Drakoundiotis high above you on the hillside - a marked path (dots and a red
arrow) on your right heads off uphill - this is sometimes a quite good moni-path
but also is very broken in places - it zig zags up to just below the monastery -
there are good views from up here.
Carry on past the monastery - and continue
along a concrete track between walls to reach the Elikonis cemetery. Carry on
passed the cemetry to walk on down the very steep road back into Yialos.
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