Two churches, a beach and a sunset

Sunday 13th November

I had a late start to my walk today, as I met the person again, who feeds stray cats and I now am  feeding them while they go on holiday. I also met the sitter who is looking after her house cats, he works for Trusted House Sitters which I think is a fantastic idea. I also met someone else, a friend of the stray cat carer. This person is Greek, and organises hikes around the island and has seen my posts on the Facebook Serifos page. I had my map with me, so everyone had a look at it, and the markings, showing churches and paths I have seen and walked. 

Photo interlude, those bulbs coming up!

After this meeting, and numbers were exchanged, I went off on my walk. This was to be new territory, to see two new churches and a beach, but I missed two more, but because I liked this walk so much, I am sure to do it again and see the other two churches then. The walk starts in a track off the road to Mega Livadi, if you look at Google maps and find the beach or the two churches I mention, you will know where I started. I parked just a little way along the track, that changed between concrete and unpaved as you went along it. In fact when I parked up, there was a guy who had just filled in a hole using stones from his truck, and was just levelling it off. 

He then parked by a smallholding, with the usual mixture of things like hens and other produce. This part  of the island  is not so developed and seems a little bit wilder if that makes sense. The first church is called Aghios Georgios, the sun was shining in an awkward way, so it was difficult to get a decent shot. It wasn’t much of a diversion to get to it. Up the hill away from the church was a small flock of sheep. It does seem a bit greener on this side of the island too.

I saw some goats as I carried on, as usual they disappeared, to then reappear later on during the walk up the side of one of the mountains. Here was an unexpected sign to a third church, which I decided not to go to today.  The ground was carpeted with those lovely crocus flowers, they are really adding some beautiful colour to the mountains. I could also see the White Tower in the distance. The track was easy to walk on but a couple of times my boots slipped, but I managed to stay upright. Because the landscape is largely untouched it adds to the majesty of the place. The second church was a bit more of a walk to get to than the first and steeply downhill. It was in a very small hamlet, as we would call it, just a couple of houses, which looked deserted. This church is called Panagia Vounou which google translate says means Lady of the Mountain. I had to climb back up, to reach the original track. 

There was a very rusty car in the undergrowth, I think it has been there a very long time. In a funny way, it’s almost blended into the landscape.

The recent rain has made a mess of this track, I would not like to drive on it, even in 4x4. There were deep ruts and fairly large stones lying in the way of any vehicle. At this stage of the walk the beach was coming into view with the houses around it. As I neared the beach the rocks had a rusty appearance to them, we are close to Mega Livadi, where iron ore was extracted, so no surprise there. 

At the beach, which is called Avessalos, I walked along it, it was shingle and larger stones, I think if you wanted to come somewhere peaceful to heal your soul, this would be the place to be nice and quiet, except the sound of the waves gently pounding the beach. At the far end of the beach was the fourth church which I saw on the map when I got home. 

After walking along the beach, I saw some lovely ruined buildings, made from rusty stones.

I then started my climb back to the car. What I wasn’t expecting, was some sunset opportunities, I knew  Mega Livadi gets lovely sunsets, so it should have been no surprise that I would get some too. I did see Mega Livadi, in the distance, the rusty gantry, that everyone who has been there will remember.

A couple of times I saw these holes in the ground, I think ants could be seen coming out of them. I have seen a lot of ants on the house roof today.

Tomorrow it’s litter pick day, I might go out to get some sunsets elsewhere tomorrow night, so if I post anything it will be about this time again. My map has been marked, I am looking forward to seeing the other two churches soon!