Friday late morning and I am thinking of heading out for another afternoon walk later. I need to consider the next chapter in ‘The Saddling’ and a long walk around the hillside is a good way to spend the time contemplating. Thinking thus made me wonder if I’d told you about the walk I took the other day? I checked back a week or so but didn’t see anything so I reckon my refugee rambles had taken over and I’d forgotten to talk about the simple stroll I did. So let’s do that now.
First of all, getting yourself out of the village is not always an easy task. You can head up the main road like we do of an early morning, but that’s a pretty laborious way to go, though the views are fab. Instead, head for the donkey path which you find by crossing behind Ag Stavros and heading to where… Hang on, it’s easy when you know how but no so easy to explain. Best off asking one of the tour operators of they have any of the walking on Symi books, or see if the Olive Tree have a guide. Or ask someone for the donkey track and eventually, after a climb and some scenery, you should find yourself at a gate, and then a lone tree with views of Yialos.
The path separates and there’s now a sign directing you to Panormitis along the upper track or toe Xissos on the lower one. This is the one I followed and along here I saw some black and white birds that my learned friend (Lyndon) later told me were ‘white eared windsheeters’ or ‘white wind chat eaters,’ or even a wheateater of some sort. I dunno, black and white things they were. And my attempt to photograph them led to pictures of rocks with a tiny bird in there somewhere. Don’t even bother looking. (But look here for a list of birds you can find on Symi: http://symifloraandfauna.jigsy.com/symibirdlist )
Further on, past the chapel at Ag Paraskevi and the house just beyond it, you can find a red arrow on the path. Not a crashed jet but a direction. Two in fact. Carry on to Xissos or turn right onto a rough track. Here you need decent shoos, flop-flips won’t cut the greater bustard (didn’t see one of them), you need proper walking boots as some of the time you are walking over rubble. You’re following the old ‘wall’ as it’s marked on the map, and we’ve walked this way before I am sure of it. After some time you reach the top of the hill and join the road. From here you can see over the island to the sea on the western side, and look back to see the bay on the eastern side too. If you snap your head around really fast you can almost see both at once before you fall over and hurt yourself.
I simply followed the road back from here. You get some good views coming this way and see all kinds of folk heading off towards the western side of the island, to Roukouniotis or their farms out on the hills. You end up thinking, ‘Oh there’s… I wonder what he’s heading over this way for?’ and ‘Where’s he off to at this time of day?’ as you amble down the gentle slope back towards the village.
Keep an eye out for goat action on the right and the views to Yialos and Pedi and Turkey on the left as you zig zag down to the upper village where you can either carry on down the road (Starring Sid James and Hattie Jacques) or cut through to Periotisa and make your way down the steps and back into the village. This is what I did as it was coming close to beer O’clock and so I thought I would surprise Neil at work.
That’s a very rough outline of one walk you can do on Symi, it took me under two hours and I know how to get to the path out of the village. It was late afternoon in August so still hot and you should wear a hat really, and take water. I got through about one litre in two hours. But there you go. That’s me on a Saturday morning for you – whether I went out on Friday afternoon is yet to be seen, but I shall no doubt let you know one day. Here are a few more shots of the same walk. Have a good weekend.
