Description
The mountain trail is located in the heart of Kalopanayiotis village. It is among one of the five trails that were documented by a private professional map creator in the Marathassa area. The trail alternates at the beginning from trail path to forest road a couple of times until you enter in the heart of the trail and start ascending the mountain. The trail is beautiful during ascending; offering lots of greenery. And when you reach the top, the hiker walks among the ridge line of mountains experiencing panoramic views of the area.
It is a circular trail of nearly 9.7km with unique and beautiful landscapes. It is considered difficult since there is a big ascent at the beginning and a big descent at the end of the trail. It can take up to 4 hours to finish the hike, depending of course on your speed. The maximum altitude of the trail is 1141 metres. It can be done clockwise and anti-clockwise since both entries to the trail are on the main road of Kalopanayiotis village.
Table of Contents
Viewpoints
I will split the trail into two legs. The first leg (anti-clock wise) is a forest road walk until you reach the actual trail, continuing with a tiring but rewarding ascent to the mountain peak. In this section the view is limited but still you can admire the surrounding area.
The second leg is hiking in the ridge line of the mountains having all the time a panoramic view of the whole area. Additionally, in one of the peaks, probably the highest for this trail, I saw a big pile of stones making the whole experience more interesting. While descending you get a beautiful view of the village from above.
Starting Points
The trail starts within Kalopanayiotis village. It has two entry points within the same road with a few hundred metres difference between the two points. In both cases you ascend to a higher level where you reach a road/forest road and after a while you enter the trail again. The exact GPS location can be found to the Natural trail information table.
Personal Comments
The trail is difficult and not recommended for beginners. It is mostly weather exposed with an exception a small section in the first leg of the trail when done anti-clock wise. Therefore it is better to do it on a cold and cloudy day. I recommend doing the trail anti-clockwise, so you have the view of the village while descending.
Additionally it is not recommended to do it alone. Even though the trail is sign posted, the trail is not maintained and has been neglected indeed from the village authorities. Thus certain sections of the trail are being taken over from vegetation of the area making you question yourself if you are still on the correct path. Additionally, another reason that shows how neglected the trail is the landfill found in the early stage of the trail, giving the hiker an unpleasant idea of what might follow up. I really hope that they will remove the garbage at some point since it discourages hikers from walking this trail.
Now you get the point why the word neglected earned its place in the article’s title of this trail. However, do not be discouraged yet. The trail is beautiful, it has lots of green and panoramic views while walking at the top of the mountains and must be in your todo list 😉. Since in this area I saw the Cypriot mouflons many times, in your next hike try to be as quiet as possible and you may get lucky.
As mentioned earlier there are 5 trails in Kalopanayiotis. Those are:
- The trail of Water/Watermill [Point 10]
- The viewpoint trail
- The grape yards trail
- Mountain natural trail
- Discovery natural trail
To find out more about the trails in Marathassa and the map creator, have a look at the video here.
Mountain trail information
| Description | |
| Starting points | Anti-clock wise: 34.99428, 32.82774 (link) clock wise: 34.99135, 32.82803 (link) |
| Ending point | – |
| Distance | 9.7 km |
| Difficulty (1 – easy, 2 – moderate, 3 – difficult) | 3 |
| Trail type | Circular |
| ETA finish time | ~ 4 hours |
| Elevation Gain/Loss | ~ 583 meters gain / 700 metters loss |
| Altiltude | 1141 meters |
Elevation Stats
GPS map
Gallery
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Ελληνικά (Greek)
