Circular walk from Sami to Agios Fanentes Monastery, Kefalonia, Greece
Road across the island past various attractions
Finding the route through Sami
Up at the monastery - a great view!
The road to the castle (almost)
After the walk - an ice cream and then a beach (or two!)
This was towards the end of a week's stay in Kefalonia. Frances and I had visited lots of beaches already, driven to the north of the island, and enjoyed a group walk the previous day organised through Thomsons. I was keen to find another walk which Frances could manage and enjoy, and also to see another part of the island. The south coastal area was a possibility, but Sami on the east coast looked easier to reach. What's more, our Kefalonia guidebook described a short walk that sounded suitable, and featured a picture of the view from the hilltop. It showed an old monastery bell in the foreground, looking down towards a village, beach and hills in the distance. We had a look at this, and decided we'd like to see if we could find this viewpoint.
Frances was more concerned about the journey there, after enduring the long and winding road up to Fiscardo a few days before.
Road across the island past various attractions
From Argostoli, there's a reasonably good but winding road that crosses two ranges of mountains each providing spectacular views over the coastline below. Along the first ridge, to the north, is the line of 15 recently erected wind turbines that overlook Argostoli. In between lies a basin where grapes are grown for the excellent local wines, and a road leads off south to the Monastery of Agios Gerasimou, the island's patron saint.
The road turns north to run down into Sami, with the various limestone caves close by along roads to the left. Sami itself is an attractive little town with a wide main street. We parked on the right-hand side in the shade of one of the supermarket buildings, opposite the post office. There was a chance to stock up here on drinks for the walk.
Finding the route through Sami
The description in the guidebook mentioned streetnames which we couldn't identify, and a local man at the supermarket couldn't help either. However, he responded to the words "Agios Fanentes" and pointed along the street next to the red-painted supermarket towards the wooded hill above.
We walked along here to a T-junction with the Odos Souidias and wondered which way to go next, but managed to work things out. We turned left, past an official looking low building standing across the street with a big tree in front and a post on the corner to the left of the building. This post had a small "walkers" sign on it, pointing up the street to the right. We turned right up here, to the end where there was a rather run-down looking church on the left, with two bells hanging outside.
We turned left at the church, and continued for about 50 metres to the next garden wall on the right. (Before getting there, we could see through the fence on the left the remains of a Roman bathhouse mentioned in the guidebook). Just as we reached the garden wall we spotted an opening on the right, under a tree, which would be easy to miss if you're not looking out for it. There was a sign in Greek here that said something about Ag Fanentes, so it had to be right!
Through the opening and the path started climbing immediately through trees. You need to look out for a large rock on the left with red and blue marks on it, and a gate in front with a walkers' sign next to it. Don't go through the gate - turn up left past the rock. The path zig-zags uphill past a couple of turnoffs into private gardens, but is clear enough. Then it reaches a strange, triangular area under tall pine trees. There's a fine view already through the trees to the village below. Ahead, two walls of large rocks hold up the hillside, and it looks like there are paths to either side. Take the good path on the left, along the side of the slope.
Frances spotted a reassuring walkers' sign high on one of the trees. Around 300 metres from the triangular area, we reached a junction with another track up to the right. There were red and blue markings on a rock at our feet. The guidebook advised us to turn right here, and we would return along the path ahead of us.
This is where the route becomes more interesting. It's a climb along an ancient path through a spooky tunnel through the trees like you'd find in an Indiana Jones film. There are blue markings to confirm you're going the right way, and Frances had a lot of fun leading the way, looking for the markings. It's actually a pretty obvious path, embedded in the hillside.
Up at the monastery - a great view!
We had no views for a long stretch, until eventually we emerged into an area of taller trees. With more light reaching the ground, the path was a bit less distinct among the stones and vegetation, and we had to look more carefully for the blue or red markings. Then up to the left we could suddenly see the walls of the new monastery building through the trees, and headed towards it. There was a final climb over a few rocks where we were bothered by wasps, and then we were standing in front of the new monastery building with the ruins of the much more extensive former monastery spread out before us. It looked like there was some renovation or excavation work under way, and there were rope markers up to prevent access.
We turned to the left here, to see the monastery bell held up on a frame, with the view through the trees that was shown in the guidebook. It was just as picturesque, and we stopped for photos - one of us both, with the camera propped up on the rucksack.
It had taken us about an hour and a quarter to climb up here without rushing it.
Then we walked round the new building to get access to the surfaced road which led from here, bending down to Sami. There was shelter from the warm sunshine under old olive trees, but then we got a bit chilly and walked over to a flat area to the right held up by a neat semi-circular wall. It made a good spot for lunch, until the wasps found us again. However, they seemed to be more interested in buzzing around the vegetation nearby and we were able to finish eating.
The road to the castle (almost)
From here we had a good view along the road to the flat fortified hilltop that was the castle, or acropolis, maybe a mile or just over a kilometre away. We set off again, and had a splendid view to the left over the bay towards the island of Ithaca in the distance. It wasn't so much fun walking on the tarmac road, until we noticed these little shapes dashing off into the grassy verge and realised they were lizards aroused from their sunbathing. We managed to get a good photo of one, before it darted away. Then Frances spotted another weird creature, smaller and greener, that I reckoned was either a leaf insect or a praying mantis. I took a photo in the hope of identifying it later, and sure enough it was a praying mantis.
As we approached the castle hill, the fortifications became more distinct, and I was expecting that we'd be climbing up to the top until I read the guidebook again. It seemed that we should turn downhill just before reaching the hill, and it wasn't fair to take Frances up another steep climb unnecessarily, especially one exposed to the midday sunshine. She had already indicated she was getting tired walking along the road. However, others might want to explore this further before finding the route down the hillside.
The guidebook was a bit vague about finding the route - we should head down to the left when the slope became more level close to the castle, and look out for a red spot on a rock! In fact it was just as vague on the ground. There was open grazing land scattered with rocks, bushes and olive trees, sloping gently down in the bend between the road and the castle. We turned left from the roadside and made our way carefully down here towards the head of the valley where the trees became thicker. We reached an olive tree growing out between two large rocks, and just to the left of this the line of a path became clear on the ground. Frances soon applied her marker-finding skills to see a blue (not red) marker on a rock beside the path. One of the panoramic photos below indicates this area, from the point where we turned off the road.
From there it was relatively straightforward, although we had to resist the temptation to head down a goat track to the right into the valley which looked the most direct route of descent. The marked path cut around the slope to the left, back towards the hill we'd climbed up. Stretches of it were on the level, before it dropped down to another level section. The valley on the right, meanwhile, had begun to drop away more steeply, but the path wasn't at all exposed. We were back into thick woodland, with just a few open sections. It took perhaps 40 minutes before Frances suddenly gave a whoop of joy at finding the junction with the path we'd climbed. There was the rock with the double mark on it, and the fork ahead. We took the right fork down, and quickly followed the path back through the strange triangular space under the tall trees, and the zig-zag section, back to the road and on to our car.
After the walk - an ice cream and then a beach (or two)
It was warm again out in the sunshine, and after changing out of our hiking shoes we reckoned we deserved an ice cream! The choice at the supermarkets was limited at this time in the season, but we selected one each and sat in the square across the road. We could look back up to the hill we'd climbed. It was amusing to notice the echoes of the red and blue markers in the red and blue colours of the two supermarkets, and even the pattern made by the stones in the square.
We had plenty of time to drive the short distance through the village, past the waterfront and along to the end of a street giving access to the start of the beach. It was a long narrow stretch of sand and small pebbles, with enough sand to be able to enjoy a swim without getting sore feet! Meanwhile ferries sailed across, to and from Ithaca. The wash created by one of them swept up the beach to our bags and clothes, giving some of them a soaking.
Now we could see the sun lighting up the white walls of the new monastery on the hill above the village, just as we'd been able to see the beach from the monastery. We packed up and returned to the car, and drove back along the waterfront and up a road at the other end, leading a few kilometres around to Antisami beach. A bit like the more famous Myrtos beach, it lay in a bay reached by a winding road, with steep hills encircling it. However these slopes were cloaked in forests, which was a great thing to see. Like Myrtos, however, the beach was made up of large white pebbles, and sloped steeply, so it wasn't the easiest spot for a swim. Then we decided it was time to head back to Argostoli.
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