24
8.00 a.m. (Actually 8.30 to 10.30 but don’t tell anyone.)
November 8th and it’s Panormitis day. We decide to go to Kokimides. (I hope I’ve spelt that correctly.) This tiny chapel dates from 1697 and is the second highest monastery on Symi after Stavros Tou Polemou.
We leave the house just after eight in the morning carrying two bottles of water and a camera each. We’re wearing jumpers and coats because it’s a cool morning even though the sun is out. A few steps up and into Alemena square and we meet Hugo with a small party of walkers. We join forces for the assault on the upper village (because I never can find the top donkey path and Hugo knows where he’s going, he could do it blindfolded) and within minutes we are through the ruins and the building sites and I’m closing the bedstead which serves as a gate behind me. The view down to Yialos is particularly outstanding and there are plenty of stops for Neil to take photographs of goats that stand and watch us with an air of polite disinterest.
The top donkey track gives up at about twenty feet beneath the road and there’s a scramble involved before we’re up on the main highway. Several cars pass us as we stop for water and a cigarette, cars filled with happy pilgrims heading towards various island monasteries named Michael in one form or another. It’s Saint Michael’s day you see, not just Michaelis Panormitis but also Roukoniotis and Kokimides two name but a few.
We follow the road, Hugo and party are ahead of us now, as it turns and passes Xissos, the small settlement down to our right, and then we reach the corner. There’s a choice here: we either follow the road and climb up a few hairpin bends or we carry straight on up another ancient path that acts as a short cut and rejoins the road higher up. We take the short cut and catch up with Hugo and co. at the small church of Katerina. Declining an early morning ouzo we press on and before we know it were at the monastery of Constantinos. This is the place where we’ve enjoyed many a morning drinking coffee and eating prickly pears but today we march on past as the road to Kokimides is now in view. As we reach it Yianni the teacher pulls up in his car and berates us for not phoning him and getting a left. We explain that we wanted to walk but thank him anyway; perhaps we’ll take a lift on the way back.
Regret that decision when we realise how long and uphill this next stretch is but finally we are the bottom of the last part of the walk where the track up to Kokimides leaves the road at the chapel of Saint Barbara – she had something to do with gunpowder, I think she got blown up by her father, I don’t remember now. Half way up the track and with the summit in sight Zoi’s parents stop their nice and inviting new truck and offer us a lift. We explain that we want to walk up and they look at us as if we’re completely deranged but drive on cheerfully. Two minutes later and we meet them getting out of their truck at the top of the road. By this time we’re carrying most of our clothing as the sun is hot and we’re sweating.
As we sit and recover behind the church we hear the service is on-going. The courtyard is full of people waiting patiently for coffee and festivities and the church is packed with worshipers. We greet and are greeted by people we know and made to feel welcome particularly as the only non-Greek people there.
So there you have it. It is a two hour walk from the village to the second highest monastery on the island. Just thought you should know.
Continues in Vilage View December 06 HERE
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