You need to be in the right mood to walk. Sometimes it takes time, and your initial steps can feel like nothing so much as an incovenience, something to be tolerated along the same lines as going to the gym. At times like these, the destination dominates as the only end: the cessation of all unwanted exhertion.
In contrast, when you do find yourself in the right state of mind - and let's face it, it is not a mood that is easily cultivated - the end is at all times immanent; present and perpetually fulfilled with every step. Possessed of this awareness, one needs no encouragement to keep going for to do so is constantly to reach one's goal.
Something similar can be said of the difference between a good and a bad book: the feeling: 'I've started it so I must try to finish it even though it feels like I'm dragging my eyes through treacle" or :"I'm so caught up in this book I wouldn't notice even if my pyjamas went on fire." So it was with my walks on Alonissos. From that first night when I arrived back late to my tent, a little tipsy, but a lot satisfied, right up until I when left the island ten days later, I hardly stopped walking. However, this was not only on account of my mood.
Alonissos is a walker's paradise.
This term is often overused, especially in relation to the islands; but let me tell you why I believe it to be particulary apt in this case.
Alonissos is covered in pines. This, as I have explained in earlier posts, I found a little discomforting at first as such verdure didn't seem to lend itself to the wilderness landscapes of the cyclades. However, very shortly after beginning walking that first evening, I understood that the pines dramatically enhanced one's experience of the landscape by appealing to the full range of one's senses. Not only could you appreciate their colour, or the texture they lent to the more distant slopes, but at all times you were surrounded by their heady resinous sent and the crackling cacophonous din of a million hot cicadas. For me, the impression resulting from all this stimulation was of being constantly aware of the environment. I no longer had the opportunity to get distracted by the vestiges of my work-a-day preoccupations; nothing could compete with the imminence of such a landscape.
The geography of the island too makes it an alluring walkers location. Lying just off the mainland coast, the last in a chain of three major islands and surrounded my smaller satellite isles, the coastal views, depending on where you are positioned on the island, can consist of either the distant peaks of Evia, the low lying forested flanks of Skopelos or Peristera, or various scattered isles whose darker forms against the light blue sea seem often to describe a 'hat' or 'a wedge of cheese'. Indeed, keeping track of these little isles as I moved between kopses of pines, or in and out of olive groves, was to prove an entertaining means of estimating my progress.
On dry land too the geography proved most interesting, particularly with reference to the numerous narrow inlets and bays, most notably at Steni Vala, that form a feature of the coastline and provided the happy walker with frequent opportunities to cool their feet in a clear calm sea. Further inland, Alonissos cannot rank among the most mountainous of islands: the highest peak rises to just under 500 metres and, with the exception of some coastal cliffs on the western side, there are few rugged slopes to attract those who like to mix their walking with a little clambering. However, like the rest of Greece, Alonissos is definitely hilly and presents in its more extreme contours 'a damn good challenge'.
Typical narrow inlet found on Alonissos' coastline (taken from Hora)
As for flora and fauna, I saw precious little of the former - it being the middle of one of the hottest and driest summers of recent times - but I am told that as with most of Greece, Spring, and to a lesser extent the first rains of Autumn, see the island awash with wild flowers. What I did see in the way of flora however was a wide variety of wild herbs and particularly, lush sprigs of wild sage.
Wild sage growing next to the road side (I used to chew this on my walks for a bit of extra zing!)
As for the wildlife, the island is famous for its marine park and certainly it is not altogether uncommon to see dolphins and monk seals in the quieter waters of the north coast. On the mountains, on the other hand, the big attraction here as with other locations on the Aegean, is the rare Eleonora's falcon. For my part, I didn't encounter any of these exotic species but did have the good fortune to be tracked by two circling birds of prey for almost an hour whilst descending through thick pines en route to Tsoukalia. It seems from their intermittent shrieks and dogged pursuit of their quarry that I had unwittingly intruded onto their patch.
Walking-wise, Alonissos does have a lot going for it; but perhaps its greatest asset in this area is an extensive network of well marked and well maintained paths. Unlike other so called "walkers' paradises", there is no secret about how to gain access to and exploit the landscape of Alonissos ... far from it.
Before I left Germany, I had found, after the briefest of internet searches, this site on walking in the Aegean and the writers' Alonissos pages:
http://www.foxysislandwalks.com/AlonissosMain.htm
As you can see, the writers are themselves enthusiastic walkers, with a great eye for detail, and have created in these pages a superb guide to the best walks on the island (with one notable exception, of which more hereafter). And as if this wasn't enough, long term residents Bente Keller and her husband Elias Tsoukana have seen to it that the islands beauties are accessible to anyone possessed of 11 euros, a sense of adventure and the ability to read a simple map with their excellent guide book "Walking on Alonissos: A walking and swimming guide."
http://www.bentekeller.gr/en/gen.htm
All things told, with the time, the energy, the inclination and the resources, one could do far worse than to opt for a walking holiday on Alonissos. And this was just the fortunate situation I had found myself in as I left my tent early on that first morning with a bag packed for a days walking.
In contrast, when you do find yourself in the right state of mind - and let's face it, it is not a mood that is easily cultivated - the end is at all times immanent; present and perpetually fulfilled with every step. Possessed of this awareness, one needs no encouragement to keep going for to do so is constantly to reach one's goal.
Something similar can be said of the difference between a good and a bad book: the feeling: 'I've started it so I must try to finish it even though it feels like I'm dragging my eyes through treacle" or :"I'm so caught up in this book I wouldn't notice even if my pyjamas went on fire." So it was with my walks on Alonissos. From that first night when I arrived back late to my tent, a little tipsy, but a lot satisfied, right up until I when left the island ten days later, I hardly stopped walking. However, this was not only on account of my mood.
Alonissos is a walker's paradise.
This term is often overused, especially in relation to the islands; but let me tell you why I believe it to be particulary apt in this case.
Alonissos is covered in pines. This, as I have explained in earlier posts, I found a little discomforting at first as such verdure didn't seem to lend itself to the wilderness landscapes of the cyclades. However, very shortly after beginning walking that first evening, I understood that the pines dramatically enhanced one's experience of the landscape by appealing to the full range of one's senses. Not only could you appreciate their colour, or the texture they lent to the more distant slopes, but at all times you were surrounded by their heady resinous sent and the crackling cacophonous din of a million hot cicadas. For me, the impression resulting from all this stimulation was of being constantly aware of the environment. I no longer had the opportunity to get distracted by the vestiges of my work-a-day preoccupations; nothing could compete with the imminence of such a landscape.
The geography of the island too makes it an alluring walkers location. Lying just off the mainland coast, the last in a chain of three major islands and surrounded my smaller satellite isles, the coastal views, depending on where you are positioned on the island, can consist of either the distant peaks of Evia, the low lying forested flanks of Skopelos or Peristera, or various scattered isles whose darker forms against the light blue sea seem often to describe a 'hat' or 'a wedge of cheese'. Indeed, keeping track of these little isles as I moved between kopses of pines, or in and out of olive groves, was to prove an entertaining means of estimating my progress.
On dry land too the geography proved most interesting, particularly with reference to the numerous narrow inlets and bays, most notably at Steni Vala, that form a feature of the coastline and provided the happy walker with frequent opportunities to cool their feet in a clear calm sea. Further inland, Alonissos cannot rank among the most mountainous of islands: the highest peak rises to just under 500 metres and, with the exception of some coastal cliffs on the western side, there are few rugged slopes to attract those who like to mix their walking with a little clambering. However, like the rest of Greece, Alonissos is definitely hilly and presents in its more extreme contours 'a damn good challenge'.
Typical narrow inlet found on Alonissos' coastline (taken from Hora)As for flora and fauna, I saw precious little of the former - it being the middle of one of the hottest and driest summers of recent times - but I am told that as with most of Greece, Spring, and to a lesser extent the first rains of Autumn, see the island awash with wild flowers. What I did see in the way of flora however was a wide variety of wild herbs and particularly, lush sprigs of wild sage.
Wild sage growing next to the road side (I used to chew this on my walks for a bit of extra zing!)As for the wildlife, the island is famous for its marine park and certainly it is not altogether uncommon to see dolphins and monk seals in the quieter waters of the north coast. On the mountains, on the other hand, the big attraction here as with other locations on the Aegean, is the rare Eleonora's falcon. For my part, I didn't encounter any of these exotic species but did have the good fortune to be tracked by two circling birds of prey for almost an hour whilst descending through thick pines en route to Tsoukalia. It seems from their intermittent shrieks and dogged pursuit of their quarry that I had unwittingly intruded onto their patch.
Walking-wise, Alonissos does have a lot going for it; but perhaps its greatest asset in this area is an extensive network of well marked and well maintained paths. Unlike other so called "walkers' paradises", there is no secret about how to gain access to and exploit the landscape of Alonissos ... far from it.
Before I left Germany, I had found, after the briefest of internet searches, this site on walking in the Aegean and the writers' Alonissos pages:
http://www.foxysislandwalks.com/AlonissosMain.htm
As you can see, the writers are themselves enthusiastic walkers, with a great eye for detail, and have created in these pages a superb guide to the best walks on the island (with one notable exception, of which more hereafter). And as if this wasn't enough, long term residents Bente Keller and her husband Elias Tsoukana have seen to it that the islands beauties are accessible to anyone possessed of 11 euros, a sense of adventure and the ability to read a simple map with their excellent guide book "Walking on Alonissos: A walking and swimming guide."
http://www.bentekeller.gr/en/gen.htm
All things told, with the time, the energy, the inclination and the resources, one could do far worse than to opt for a walking holiday on Alonissos. And this was just the fortunate situation I had found myself in as I left my tent early on that first morning with a bag packed for a days walking.
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