A wealth of beauty was revealed to us on this hike on Saturday 17 March 2018 on Route 7 from Stavropeda, through Aladou and Sasa and on to the Panahrantos Monastery. There were many things to delight us, with spring coming so early this year, we were enchanted by the ever present scent and colour of wild flowers all around us and it was fantastic to see so many new faces joining us. On top of all this we were all moved by the kind gesture of Father Dimitris of the Vrachnou and Zaganiaris parishes and the women of Zaganiaris village who were waiting for us with the church open. It was a real highlight of the day. We are grateful to them …

Our 20 participants came from Agios Petros, Batsi, Kaparia, Ypsilou, Chora, Livadia on Andros and from further afield we had several new friends from Athens join us. Also, it was great to welcome back and 3 of the 12 Dutch volunteers from last October’s week of trail maintenance who had returned to the island for another hiking holiday !

Our maintenance work included cutting back the spring growth, replacing and adding new waymarkers and clearing the path of stones fallen from walls that unfortunately are in abundance along this route.

The day was ended with a delicious meal!

Our warm thanks to the participants, it was a wonderful day.

The next maintenance hike will be on the last weekend of March