Text: Yiannis Tridimas, Olga Karagianni
Photos: Valentini Desculidou, Olga Karagianni, Sofia Stalmpoutzi

53 people attended the 11th maintenance walk in good weather and, judging from the comments made, they found the experience enjoyable.

The narrow valley of the Frousei river with its 20 water mill ruins attracts great interest from visitors for its beauty as well as its historic significance. The concentration of so many flour mills in the valley is linked to Amolohos, the village high up on the hill whose western flanks are drained by the valley river. The large population of Amolohos, in previous centuries needed a great deal of flour for its bread.

The 53 participants came from many parts of Andros as well as from Athens, Tinos and Germany! The meeting point was near the start of route 14b in Kapsala. From there we were transported by bus to the start of route 14 at the chapel of St Irene. After the usual introduction and guidance we were given information about the valley by Yiannis and Olga. Led by Yiannis, who comes from this area, we descended towards the valley making a diversion along route 14a towards the chapel of St Stathis, the patron saint of Frousei. We then rejoined route 14 having visited the first three mills of the valley which are not on the main route 14.

We visited all the mill ruins along the scheduled walk, carried out light maintenance by cutting excess vegetation and clearing the path of fallen stones.

We were given background information by Yiannis, who looks after this route. Some picked fruits of strawberry trees and myrtle seeds. We rested at two points with rock slabs and water pools and finished the walk by following route 14b to the road at Kapsala.

We thank all the participants and invite you all in our next scheduled walk on December 10 from Kohylou Fort to Dipotamata mill river, Syneti and Hora.