Κato Gatzea-Agii Apostoli church-Agios Georgios

View to Pagasitic sea

 

Distance: 12,4 km.

Time: 5,5 hours with stops

Altitude: from 0 m. (Kato Gatzea) to 698 m. (max)

Total climbing uphill/downhill: 704 m.

Signing; red paint, some small yellow round signs

Drinking water on walk: Agios Georgios, Agia Triada

Start/end: Kato Gatzea (mooring area)

Last checked: March 2023

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      Our walk starts from the beach of Kato Gatzea, at the mooring point. We walk away from the sea, passing by the Croma Villas complex and come out onto the main asphalt near the pharmacy. We cross it and continue opposite on a narrow asphalt road towards the sports center (football field), Next to it lies the cemetery of Gatzea. Then, as the main road turns left, we continue straight ahead on a narrow dirt road,  in which a little further on we can make out sections of kalderimi (cobbled stone path). We cross the asphalt (it goes to Agia Triada) and climb steeply on a cement road. Here the cement has covered the kalderimi. 

        A  little further up, however, the cobblestone appears at the right side of the road, wide and clean and we follow it. We cross the train rails over the stone bridge by the name of Koudrias and continue climbing. Further up, another  kalderini joins in on our left, coming from the train station of Ano Gatzea and from the bridge that crosses the rails there. 

    Our kalderimi ends as it joins the asphalt, just above Agia Triada near the old olive press of Klimentopoulos which lies next to the road. We walk on the asphalt for five hundred meters, cross the stream and immediately after that, on the right side of the road we find a narrow  uphill path that brings us to the church of the Holy Apostles (Agii Apostoli). Seeing the ruined buildings, we understand that this is in fact an old deserted monastery (it belongs to the Taxiarchon monastery). 

Agii Apostoli

    A wide path ascends from the upper side of the ruins. We reach a small plateau where we go diagonally to the right and descend smoothly to cross the stream. The path then climbs with turns and we reach the lower limit of an olive grove. Going up into the grove, we meet the concrete irrigation ditch and along that, the western kalderimi coming from Agia Triada and going to Agios Georgios. At the junction there is a signpost. We continue straight ahead uphill, paying attention to our left not to miss the continuity of the path, which is marked with red paint. Attention, if we miss the junction and go straight ahead, we will end up joining the eastern kalderimi, thus missing Agios Georgios altogether.

        We cross a stream and further on we cross a dirt road. The irrigation ditch, when we passed in March, brought down enough water and it leaked on the path, making our life more difficult. Finally we come out on the asphalt, where we walk uphill for 200 meters and then, where it makes a left turn, we leave it straight and walk over a small stone bridge. We have now joined the main kalderimi from Ano Gatzea to Agios Georgios. Following its course, we pass an intersection where a branch goes to the right towards Pinakates and also  towards the eastern cobblestone (we don`t take that branch). Higher up, we cross the asphalt and continue on a cement road (ex-kalderimi) and join the asphalt near Vogiatzopoulos mansion,  finally reaching the square of Agios Georgios.

Agios Georgios village square

        On the way back now, to avoid walking on the main asphalt, we go up on the main kalderimi from the square. We can fill our bottles from the drinking water fountain. Reaching the remarkable church of Agios Athanasios higher up, we turn right and take a concrete, slightly downhill  road that brings us to the location "Rachi" at the exit of the village towards Pinakates, where there is a blacksmith shop and a fire station. We cross the asphalt diagonally (the view down below is extraordinary) and continue downhill on the eastern kalderimi heading  towards Agia Triada.

View from Rachi

        The water of the irrigation ditch flows rapidly, creating small waterfalls. Reaching the  door of the fence of a mansion, we take the dirt road downhill, becoming cobblestone. We move for a while in a pristine, very beautiful setting in the forest. Lower down, the kalderimi is cut by a dirt road twice. On the third time, it ends and we continue on a downhill dirt road. The road brings us to the old olive press of Vainas, from where we follow down the kalderimi to get to Agia Triada, at the parking lot with the drinking water fountain (we may open the tap on the side to drink and then close it). 

Old olive press of Vainas

      A kalderimi descends from the fountain and we follow it. Further down we cross the asphalt and continue in a straight line on a narrow cement-paved road that is actually the old kalderimi (there is a sign in Greek pointing to Kouvara`s house). We come out again on the asphalt, where we walk for about three hundred meters. Then we find the continuity of the cobblestone on the right (not obvious at the beginning, attention right!) we go down and cross the train tracks. Going steadily downhill, we take a concrete road to the left and in a few meters the kalderimi is again visible on our right. Below, it descends next to a house. Eventually the cobblestone disappears and we descend on a concrete road, which exits on the main asphalt near the gas station. To avoid the unpleasant walking on the main asphalt, we prefer to walk through olive groves parallel to the road, which is on our left at a small distance, and continue on a narrow road. Reaching a junction with the road to the cemetery, we turn left, on the route we took at the beginning of our walk, and finally reach the picturesque beach of Kato Gatzea with its cafes and restaurants.    

Kato Gatzea seaside