Stormy weather and we did our last hike on Naxos so far

Hawaii Beach

2024 started with a huge storm coming in and we had to stay in the boat for a couple of days. But with the wind coming from southwest we knew it would be a lot of waves at Hawaii Beach and this afternoon we drove there. And it was amazing. We should have hours just to sit down and feel the weather.

Huge waves was coming in to the beach and the sun made amazing lights.

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We went over to Alyko Beach, close to the abandoned hotel, where we have been before and sat down to enjoy the sunset with some biscuits and hot chocolate.

This is really the perfect spot in this kind of weather!

From the day we arrived on Naxos we had a plan to walk through town to see all the Christmas decoration, but we didn`t do it before 4th of January.

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Moni – Sifones – Panagia Fanariotisa Church (Apeiranthos) – Moni

Adam wanted to have a last hike together with us, so we decided to do an aroundtrip from Moni and up to the church where Astor and me hiked to earlier. Adam is a bit more fit than me, so I was a little bit afraid about hiking together with him on this long hike…

We drove together to Moni and parked outside the village. We found the trail and started to walk through the village.

We walked by a olive oil mill.

It is really up hill from Moni until we came to the main road. We knew later that we here should cross the road and continue on the other side, but the sign sent us in the wrong direction so we followed the main road for a while until we realized our mistake. We walked back a little bit and took another road/trail until we were back on track.

After a while we reach the village of Sifones. It was mostly old ruins so not much to see. Here we walked under the main road and up on the other side of the valley. After walking through the forrest for a while is it now an amazing view all across the island to Paros.

This part was really nice, slow uphill walk. You can see our goal on the top of the mountain.

I can now see that we were too busy filming this hike, because at this photo we are on the top of the hill after walking many serpentines up to the hill, not that steep as we thought it would be. I am still following!! When you are on the top of the hill you have an amazing to the eastern side of the island.

From the top of the hill up to the church it is mostly gravel road, and I started to get tired….

But I made it to the top! This is my top list for hikes on Naxos!! It is so amazing to come up here and you can almost see the whole island.

Adam on the top of the rock!

Me and Adam

Having a rest before the last part of the hike!

Look at this view!

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The view to the west!

It was time to walk the last part. Here we are walking down the hill from the church.

You can drop walking up to the church and rather walk to Apeiranthos instead, and then walk up the hill like we did earlier.

It was steep downhill but the last part was flat, just not easy to see the trail. Totally a very nice hike and it was perfect doing this together with Adam!

Here is the track for our hike:

And here is a video from it:

We had our last walk through the old town.

It was time to leave Naxos and luckily the wind change from southerly winds to northerly, so it was perfect to sail south. The last day with a car, 6th of January, we had a plan to go shopping for the last time. When you are sailing like us you never know the next time you will ble close to a supermarket.

But, 6th of January is the Epiphany, it is a public holiday and almost everything is closed.

The Epiphany is one of the most sacred Greek Orthodox celebrations that dates back to ancient times. This Christian tradition is celebrated on the 6th of January around the world and is a day of joy and brightness. 

In the harbour some brave guys jumped into the ocean, and we manage to see them before they climb onshore again and got the blessing from the priests. A lot of people were gathering.

The next day Jo-Anne gave us a lift to the supermarket so we could do our last shopping. We said goodbye to this amazing family, hopefully we see them again somewhere! Now it was time to sail to the southernmost island in Greece. But we don`t know how long it will take or how many stops we need.