Lesvos - Sunflower Books

A wonderful walking and bird-watching destination in the Mediterranean, Lesvos offers a stunning combination of natural and man-made landscapes to enjoy on foot or by car. It is a treasure house of very early ancient remains dating from the 7th century BC and boasts one of the finest natural monuments in Europe, the Petrified Forest, created 20 million years ago.

Cloaked with forests of chestnut and oak, the island becomes a riot of flowers in the spring and is renowned for its wild orchids (as many as 65 species) and with its own special endemic, Ophrys lesbis.

The island’s hills and mountains are riddled with little known ancient trails and cobbled donkey paths, many of which form the walks featured in this new guidebook. Refreshingly free of high-rise hotels and beach-orientated tourism, Lesvos is seizing an opportunity to rediscover itself through ecotourism in its totally unspoilt countryside. Fascinating sites, often unprotected, allow you to do your own interpretation. Follow the authors’ footsteps into villages still steeped in an old way of life and into a countryside as beautiful as any in the Mediterranean. The car tours, too, show off the very best the island has to offer and will take you to some secret places they have discovered.

TOURING AND PICNICKING
Car tour 1: WAY OUT WEST AND PETRIFIED 14
Figures from history 15

Car tour 2: THE NORTHERN SCENE – MONASTERIES, MONOLITHS AND MARAUDERS 19
Short walks for motorists (Skala Sikaminias) 22
Pentapolis 24

Car tour 3: AGIASSOS AND THE TWO GULFS 25
Cheeses 26
Short walk for motorists: the Kasteli from Agiassos 27
Short walk for motorists: the Pesas Waterfalls 28

Car tour 4: MYTILENE – EASTERN PROMISE 32
Plan of Mytilene 36
Walking tour around Mytilene 37

Car tour 5: A WETLANDS WANDERING 38
Hot springs 39

THE WALKS
1 Karini circuit 50
2 Loutra • Koundouroudia • Skala Loutron circuit 53
3 Thermi circuit via Panagia 55
Tower houses 57
4 Lambou Mili • Roman aqueduct • Karini • Lambou Mili 58
5 Circuit from Ag Dimitrios via Agiassos and Karini 61
6 Two circuits from Ag Anargyri 64
7 Circuit from Agiassos via the Sanatorio 67
8 Ascent of Mount Olympos 71
Agiassos • Asomatos • Agiassos — eastern circuit 74
10 Southern ridge circuit from the Sanatorio 76
11 Asomatos mountain circuit 78
12 Ag Anargyri • Asomatos • Ag Anargyri 80
13 Ag Anargyri • saddle above Mixou • Ag Anargyri 83
14 Mixou — Ag Theologos circuit 85
15 Paleohori circuit 87
16 Circuit from Skamnioudi via Lisvori 89
17 Circuit from Vatera via Paleopyrgos and Vrissa 93
Some reptiles and mammals on Lesvos 94
18 Circuit from Vatera via Profitis Ilias and Cape Fokas 97
19 Exploring Molyvos 100
20 Petra • Petri • Molyvos • Petra 103
21 Skala Sikaminias from Eftalou 107
22 Alexander’s circuit 110
23 Circuit from Petra via Lafionas 112
24 Ag Paraskevi • Klopedi Temple • Moni Taxiarchis • Ag Paraskevi 115
25 Moni Mirsiniotis • Moni Limonas • Metochi • Kalloni 118
26 Moni Limonas circuit 121
27 From Anemotia to Skala Kallonis 124
28 Anemotia circuit 127
29 Anaxos to Ambelia Beach 130
30 Skala Eresou (Eressos) circuit 132