In the comment of Sotiris to our last blog he gave me a big releave: the hike through the Aeropotamos was a much better choice then the path on other side, because of the rough terrain and the lack of signs.
He showed us a link to his Greek website, with nine very detailed and perfect Athos maps (and much more from the rest of Greece), showing paths from all over the Holy Mountain. The maps are accompanied by pictures of Google maps.
With my poor knowledge of Greek I could understand that these maps are made with the help of a modern (Garmin) GPS device and that's why they look so accurate. I will show you the Aeropotamos map first, followed by links to all of his PDF-files. Keep up the great work Sotiris (and a translation in English would a make a lot of pilgrims happy!).
A JPEG file of the map of the Aeropotamos form Sotiris.
map 1: Xeropotamou – Karyes – Ag. Anna
map 2: Lavra – Ag. Neilos – Ag. Anna
map 3: Esfigmenou – Xenofontos
map 4: Sografou – Vatopediou – Pantocratoros
map 5: Dionysiou – Antithonas
map 6: Xenofontos – Ag. Anna
map 7: Lavra – Mt. Athos – Ag. Anna
map 8: Ag. Anna – Mt. Athos
map 9: Pantocratoros – Karyes – Grigoriou
Thanks for this great information! (Advice: If you zoom in on the Google map you will see the numbers appear and with the help of Google translate most of the Greek text and numbers will be explained !)
Wim, 15/6
Thanks very much for pointing out Sotiris’ site – he’s done excellent work.
Are you aware of the Friends of Mount Athos footpaths project? Paths content of their website is currently being updated, but in the meantime here’s the link to the present version
http://abacus.bates.edu/~rallison/friends/footpaths/index.html
How long will it take to walk from Pantokrator to Gregoriou?
Very nice al those trails! Thanks Sotiris!
Estimation:
Pantokrator => Karyes = 1h30′
Karyes => Iron Cross besides big tree on the spineroad = 30′
Iron Cross => Simonopetra = 3h30′
Simonopetra => Agiou Grigoriou = 30′
Total = 6 hours
Guys, Sotiris already gave you the answer, 5,5 to 6 hours see here: http://vision.iti.gr/sotiris/routes/route.php?uid=1ac62a13 under ΧÏόνος/Chronos = time (also thanks to Fremaki).
Hi all,
Thanks for your good words.
Just a notice. Walking durations are off-course always relative to the hikers abilities and load. The figures I mention are those that could be achieved by a relatively fit hiker (able to climb 400m per hour vertically and 5km per hour horizontally). So, allow plus-minus one-hour to those figures.
In case anyone’s interested, the Beylithou [ridge path] is now clear from Esphigmenou all the way via Hera to the main Karyes- Vatopedi road. Then it’s possible to walk down from this road to join the Karyes-Vatopedi footpath.
Links from the Beylithou down to Zographou, Hilandar, Konstamonitou and Vatopedi all currently in good condition.
Generally not all signal from the satellite gets through to your GPS, the signal scattering is usually from vegetation, sometimes from terrain, buildings, or other objects between you and GPS satellite.