The plan was to start on our first path clearing day with the relatively frequently walked coastal path from Dionysiou, our home monastery, to the next monastery, Gregoriou. But the monk who was our contact person in the monastery thought differently.

He wanted us to start with the trail to Ag. Onoufriou, an abandoned cell, located over 400 meters high above Dionysiou monastery. Our path clearing team (Bart J and Tjeu J. from Belgium, Jan P. from the UK, Peter T. from the USA and myself) did not find this a problem because we had never walked this unknown path before. We were in for adventure. We decided to walk up first and clear the path of vegetation on the way back to the monastery.

Along the way we came across a recently erected cross. It later turned out that monk Kallinikos of Dionysiou who often sought the peace of the higher cell had unfortunately died recently (2022) at this location.

The path was of unprecedented beauty, often made of large boulders, neatly placed together with raised edges to drain the water.

The view of the coast and the sea below was beautiful. Watch the erected stones on the edge of the path.

We could not find the exit to Onofriou at first. Later we cleared this part of the path and hung ribbons so that it was clear to find the correct way to the cell.

The cell is located in a small valley where a stream (Kataraktis Gravanistis) flows. At the source we ate the fried eggplants given to us by the monastery ‘s kitchen and drank the cool water.

On the way back we cut the bushes and plants on the path with our loppers.

We were happy when we saw Dionysiou again because it was a tiring but very beautiful journey.

Herman Voogd