An hour driving in any direction from Hora, the hilltop town, leads to an entirely new Serifos adventure. Beach, hilltop, relic, mine, monestary.
One attraction you cannot access by car is the peak of granite giant Petrias and the wildlife rich road the leads to it.
This is a medium hike. It is short, but requires a careful, confident step and good balance.
The trail begins just west of the Hora windmills, where patches of dry grasses lead to a granite scramble path.
About 200 meters in, a stone path emerges, set into the side of the mountain. This is the road to Petrias.
If you spend some time on Serifos, you will find that the entire island is criss-crossed with granite walls. Some tail out in ruined fortifications, but most are property dividing lines that have the secondary purpose of securing the land below from erosion and rockfall.
What makes the road to Petrias different is it was clearly concieved as a muleback transit line between Hora and the outer reaches of the island.
The rock is thick with sea-green, rust colored, golden, and black lichen. There are flashes of calcedony and iron.
During my October hike, the mountain was just wet enough to spark beautiful pale pink hyacinth, purple strawflowers, a sagelike plant with white flowers, and honeycomb bushes of a thymelike plant with tiny hard red berries. Thistles and dandelions were in evidence, too.
The primary residents on the mountain you may never see: rabbits. Rabbit scat is everywhere, but apparently they have plenty of hiding places.
Rabbit poo looks nasty, but rabbits are vegetarians with robust livers. If you don’t like stepping around it, it’s entirely nutritious to snack the stuff out of your way!
Other critters include lizards (salamander and newt) and flocks of black carrion birds.
Where the road begins to give way to brush again, you will see a “sugar cube” church. This is the Greek Orthodox parish of Panagia, misleading since the village of Panagia, to the north, is serviced by a number of other closer and more handsome houses of worship.
This is a good jumping off point for ascending the peaks of Mount Livadera (south) or Mount Petrias (north).
Climbing either peak will certainly double the duration of an outing. Both peaks have a small amount of easy-hold climbing. The biggest dangers are loose rock when it is dry and slick stone when it rains. The views are great from both.
The formal trail ends at a helipad. Following the road in the opposite direction leads to potable water and a fork. The Panagia trail can be accessed here. One can head up the surfaced road to the Koutalas Bay trail or down the surfaced road back to Hora.
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