For anyone whose love of travel is woven into their life, discovering an island always feels like a voyage of initiation. And when that love of islands is combined with a professional project, the quest becomes a sheer delight.
Kythira – Κύθηρα in Greek, Cythère in French – was a name I knew. The mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, born from the sea foam seeded when Ouranos (the Sky) was castrated by his Titan son Cronos (Time), the island had rather risqué associations in the eighteenth century… The painter Watteau depicted them in his most famous painting, Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera, a theme he revisited in 1718 in the painting entitled The Embarkation for Cythera. At the time, setting sail for Cythera meant embarking… on the delights of love!
The Embarkation for Cythera by Antoine Watteau
But there is quite a leap from Greek mythology to the realities of a mountain walking guide’s work! More practically, as I set out to scout this island between the Peloponnese and Crete, would I find terrain suited to some wonderful walks?
After a detour to Corfu, followed by a week on the islands of Andros and Tinos, where I led some superb walks beneath the Cycladic skies, I arrive in Attica, both excited at the prospect of discovering a new island and anxious about the scouting ahead. What if Aphrodite’s island had nothing of interest to offer me?
At Athens airport, I meet Jean-Claude Praire, and off we go on a forty-minute flight, bound for Kythira and its aura of mystery. The plane lands on a vast plateau in the middle of nowhere, on the single runway of a neat little airport named after its benefactor, Alexandros Aristotelous Onassis.
We need to get a feel for the island quickly, and that calls for a vehicle. So begins a week of scouting sights, accommodation and walking routes on an island that will soon prove, in our eyes, to be an excellent choice for exploring on foot.
Walker above Kapsali Bay © François Ribard
Of course, we have prepared for this trip, but Kythira has plenty of surprises in store for us. After a week, I can say that scarcely a nook or cranny has escaped our attention. The icing on the cake is meeting several knowledgeable local contacts who give us detailed accounts of completed work and plans to develop walking on the island, confirming the merits of our chosen routes. Indeed, many paths on Kythira are in good condition or being restored. This policy goes hand in hand with a shared commitment, in both the public and private sectors, to promote responsible tourism that respects the island’s sites and suits its modest scale: 32 kilometres long, covering 280 km2, yet home to barely more than 3500 inhabitants. Here, there are no colossal hotels or waterfront residential developments of the kind that disfigure so many island shores and stretches of Mediterranean coastline. Admittedly, the island airport’s inability to accommodate wide-body aircraft probably also helps keep tourism within sustainable limits!
The result: beautiful, unspoilt coastlines and countless wonderful walks. We will even have to trim our initial programme, so tempting are the possibilities.
View over Kapsali Bay from Chora © François Ribard
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Kythira is, first and foremost, a plateau with peaks reaching 506 metres above sea level, but a deeply cut plateau whose varied landscapes are astonishing: lush pine forests kept under constant watch by a squad of firefighters (it has not rained on Kythira for a year) and, above all, spectacular wooded gorges threaded by streams and torrents. The gorges of Mylopotamos reveal a succession of waterfalls and old watermills sheltered by imposing oriental plane trees, below the old Venetian fortress of Kato Chora and facing beautiful rocky cliffs where the cries of falcons echo. And what can I say about the view of the impressive Kakia Lagada gorges against the deep blue sea, seen from the ruins of the Byzantine citadel of Paleochora? It captured my heart, and the memory will stay with me.
Hiking above the ruins of the Byzantine citadel of Paleochora © François Ribard
Alongside these magnificent, sometimes rugged landscapes, Kythira has a succession of hilly coastlines offering spectacular views of the Peloponnese, only around twenty kilometres away. But the island also offers the gentler scenery of sandy beaches and seaside villages reminiscent of the Cyclades, such as Avlemonas, Jean-Claude’s favourite village. Farewell to the forests! Here, we find the Greece of our imagination: blue skies and white houses beside a cove where an emerald sea unfolds. Near Avlemonas, excavations have uncovered the remains of the island’s oldest settlement, dating back to the Minoan period (2700 to 1200 BC, at the height of Cretan civilisation), and even earlier.
Seaside village of Avlemonas © François Ribard
Here, history and geography remain shaped by the proximity of Crete: the history of people and their civilisations, as we have seen, although few archaeological sites are easy for non-specialists like us to make sense of. But the physical geography is equally remarkable: a moving moment at dawn in the village of Avlemonas, when, against a violet sky, the mountains of Crete emerge eighty kilometres to the south—beyond the island of Antikythera—before vanishing from sight with the arrival of the “sun chariot”.
Kythira also has colourful, lively villages such as Potamos, where we enjoyed the pleasure of a coffee on a terrace several times, surrounded by the lively hum of conversation. Then there is the somewhat timeless beauty of the island’s capital, Chora, magnificently perched on a rocky shoulder crowned by an old Venetian kastro, high above rocky coves and the wonderful bay of Kapsali, where the few tourists still here in early October enjoy a sea temperature of 24 degrees.
Village of Chora (Kythira) © François Ribard
Kapsali, Agia Pelagia… Seaside towns where we stopped along the way and had all the time we needed to fine-tune our walking routes in the shade of tavernas and cafés, over a freddo espresso or a chilled ouzo accompanied by a few meze dishes.
Kythera also offers the familiar face of contemporary Greek Orthodox life, with its customary array of white chapels dotted across the countryside or beautifully tucked into secluded caves. At the monastery of Aghia Moni, perched on a remote peak frequented by semi-wild goats, an elderly woman, the solitary caretaker of this place that stands deserted between services, opened the church door for us and offered us a weak coffee that was easily a match for all the frappés served in the seaside cafés!
As we descended from this imposing building and drove towards the airport to bring our eight days of scouting to a close, I could not help reflecting that Christianity, all-powerful for two thousand years on Kythera as throughout Greece, despite the Ottoman occupation, had nevertheless never managed to erase the beautiful Aphrodite and her sensuous charms from the island’s own imagination…
Captivated, I returned to Athens and then to France, my mind full of images and with just one thought in my head: to set foot on Kythera again!
Enjoyed this article? Find more ideas for holidays on the Greek islands in our selection of nature trips.
