E4.41 Timios Stavros (Psiloritis Summit) - Akolita - Nida

Hiking at high altitudes, in a bare landscape without any shade

To descend to Nίda from the summit of Timios Stavros (1), we follow the mountain line until the saddle (2) with Agathias.

Once there, we reach (on our right-hand side, towards the south) the footpath which leads down to the shelter of the Mountaineering Club of Rethymnon.

We continue straight on, eastwards, on a slightly uphill path, and reach the northern slope of Agathias (3).

When covered with snow and frost, this section of the route may become very dangerous.

After the north-eastern slope of Agathias, we follow a south-easterly direction, passing by a swallow hole. Immediately after, walking in a steady south-easterly direction, we follow the gully of the eastern slope of Agathiàs for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, until a small plateau (4). A sign can be seen where the indistinct path splits.

If we take a southerly direction, we come to a bigger plateau, named Akolita, from where we continue towards the Kamares Cave and Kamares

For the Plateau of Nida, we follow the left, eastern branch of the path.

We walk through the small plateau and begin to climb slightly towards the small saddle (5) which can be seen ahead of us; we arrive there after approximately 10 minutes. From the mountain line, the rest of the Psiloritis massif, with its lower peaks, opens up eastwards, in the distance; down below, the Plateau of Nίda can be seen. We then follow the gully that opens up ahead of us, constantly descending towards the plateau, which little by little appears in its entirety.

After about 1 hour of descent, we leave the gully and go northwards, on a relatively clear path that leads us to a dirt road (6), which we follow to the right, to the chapel of Analipsi (7).

If we follow the unsurfaced road to our left for about 600 m, we arrive at the Ideon Andron, the cave where, according to the myth, Zeus was born

Below the chapel there is the water spring of Analipsi. From this point, we descend to the Plateau of Nida (8), arriving at the parking area of an abandoned-looking building, which occasionally functions as a taverna.

The descent from the summit of Psilorίtis to the Plateau of Nida takes approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes in total. The ascent, on the other hand, takes 4 hours and 30 minutes, under fair weather conditions.