EXPLORE THE IPPIPANTI AREA 

One of the main attractions of Paxos has to be the choice and variety of walks available. Having my dog here, is a wonderful excuse to explore the island on foot. However, once I have my favourite walk I tend to keep to it and one of my favourite areas for exploring is the area around Ippipanti Monastery. 

Its easy enough to get to this area whether you walk up there from Loggos or Lakka or catch the bus which stops on the main road where we can start our exploring.

At the top of the road out of Loggos as this road meets the two roads to Lakka and the road to Gaios is the start of the walk. Walk across the Gaios road and there is a road (track-style road) leading away from Loggos up a little incline. Follow this road past a couple of large houses and then it turns from a road into a footpath.

This is a lovely walk down into the base of the valley and across the dried up stream before going up the other side of the valley. It's also a great area for spotting birds in the spring and autumn months. The only problem here is the fact that when it has rained it is wet and it takes a while to dry up and it can be slippy so make sure you have good walking shoes on for this walk! Once you're up the other side you join another track-road and follow this off to the right towards Ippipanti.

It's not far to the 'main road' around Ippipanti. When you join this road you can turn right and then take the first left into the small hamlet of houses and at the end you can see the Bell Tower and next to it the Monastery. To the side of the Bell Tower you can take the steps up past the houses and this joins the 'main road' higher up. Once on this road explore to you hearts content! There are many other roads and tracks and you can get some wonderful views over Lakka Bay to Corfu and also of the west coast from parts of these walks. After you've had enough exploring return down to Ippipanti and then follow the 'main road' down to the real main road from Lakka to Gaios and then turn right for Loggos and Gaios and left for Lakka. The bus passes here on its way to Gaios and there are often taxis passing too. The walk to Loggos once you get to the position we started the walk is mainly down hill and doesn't take too long.

NB. For those of you who can manage a longer walk it is possible to follow the lane up out of Ippipanti and then around the the right and down into Lakka joining the road out of Lakka up to the lighthouse.

Chris Griffiths - Travel a la carte.
PAXOS.
email: chris@travelalacarte.co.uk