Hello, this is Angelos!
I have a friend fireman (they also do salvage and recovery) who takes pleasure in telling me stories about hikers wounded or lost in impossible places around the island, hikers who were found and saved by the local rescue teams. When, my friend said, the rescuers asked the unfortunate hikers how they got to that place, they took out and showed them standard maps with various trails marked on them.
Only that, though the lines on those maps were very convincing, the trails themselves weren’t visible or did not exist at all. The hikers found themselves following abstract lines drawn by somebody on a piece of paper, whereas there was nothing on the ground; no signs, no marks. Just bushes and rocks. And the inevidable and very perplexing goat trails.
Cases of lost and distressed hikers are few in Ikaria, however, as more and more maps come about showing -besides motor roads- (…) “hiking trails” (…), I am obliged to warn every hiker of Ikaria to mistrust these publications and to not venture outside the marked paths.
A hiking route marked in orange (or other) is a route that takes you somewhere. And most importantly, when you are tired, it’s a route that takes you back home.
Notice, for example, the cliffs in the following photos by Zack Kavarligkos connected here through Facebook. The hikers are young and they are from the island so they don’t care.
But YOU STRANGER don’t ride on the Ikarian cliffs just because a map tells you so. Don’t ride, if you see no marking.
