Picnic at Dipotamata Gorge in Korthi

There is a sound you don’t expect on a Cycladic island: the babble of running water, loud, persistent, almost indistinguishable from birdsong. On Andros, this sound leads you into a gorge that seems borrowed from elsewhere; there, at Dipotamata, the landscape changes scenes and invites you to set your picnic basket down beside the water.

A trail with history

The Dipotamata route stretches about 7 kilometres and forms part of the organised Trail No. 3. This is no random path through nature, but the old passage that once connected Chora with Korthi, before today’s motorway was built.

Walking here, you literally tread in the footsteps of generations of Androtes who crossed the island on foot or with their pack animals, carrying goods, news and necessities from one side to the other.

Water as the protagonist

Andros has abundant water, a rare thing for a Cycladic landscape, and the Dipotamata gorge is perhaps the most striking proof of this wealth. Streams criss-cross, plane trees cast shade over moss and damp stones, and the air smells of earth and leaves.

The light here falls filtered, green-gold, creating an atmosphere of coolness rarely found in the Aegean in summer.

Watermills and a stone bridge

Along the route, you’ll come across watermills, now in ruins, silent witnesses to an era when the power of water ground the island’s wheat. Their stone walls, half-covered by vegetation, speak of a self-sufficient, resourceful rural Andros.

A little further on, an arched stone bridge spans the stream with a grace that only time and the human hand together can bestow. It is a landmark of the area and a spot worth lingering at a little longer, to listen to the water passing beneath.

The picnic as ritual

Here, the picnic takes on another dimension. You spread a cloth on a flat rock, beside the stream, with the plane tree above cutting the sun. Time flows more slowly; the only stimuli are the water, the rustling leaves and some bird flying low.

This stillness, filled with the sounds of nature, is the true gift of the route toward Korthi.

On Andros, nature never leaves you thirsty; it offers you water, shade and history at every turn of the path.Traditional wisdom of the island’s residents

When you reach the end of the route, bound for Korthi, you will carry with you something more than fatigue: the sense that you have come to know a different Andros, more secret, more alive.