Route Library

This route links two of Apokoronas’ most overlooked villages — Kalamitsi Alexandrou and Kalamitsi Amigdali. One holds the memory of public executions. The other preserves silk, song, and local creativity. The connection is physical and historical: stone, resistance, survival.

23 January 1943. Deep in the snowbound amphitheatre of Gournes, high in the White Mountains, five men huddled in a crude stone shelter known to SOE as The Beehive. Their mission: to sustain resistance, gather intelligence, and stay alive.

Warning: Only attempt this route if you are an expert mountain biker. This was one of my shorter rides — yet without doubt, one of the most physically and technically demanding I’ve done.

We set off from Kokkino Chorio at 07:30. The morning was still cool, the village cloaked in silence — save for the solemn toll of the church bell. Two lines came to mind: Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls — “Did thee feel the earth move?” — and Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls — “Make his fight on the hill in the early day.”

This is a relaxed ride on easy, unchallenging terrain — ideal for all levels.

This expert-level E-MTB route explores remote terrain above Alikambos to reach the WWII ambush site where WOII Bill Knox (SOE, Force 133) and two escaped POWs from the Cyprus Regiment were killed in action on 23 March 1944.

A devotional E-MTB ride tracing forgotten roads, forest paths, and sacred spaces from Kokkino Chorio to Vrysses and back.

A quiet loop from the eastern edge of Apokoronas: small chapels, old cisterns and dovecotes, the Enchanted Forest in shadow, Paleloni’s churchyard, and Gavalochori’s courtyards — a ride of small sanctuaries and steady pedals.