'Λίμνες' (Ξυλιάτου - Αλέστου - Μεμί) / 'Lakes' (Xyliatos / Alestou / Memi)

This is an ambitious attempt to create a mega-trail connecting the three artificial lakes of the Xyliatos area: The Xyliatos Dam, the Alestos Mine Lake, and the Memi Mine Lake! In addition, the suggested trail passes through one or two very interesting sights, which add an extra dimension to it.

This was initially meant to be only one of my typical exploratory attempts to create a mega-trail, but it turned out to be a great hike! I had to study a lot the available maps in advance, and to take some 50-50 decisions in the process (in terms of total length, not in terms of safety), but it all went very well.

This trail is predominantly about the magnificent views of the three lakes! The flora that you will encounter is very typical of what you expect to find in the area of Adelfoi Forest, and there were not indeed any surprises. But the colours of the trail are simply superb! At the same time, the proposed trail is an excellent fitness track, with numerous ups and downs, some of them being steep, but mostly short in length. The majority of the trail follows wide forest or agricultural roads.

The trails starts at the northern point of the Xyliatos Dam where one of the tributaries of the Elea River flows in. Both the Xyliatos Dam, and its official Nature Trail are very popular with visitors around the year, and rightly so, because the combination of the water and the pine tree forest around it and above it creates quite a spectacle. The proposed trail follows the western part of the nature trail on a clockwise direction, climbing up to the hill over the Dam's stonewall, and then descending towards the pic-knick area. For the next 2kms it follows the wide forest road which leads to Kapouras pick-nick area, next to the same river stream.

On the 5th km it becomes more interesting as we descend towards the Xyliatos agricultural area (which is irrigated by the Dam). As you will see in the recording, in several points I had to exercise some trial and error in order to find the most suitable option. But overall it was pretty simple!

After reaching the paved road at the area of the river bridge, we start our ascend towards the Alestos mountaintop, where the mine and the lake are situated. This is a 2km / 200 metres steep ('fitness' ascend), which was chosen from the map through the agricultural plots, and it turned out to be very accurate! The Alestos copper mine operated only for the period 1971-1972, but it has clearly left its 'scar' on the top! The rain water has created a small little lake in the center of its crater, which provides some unique photo opportunities. At the same time, the views to the east are simply breathtaking! Certainly one of the highlights of the proposed trail!

I chose a slightly different descent path through the agricultural plots and that also worked out very well. The return to the bridge using the same road is short, but there, only a few metres after the bridge (12.8 kms in the recording), you HAVE to stop and admire the small group of five century-old olive trees. We are not talking about only a couple of centuries.... but lots of them! The crown jewel of the group is olive tree no.5, with a 13m circumference, which you can physically ... enter! Its core area is like a small room! It is considered to be at least 800 years old, and possibly one of the oldest (if not the oldest) olive tree in Cyprus. Essential visit!

Next stop is Mari Mine and Lake. There is a possibility to reach the lake in a much shorter way than I did, but I missed the correct turn for the agricultural road so I decided to do it the 'safe way', and reach the mine through the very wide paved road starting from the top of Xyliatos village. The Memi Mine is another abandoned mine, but with a richer history of copper and iron extraction during the 20th century. Its large crater has been filled with rain water creating a very beautiful lake, which is very famous for changing the colour of its waters every season of the year. During my hike, it was deep blue, aligned with our very warm 'summer-ish' weather for the time of this year (November 2023). There is a kiosk at the end of the road where you can sit and (really) enjoy the view. The Alestos mountaintop acts as a background to the wonderful spectacle.

The return to base starts around the 15-km mark. I took another bet here based on the map, and I tried to return to Xyliatos through the eastern forest road. It's a short climb, which leads to a sharp ascend on a very weird cement-road at the end of it, but it works great! The forest road will take you to Xyliatos village after 2kms.

If you are wondering why there is such a sharp ascend for 500 metres from 17.4 to 17.9 kms, I can tell you that it is simply a very steep wide paved road! It is hard to do it at this point, but it will take you to another interesting sight, the 'Cave of St. Mamas'. According to the local tradition the Saint used to live there; it is certain that this was used by shepherds.

A quick descend through a forest road will take you to the main Xyliatos - Lagoudera paved road, and after a gentle ascend of 1.5 kms you will reach the eastern part of the Xyliatos Dam Lake official trail. This will take you back to the starting point.

My suggestion is to follow this trail from November to May. There are large parts of it which are shaded, but also some large ones that are not. Summer could be too hot for such an attempt. Not suitable for children as it is, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of its length and steep ascends.

This was nice. Really nice, and I did not expect it to be honest. There are numerous variations that can shorten this trail, or lengthen it, and make it easier / harder. Feel free to experiment and post your results. One thing is for certain: you will never forget the views from these lakes, especially from the Alestos Mine!