There are toilets at the monastery too, should you have the urge to go without using a hedge for cover. You have to walk around the outer wall to get to them.

Anyway, that's enough of the monastery, let's carry on up the valley. Now, at the moment you can continue driving up the river. However, during the winter, that route may well be blocked. If that is the case, then you can take the road from the monastery up the hill a short way, until you come to a junction. If you go right from here it will take you to a place further up the river which will hopefully not be blocked. If it is blocked though, you will have to go up the hill to Pentalia, and drive to Galataria, before driving down to the river from there. Having said that, if you can't continue from Sinti, there isn't a lot of point trying to rejoin it later on.

The best way to assess whether the route up the river is accessible is to see if there are recent tyre tracks headed in that direction. This is only really necessary in the spring though. During the summer you should be fine. That doesn't mean you can zoom down the track at full speed. Don't do that, it is going to get bumpy.

From Sinti Monastery onwards, you are going to see a number of ancient water mills. We shall highlight to you the best one as we drive past it, so don't feel obliged to stop at all of them.

You will eventually come to another bridge across the Xeros. This one isn't as robust as the earlier ones we saw, and regularly gets blocked during winter. I posted a film driving over it a few months ago. A couple of days after I made that film, two cars had to be rescued as they had been swept away while crossing. So if you are here and are unsure, don't risk it. Just go back the way you came.

Anyway, drive up to the road and turn left, across the bridge. You will soon be back on tarmac.