Soon you will come across this picnic bench. As well as another sign, there is also a handy map.

This is a good map, as it is fairly accurate when it comes to describing the circular part of the walk. You are currently standing at the Point of View.

If you look at this map, the route is a mirror image of the previous map. This is very confusing. The problem arises because the maps can appear on either side of the trail. However, the people who placed the signs wanted them to have the Kathikas end in the direction of Kathikas. Now, if you used the same map image in two signs, but they were on opposite side of the track, then one of the maps will be facing in the wrong direction. So what the sign maker has done is rotate the map 180 degrees. Unfortunately, this means that if you follow the map you are likely to take the wrong turn when you reach the circular path. If you look, just after Point 7, they want you to turn left to get to point 9. You actually need to turn right.

What they should have done, instead of rotating the image 180 degrees, is flip it horizontally.

You may wonder why I am labouring this point. It is because I made lots of wrong turns in the second part of this article because I paid too much attention to this sign.

Anyway, what did the sign say?

The southern gorge to the left is called "Farkonias". The name derives from the English word Falcon.

The first plateau to the left of the Farkonias gorge is called "Moundiko", toponym from which this route took its name.

[a toponym is a place name, especially one derived from a topographical feature]

The gorge to the right of Moundiko is called "Koufon" and "Erini". The word koufes refers to snakes, while the word Erini refers to a woman's name called Eirini.

The plateau to the right of the Koufon / Erini Gorge is called "Lipati". Further to the right of Lipati is the "Dipotamos" gorge.

I first wrote about the gorge to the right of Moundiko a few years ago. I even did a film about driving to "Snake Canyon." I called it that because every time I walked down it (twice) I almost stood on an Adder. I didn't know what it was called so named it Snake Canyon. So I was delighted when I read this sign and found out that that was its actual name! This is worth remembering should you ever want to venture down there. Wear decent boots.

In this part of the walk, the information signs are coming thick and fast. This is the next one:

The view from here is panoramic.

The rock on the one side of the route is chalk and maris of the Pachna Formation. This consists almost entirely of small fossils of shells of marine microorganisms. The rock was created at the bottom of the sea when the sediment was still incoherent. Organisms like worms dug it, creating galleries in the soft material. With its solidification, their traes remained on the rock as trace fossils. The rocks of the area consist mainly of chalks and maris of the Pachna Formation, about 20 million years old, which lie in the incoherent clay rocks of the Kathikas melange 60 million years old and longer. Before the Moundiko plateau, we observe a geological window, where the underlying clay rocks are revealed due to the erosion of the overlying chalks (smooth topography and low vegetaion), whle they are surrounded by overlying younger limestone Pachna rocks with steeper topography (fertile soils and taller vegetation). The area is prone to landslides due to the presence of clays, Due to overgrazing in the area, deforestation and soil erosion are observed in several places. After a short downhill course, the route raches a junction where its circular part begins towards the Moundiko plateau.

I had to look it up but "incoherent sediment" is defined as "textures consisting of loose sediments which have never been cemented."