“Follow mule dung and you’ll stay on track, follow goat droppings and you’ll rip yourself to shreds in the scrub,” a shepherd had advised after I got off the bus. As I navigate the rocky terrain, spikes of Jerusalem sage illuminating my way like golden candles, his words come in handy. I’m walking the Naxos Strada, a 52km trail across the Greek island of Naxos, most of it along ancient mulepaths that were once the vital veins connecting its whitewashed villages.
You’ll find mulepaths – kalderimia – on all Greek islands, but those on Naxos have the distinction of often being paved with marble. The stone has been mined here since antiquity, and still is, in quarries which glisten in the Mediterranean sun like vast slabs of feta cheese.
