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North of Hora, the island's high water-table sometimes breaks the surface to run in delightful rivulets swarming with turtles and frogs, though in recent years many of the open streams seem to have dried up. Reeds, orchards and even the occasional palm tree still take advantage of the unexpected moisture, even if it's no longer visible. This is especially true at KALLITSOS (Kendarhos), reached by a ninety-minute path from Hora, marked by fading red paint splodges along a donkey track above the cemetery. Once at Kallitsos (no facilities), a paved road leads west for 3km to the fifteenth- to seventeenth-century monastery of Taxiarhon , designed for sixty monks but presently home only to one of the island's two parish priests - part of a dying breed of farmer-fisherman monks. If he's about, the priest will show you treasures in the monastic church, such as an ivory-inlaid bishop's throne, silver lamps from Egypt (to where many Serifots emigrated during the nineteenth century) and the finely carved temblon . As you loop back towards Hora from Kallitsos on the asphalt, the fine villages of Galani and Panayia (named after its tenth-century church) make convenient stops. In GALANI you can sometimes get simple meals at the central store, which also sells excellent, tawny-pink, sherry-like wine; its small-scale production in the west of the island is highly uneconomic, so you'll find it at few other places on Serifos. Below the village, trails lead to the remote and often windswept beach of Sykaminia , with no facilities and no camping allowed; a better bet for a local swim is the more sheltered cove of Platys Yialos at the extreme northern tip of the island, reached by a partly paved track (negotiable by moped) that branches off just east of Taxiarhon. The neighbouring beach has a taverna, Nikoulias , with a couple of very basic rooms (tel 02810/52 174; ?24-33), which nonetheless have great views. The church at Panayia is usually locked, but comes alive on its feast day of Xilopanayia (August 16). Traditionally the first couple to dance around the adjacent olive tree would be the first to marry that year, but this led to unseemly brawls so the priest always goes first these days.
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