Andros is, by the standards of a Greek island, full of water. Diana Farr writes in her article about the Albanians on Andros that the water is running out. This was the case a few summers ago, partly because of an excess of bore-holes (largely illegal), but mainly because of drought-like winters with barely a drop of rain for seven years. The last three winters, however, have returned to form; there have just been three wet ones, including the wettest one on record.

Though the water table will probably never fully recover, there is at least a respite for this lovely island - and the whole secret of Andros is water. Just taking the bus to the Chora the other day emphasised the point; There are many little valleys, unexpected springs, and spectacular terraced hillsides.
Andros has many beautiful walks, a lot of them well-documented by informative guidebooks written in English, on sale here and elsewhere in Greece, that I shan't plague people with descriptions. I would, however, like to emphasise here the things worth looking out for when walking:
Water mills. Andriots used these rather than windmills.
Apparently ruined farmhouses which turn out to be rather important buildings lived in by generations of old Andros families and fortified against pirates.
Attractive bridges and walls with unique stonework. What lends Andros (and Tinos) character are these, as well as the distinctive farmhouses, and the dovecots that are still visible all over the island.
Byzantine churches - a number of these, but not always obviously Byzantine or post-Byzantine.
Large monasteries with only one monk left in them.
Springs running through gorges that reach down towards the sea.
Unexpected bits of Ancient Greek masonry in walls, especially in Paleopolis; possibly pillars lying just buried underneath the surface, with flashes of white visible. But are they in fact pillars and are they Ancient Greek?
It is a mysterious place; so little is really known about it, and so much of its treasures have been looted. And yet, this brings me back to silk, and the original purpose of my stay here back in 1989. I have two more things to say about this. Firstly, pirates were always trying to get hold of the silk, and that's why Albanians, among others, were brought in to defend the trade, ironically by the piratical Dandolo family (the Venetians who ran Andros pre-Turkish occupation), and Andros was prosperous enough to afford a protective fleet. Secondly, a crucial factor in the eventual decline of silk was a disease that killed the silkworms off.