Hiking Northern Greece:
The Zagori Region
of
the Pindus Mountains
June 2015
These steps (about 1 km. long) were the only access to Vradheto village until 1973.
With a pretty arbitrary definition of "gorge", Guinness World Records lists the Vikos Gorge as the world's deepest. The stone stucture is an Orthodox trail shrine with an icon.
An alpine newt.
A "marginated" tortoise.
The yellow belly of an alpine frog.
Trail cut into the cliffside in the 16th cent. by an Orthodox monastery to provide quick escape.
The trail wasn`t always well-blazed and I had to use map and compass a few times. Here the "trail" is just the riverbed.
The arched bridges were built in the 18th and 19th centuries.
An Orthodox Church by the river running thru part of the Vikos Gorge. It's one of the cleanest rivers in Europe and the entire flow in this pic comes from a single massive spring about 300 meters upriver. Which was so cold I couldn't even wade in.
I passed thru a few stone villages. Populations peaked in the late 19th cent. and now range from only 20 to 150. But each still has a central pedestrian square with a tavern and a large plane tree. This tree is over 400 years old.
Athough the Zagori region was under Ottoman rule for more than 400 years, the population remained almost exclusively Orthodox.
I ate sometimes in the villages and tented out each night.
The frogs that could've been.
The good pic that could've been.
Wildlife seen: osprey, scorpions, leeches, dung beetles rolling perfect dung spheres, chamois, alpine newts, turtles, rabbits, storks, water snakes, foot–long green lizards, "hummingbird hawk–moths", and bees on the attack forcing me to run my fastest for 100 m.
And a very aggressive sheepdog. Sheepdogs learn to be confrontational since this region still has wolves and brown bear.
Itinerary: Solo hike of 60 miles (100 kms) in 6 days. Highest elevation: Gamila peak at 2500 m. (8,200 ft.).
From Athens, an 8–hour bus to Ioannina town and then taxi to Dilofo village. From there, the hike was a loop: Dilofo village – Monodendri vill. – Paraskevi Monastery – Vikos Gorge – Vikos vill. – Papingo vill. – Dragon Lake – Gamila peak – Tsepelovo vill. – Vradheto vill. – Koukouli vill. – Dilofo vill.