Zagoria, Crete and Halkidiki
Epirus region in northern Greece - the wonderful wild walking around the Vikos Gorge from the Zagori villages - was featured in an article by Chris Moss in the Guardian Travel section in October 2004. The village of Tsepelovo, where hiking holidays can be based, is highly recommended. I stayed there back in September 1993 and enjoyed a marvelous walk up to the edge of the Vikos Gorge, amidst remarkable limestone scenery. Now, August 2007, I've just read one suggestion that the Vikos Gorge is the deepest in the world, at least in terms of "width to depth ratio" (see the News story).
This has inspired me to add my recollections from that walk 14 years ago, and I've also got a new scanner to convert a couple of slides of the gorge into digital format.
Certainly the gorge struck me as very dramatic when I went for a walk with a friend from the village of Tsepelovo, where we were staying in the Hotel Dragonara (named after a lake up in the mountains I recall). We had a couple of pages photocopied from a walking book, but no real idea where we were intending to walk, except up into the hills. We had a bit of difficulty finding a way across the dried-up valley from the village, then we just picked a dusty track to climb up a steep hillside.
The track took us up onto a broad and uneven limestone plateau with an impressive limestone pavement (just like in Yorkshire but deeper grykes - fissures - between the clints - blocks of limestone). There were higher mountains in the distance, but it was baking hot and late afternoon so we didn't realistically think we could get to the top of any of them. Besides, we weren't really equipped for the mountains, with just trainers to wear and one bottle of water. It would be easy to twist an ankle on the rough limestone plateau, where we had to watch our steps carefully.
Then suddenly we reached the edge of a precipice falling away into an awesome gorge - the Vikos. It didn't look green as in the photo which the Guardian used (not shown on the website unfortunately). It was dry and barren-looking after the heat of the summer, and didn't look like it could sustain much wildlife. This didn't make it any less dramatic, and we sat on a couple of the limestone blocks and gazed in wonder. There was a sharp metallic click behind us, and we turned to see a couple of men with guns and a dog - initially a bit un-nerving, but it was clear they were on a hunting trip, so they must have been expecting to find wildlife somewhere on the dry open plateau.
We explored a bit further around the rocks and looked out over the brown and grey landscape to the mountain tops - probably the spring would be the best time to return and explore further. Then we headed back down the track to the village, and a marvellous supper in the hotel where we were able to go into the kitchen and pick what we wanted to eat. The cold lager tasted particularly good, sitting by an open window.
One of the distinctive features of the Zagoria region is the graceful stone bridges over the rivers, and we saw one the next day by walking down from Tsepolovo. Where the road turned right over the bridge below the village, a track went straight ahead. It was rough and stony but there was shelter from the trees. I'm not sure how long it took - maybe half an hour - and we reached the bottom of the valley, with one of those bridges arching steeply over the river which, down here, had some water in it. There were little frogs too. Just beyond the bridge the river emerged from another gorge, much smaller than the Vikos, and we clambered up onto a rock ledge to get a closer look, before walking back up to the village.
Tsepelovo itself is a traditional village with a bit old tree in the middle, under the shade of which the locals sit and chat. We found a post office nearby and I practised how to say "stamps" in Greek before we went it. Then we explored some of the narrow streets (only suitable on foot) going up and down between the houses. Definitely a place to go for a walking holiday away from the crowds (if it's still the way it was). The village can be reached by bus from the regional capital of Ioanina, which is famous for Ali Pasha's island set in a lake.
The village of Monodendri is at the southern end of the gorge (with Vikos at the other end) and there's a trail linking the two described on this website. It also has a useful map and a couple of photos confirming that there's green vegetation to be found there. Later in our visit to the area, we went to Monodendri and walked out of the village a short distance to a viewpoint giving a dramatic end-on view along the gorge. We were told how the villagers had once (not sure if it was the 2nd World War or the Civil War or another time) made their escape along the narrow track which we could just see along the precipitous cliff-face. I don't think the trail described on the website goes this way.
The town of Metsovo, further east, provides a great example of a place which attempts to retain the economic benefits of tourism. Although Epirus is one of Europe's poorest regions, Metsovo is an exception, and has fine handicrafts and a choice of good places to stay. It is a walking centre in the summer, and a skiing centre in the winter. There's a website which describes the town and the sightseeing and walking opportunities around it, including the Zagori villages and bridges.
An earlier article in the Guardian covering the same area, provided an equally stimulating read: "I set off for Mikro Papingo, to the sounds of birds, bees and bubbling springs, punctuated by the clang and tinkle of bells. The sun began filtering through the gap-toothed mountains, so that I reached a village bright with the colours of dahlias, lupins and roses tumbling down its steep slopes, and vegetable gardens clinging on for dear life."
By Andrew Llanwarne
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