Dates for the 8-day tour.
GPP10
Sun 10 June -
Sun 17 June
GPP09
Sun 9 Sept -
Sun 16 Sept
Dates for the 15-day tour.
GPP10
Sun 10 June -
Sun 24 June
GPP09
Sun 9 Sept -
Sun 23 Sept
Grade: Moderate - Challenging
There
are some strenuous ascents, descents and a couple of long days;
temperatures can range from hot to cold.
This
trek is designed for those who are in good physical condition, take
regular exercise and enjoy hill walking. It will be necessary to carry
usual day-sack contents, and some food.
Equipment & Clothing
If
you are already a hill walker you will probably have all the clothing and
equipment you need. The
climate is warm at low altitude and light clothing should be brought, as
well as warm, and storm proof clothing for high-level walking. A detailed
list of recommended clothing and equipment will be supplied with
confirmation of reservation. A sheet liner is needed for the nights in the
huts.
How the Trekking is Organised
On
several evenings accommodation is in small villages and we take our
evening meal in the local taverna. We
stay in fully equipped mountain huts (refuges) for 2 nights. This will
necessitate carrying a sheet sleeping bag, and basic personal equipment
for the relevant days. If you plan carefully you can expect to carry a maximum of 10
kgs. /22lbs. On most other
days it will be possible to keep well below this weight.
Food & Accommodation
All
your accommodation and most of your meals are included in the tour price.
Meals:
On the 15-day tour 14 breakfasts, 11 picnic style lunches and 12 dinners
are included. Lunches are supplied on all walking days (days2 – 6 and 8
– 13) and dinner an all nights except nights 13 (Litochoro) and 14 (Ioannina).
On
the 8-day tour 7 breakfasts, 5 picnic style lunches and 6 dinners are
included. Lunches are supplied on all walking days (days 2 –6) and
dinner an all nights except night 7 (Ioannina).
We
suggest you budget around £75 for extra meals and an additional allowance
for drinks and refreshments - most people do not spend more than £10 to
£15 per day.
Special
Dietary Requirements: It is important for
you to tell us if you have any dietary requirements when you book your
holiday so that we can inform everyone that you are staying with. Accommodation:
mountain refuges on night 4 & 12; small hotel on
nights 2, 9, 11, 13 & 14; pensions (village guesthouses) on the other
nights. Accommodation
in the villages is simple but clean and comfortable.
Rooms in village guesthouses and in hotels on this tour all have
bath/shower and usually WC. The
hut (night 12 on Olympus) has indoor toilets and wash-hand basins (cold
running water only) but the showers (also cold running water) are not
always available. Blankets are provided but it is necessary to carry your own
sheet-bag. The Astraka refuge has been renovated and enlarged. It has
indoors toilets, wash-hand basins and a couple of showers (cold water
only).
The
hotels described are our usual choice of accommodation, however if these
are not available then alternatives are used and if these are of a
different standard you will be informed at the time of booking.
Books & Maps
Books:
Patrick Leigh Fermor's Roumeli, travelogue/ ethnography is set in
the mountains of northern Greece (Faber & Faber).
WWII memoirs relevant to our trekking area are Eleni:
Nicholas Gage (Collins 1983), and The Flight of Ikaros: Kevin
Andrews (Penguin 1984). An
anthropological study of the Sarakatsani shepherd community (Gamila area)
before its decline is Honour, Family, Patronage: H.K.D. Campbell
(Oxford Univ. Press 1964). With
the shepherds of Samarina - Tim Salmon's The Unwritten Places 1995
Lycabettos Press (Stanfords). For general information Trekking in
Greece: Marc Dubin/Michael Cullen (Lonely Planet 1993).
Still useful is George Sfikas' Mountains of Greece: English
version published in Greece 1979) Flowers of Greece and the
Aegean. Hogarth Press l989).
For really full coverage of flowers and related geology consult
Oleg Polunin's Flowers of Greece and the Balkans (O.U.P 1987).
Of
the many general guides to Greece, The Blue Guide is a
standard on cultural aspects and The Rough Guide to Greece,
for
general information, is worth consulting.
Maps:
Good maps are difficult to obtain, as there is no equivalent to
our O.S series available to the public either here or in Greece.
Greek mountaineers make do with maps published in their journal
‘Korfes’ adapted from the 1:50,000 "Y.I.S" military series.
Sheets 55-60 cover the northern Pindos.
Place names are in Greek script.
These maps may be available from Stanfords, Long Acre, London WC2,
Tel: 0207 -836 1321. Books on
Greece are also stocked by The Hellenic Book service, 91 Fortess Road,
London NW5, Tel: 0207-267 9499.
What's Included
Return
flights London/Preveza (air travel clients only); airport taxes; all
transportation as specified; all accommodation; meals as specified; services of leader. Land-only
customers must make their own way to and from Preveza or Ioannina airport
(2 flights daily from Athens).
Not
Included: Passport, insurance, personal equipment and expenditure,
some meals, drinks and refreshments, personal
tipping.
Insurance:
All
clients must have appropriate cover for the activities included for the
duration of our trip.
Further Information
For
more information about Epirus, Pindos and Olympus: the National Tourist
Organisation of Greece (in London): tel:020 7 495 9300.
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Outline Itinerary
The
following itinerary is intended as a working guide only, and is subject to
variation as a result of weather conditions, local factors and group
progress.
We
reserve the right to alter (lengthen or shorten) any walk at any time if
necessary. 1000m = 3281ft. Local time = GMT plus 2 hrs.
q
Day 1. Morning
flights from UK Gatwick to Preveza airport (air travel clients only), on
the Greek mainland west coast, for convenient two hour transfer by road to
Ioannina. We continue on to
the mountains of central Zagoria and the villages of Vitsa and Monodendri,
arriving in the afternoon/early evening. There may be time to explore the
two villages before dinner.
q
Day 2. Vitsa -
Vikos Village. Early in the morning we descend the old Vitsa stairs, a
steep but well-made path, into the spectacular Vikos gorge (sometimes
called the Greek Grand Canyon). 12km long, 1,350m deep and 980m wide.
Traversing the ravine we can admire the numerous wild animals, birds and
flowers which find protection within its rocky walls.
We ascend to Vikos village from where we are transported to nearby
Aristi. Overnight Aristi. (7 hours
walking).
q
Day 3. Vikos -
Papingo: After a short transfer back
to Vikos village, to the start of the walk, we cross the
Voidomatis River and take footpaths uphill to Mikro Papingo.
Above are the great limestone buttresses, the "Towers of
Papingo" which contain the deepest vertical cave in Europe. At the
natural swimming pool near the village we can enjoy a swim and a rest,
before arriving at our traditional pension (4 hours of walking.)
q
Day 4. Papingo – Dragon Lake – Astraka hut.
We set off carrying our overnight essentials to climb uphill onto Mount Astraka, and reach the Astraka hut at
1950m for a break. Later we continue up to the beautiful “Dragon Lake”
(2100m) before returning and overnighting at the Astraka Hut
(6 hours walking).
q
Day 5. Astraka
hut – Tsepelovo. Today
we make an early start from
the refuge, and we pass between the Astraka peak (2436m / 8038ft) and
Gamilla peak (2497m/8240ft). We cross the mountains following
shepherds' trails and mule tracks over high pastures before making a
fairly steep descent to the village of Tsepelevo (6.5 hours walking). We
are reunited with our main baggage.
q
Day 6. Walk from Tsepelovo to visit the beautiful
bridges at the village of Kipi. It is a short distance hike today, taking
about 3 hours. Return to Tsepelovo for an overnight at the pension.
q
Day 7. Rest day in Tsepelovo,
NB
: clients doing the 8-day itinerary will be transferred to Ioannina.
q
Day 8. Walk over the high Tsouka Rossa pass (2 350m)
and descend through black pine and beech forest to remote Vissihori
overlooking the wild and forested Aoos valley. (7-8 hours walking).
Overnight Vrissohori.
NB
: clients doing the 8-day itinerary will be transferred from Ioannina to Preveza
airport for their flight
home.
q
Day 9. We
continue our walk by crossing the Aoos River.
It is then a fairly easy climb up through woodland to the village
of Pades (4 - 5
hours walking).
q
Day 10. An
early start today as we continue our ascent of Mt Smolikas, the second
highest mountain in Greece at 2637m/8650ft. Through pine forest initially, and by tumbling mountain
streams, the final ascent to the summit is over rock of red serpentine.
We follow the mountain ridges east before making our descent to
Samarina, summer village of the Vlach community. (6-7 hours walking.)
q
Day 11. From
Samarina we have a long drive across northern Greece to Litochoro at the
foot of Mount Olympus. En
route there will be an opportunity for a brief visit to the famous
monasteries of Meteora near Kalambaka. During and after the 11-12th
C Byzantine monks built a remarkable series of monasteries in easily
defensible positions atop these immense pinnacles of conglomerate rock. Several of the monasteries are open to the public and
attract large crowds in season. Overnight
Litochoro Hotel.
q
Day 12. From Litochoro, 30min drive to Prionia. Walk
up to Spilios Agapitos hut where you spend the night.
It is necessary to carry your overnight essentials up to the hut. 4 hours walking.
q
Day 13. An opportunity to reach one of the summits of
the Mount Olympus massif (the
highest peak involves scrambling). Our
experienced and well-qualified guide will make the most of the opportunity
to scale summits and admire views. Back
down to the refuge where you collect your overnight gear and descend to
Prionia. Minibus from Prionia to Litochoro.
Overnight Litochoro.
q
Day 14. We
transfer by road back across the Pindos range, with an opportunity for
lunch (not included) at Metsovo, en route to Ioannina, where we are
transferred to our accommodation – normally at a hotel in the area of
the old castle. The rest of the day is free to explore the town of
Ioannina and its old neighbourhoods as well as the island, which has shops
with silverware products, a bakery and several taverns specialising in
trout from the lake. On the island there are several ancient churches to
see. It was also the last
retreat of the Cl9th despot, Ali Pasha, who once received Lord Byron at
his court.
The
following optional excursions are possible:
(i) across the lake, 4km from Ioannina, at Perama, is a huge cave
system (guided and lit) which is well worth a visit; (ii) the town of
Ioannina, capital of Epiros, has long been famous for the manufacture of
filigree silver jewellery. A walk through the old town’s narrow streets
and citadel is well worthwhile; (iii) by taxi (or occasional bus, but bus
does not run on Saturdays) to the famous oracle site and ancient theatre
of Dodoni, 15km from Ioannina.
Whole afternoon needed for this excursion.
q
Day
15.
We transfer by road to Preveza airport for our flight home.
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The
northern Pindos is one of the finest wilderness areas in the Balkans and
indeed in the whole of Europe. The landscape is on a grand scale with
peaks of limestone and serpentine rock rising to 2636m (8650ft) from an
extensive region of natural beech and pine forest at the headwaters of
the Voidomatis and Aoos rivers. Limestone gorges, such as the Vikos, are
up to 1000m deep. The stone-built villages of the Zagoria region are not
dissimilar to those of the English Lake District - but they receive far
fewer visitors. Although the climate is warm in summer, the Pindos
Mountains remain green long after the winter snows have thawed. In
spring and early summer meadows are ablaze with alpine and other wild
flowers, including an abundance and variety of orchids. Towards autumn,
as the leaves begin to turn, just as colourful are the forests of beech
and hornbeam. Overall, perhaps the greatest attraction of the Pindos
mountains is that one can find a greater solitude here than in many
other mountainous areas of Europe. Our route on this part of the trek is
designed to follow shepherds' and muleteers' footpaths, ancient tracks
and some newer Forestry Service access roads. We rise high up onto
Astraka Mountain, and we pass between Astraka peak (2436 m/ 8038ft) and
Gamilla peak(2497m / 8240ft), having visited Dragon Lake (2100m) the
previous day.