Sick days are always the most productive ones for the blog … If I stay home tomorrow, too, I still have many more stories to tell. As you may realize, my favorite way to express myself are fotographs, which I will try to focus on.
The next trip brought J. and me to Western/central Greece. With our small fiat, we first visited Meteora, a group of monasteries located spectacularly on a rock formation. 6 of the originally 24 monasteries are inhabited and accessible today. Of course we visited the only female monastery Rousánou. As we arrived a little too late, we could not enter more of the monasteries, however, I preferred the view from the outside.
Our route then continued to Epirus, the North Western province of Greece. Close to the regional capital Ιωάννινα (Ioannina) lies the Pindus mountain range. Most of it belongs to the Pindus national park. The highest mountain is the Mount Smolikas (2,637 m). The region is called Ζαγόρι (Zagori).
After an ever-lasting adventure of creeping up the serpentines in the complete dark, we arrived in a cute village called Τσεπέλοβο (Tsepelovo), where we stayed over night. The view we had when waking up the next morning was incredible. We couldn’t believe what an exciting tour we had done the evening before…
in the yard of our pension
Throughout the day we explored the Vikos Gorge (Φαράγγι του Βίκου), a gorge of 20 km length and depth between 450 and 1600 m. It is listed as one of the deepest canyons in relation to its smallest width of only a few meters.
the gorge
lunch: a typical spanakopita
In the afternoon, we approached the gorge from the other side. The village Πάπιγκο (Papigo) is situated at the end of Vikos and has only a few hundred inhabitants. A little bit further and a little bit higher, on a height of 980 m, lies the smaller Mikro Papigo. Here we stayed for the night.
the sun slowly arriving in Mikro Papigo in the morning, while creeping over the top of Astraka mountain (Megalo Papigo in the background)
view on Astraka mountain from Mikro Papigo
hiking up Astraka
on a height of 1550 m! See you soon, Pindus!