Pindus mountains in Greece

The Vikos Gorge

We flew back from the UK to Athens on 5^th March and after a night in a hotel we made the 5 hour bus journey from Athens to Lefkas. The journey was brilliant, a comfortable, air conditioned bus that drove down along the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras, giving us panoramic views of the snow clad mountains of the Peloponnese towering above us and the coast and sea below.

We arrived back in Lefkas to be greeted with gale force winds and pouring rain, much like the weather we’d had all winter in the UK! We've found the  weather here is very changeable in the spring: one day it’s hot and sunny and we’re out on deck in t shirts and shorts, the next there can be thunderstorms with hail and we’re down below with the heater on full blast.

After three weeks of getting the boat ready for the sailing season we decided to hire a car and escape to the Pindus mountains for a few days. Our destination was the mountain village of Monodhendhri near to the Albanian border, it's up near to snow line and at the mouth of the Vikos gorge, which is the deepest in the world. 

Ioannina on Lake Pamvotidha

To get there we took a scenic route that follows the river through gorges to the lakeside town of Ioannina where we stopped for lunch. This is now a fast growing, modern capital of the Epirus region, but it was under Turkish rule for almost 500 years, from 1430 to 1913, and wandering through the old citadel with its two mosques and wood and stone houses we felt we had been transported to Turkey. It was on our list of places to see as it housed the court of Ali Pasha, one of the cruellest Ottoman rulers who wreaked havoc on this area and thought nothing of having his adversaries beheaded then thrown in the lake.

Gate to the Old Citadel in Ioannina

Local craft exhibition



The old mosque from the Citadel

Leaving Ioannina we wound our way up into the mountains through alpine pastures (having to stop occasionally to let the cows cross the road) until we reached Monodhendhri, a lovely old stone village clinging to the hillside. Our hotel was built entirely of wood and stone and was tastefully furnished with antiques. Our bedroom was very cosy with a wood burning fireplace and a view from the balcony of snow-capped mountain tops. However, when we went down to the restaurant for dinner we found we were eating alone with two wall mounted televisions for company, blasting out two competing Greek programmes, which rather spoilt the ambience!

The 'Stone Forest' near Monodhendhri

Cliff at the Vikos Gorge

 It was early in the tourist season and we hardly met a soul as we hiked between mountain villages and around the edge of gorge the next day. The views down into the gorge were spectacular and we were also fascinated by the pack horse bridges that spanned the rivers. These were built entirely from dry stones (no cement) in the 18^th and 19^th century and are still in use as foot bridges today.

Plakidas stone bridge at Kipi

We made two important stops on the drive back down to Lefkas: one to visit the site of the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona where, in 1900 BC people came to find out what the future held for them, and then to visit the temple of IKEA, where in 2014 people come to discover the future of home furnishings!

Dodona, site of the Oracle of Zeus