We left the amazing Pelion region and headed south-west. We had left a couple of days free in case we could catch up with a friend but it didn't work out so we just found ourselves a place on the beach in a small town called Livanates. It was ok. I didn't realise when I booked it that the beach area was actually built in the 60's and 70's and it was all a bit kitsch and dated. Oh well!
We saw a full moon rise over the water on our first night.
I had a lovely walk along the coast on our only full day there. I found a pretty church perched on a rocky outcrop that jutted out to the sea. The church and the grounds were amazing - there were swings for the kids, a gorgeous track that led down to a shrine on a rock sticking up out of the water and seats with stunning views over the sea like this one.
Small shrines are everywhere in Greece but they don't usually have their own rocky perch. This was just near the church and it was like the shrine was doing a mini-me of the church, lol.
Nearby was the archaeological site of Kynos. A set of old wrought iron gates blocked the dirt road leading the short distance to the site but anyone could just walk through the gap in the fence beside them. Once I did that I saw that the chain around the gates wasn't done up and the padlock wasn't locked either!
The site was perched on the only small hill in this otherwise flat area. It was covered by a low roof, presumably put up to protect archaeologists, as the site was completely exposed to the sun. It looked like the roof had been there for a while. I got the impression that a certain amount of work was done some decades ago then nothing much had happened since.
There wasn't a lot to see, just stone walls. There were a few information boards and I learned that the site had been rebuilt a number of times as it's in an earthquake area and, over the centuries, it got flattened a few times. They kept building there though as they could keep an eye on both land and sea routes from here.
The most interesting thing I learned was that the site wasn't originally built on a hill of this size - the hill had been raised by all the layers of previous buildings!
We drove from the mainland along the isthmus towards Corinth. (I didn't realise that "isthmus" is a Greek word until I saw a sign in both Greek and English!) At Corinth we crossed over the famous canal. We barely saw it from the highway so I pinched a photo from the internet here.
The Corinth Canal has an amazing history. The idea of building the canal, which would shorten sea journeys around the Mediterranean considerably, we first touted in 602 BC but didn't progress then. In 307 BC, Demetrios Poliorketes decided to cut a naval passage through the Isthmus. He actually began excavations before he was talked out of it by Egyptian engineers who predicted that the different sea levels between the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs would inundate Aegina and nearby islands with the sea!
In 66 AD, with Romans in control of the area, Emperor Nero actually started the project before his execution a few years later. It wasn't until 1882 that construction of the canal finally got underway for real and it was finished in 1893. Bizarrely, the final route was almost identical to the one planned out by Nero. The canal was finally finished in 1893, nearly 2,500 years after it was first planned.
Ironically, after all that time and effort, the canal proved to be too narrow for many large commercial ships and it never became the huge shipping route that was expected. It's now used mostly for smaller recreational boats.
We crossed into the Peloponnese area and headed back up into the mountains in an attempt to exercise where it's cooler. As we approached the area we were heading for, the mountains started looming in the distance.
This mountainous area is called Arcadia and the town we based ourselves in was Stemnitsa.
Our jaws dropped when we saw Stemnitsa for the first time - old stone houses topped with (mostly modern) red-tiled rooves were scattered across a hillside. We didn't have time to look closely though as we navigated our way through the tiny, narrow roads.
We found our accommodation at the top of the village and, to our delight, it was one of these stunning stone houses that had been converted to a B&B. Nena, the owner, spoke fluent English and was a mine of information.
The house was built around 1650 and belonged to Nena's grandmother. Nena was raised in another house in the village which was a comparative spring chicken, being built around 1750. There are strict conservation rules around what you can and can't do with these old homes.
The best sounding room was the "Donkey's Bottom'! It was the downstairs stable where the donkey used to live. There was a communal living area upstairs where we had a great breakfast each morning.
The views from the living area were sensational!
We hit our walking and cycling programmes harder here. My first walk was simply exploring the village. With those steep hills it was a great workout!
There's a long-distance hike here called The Menalon Trail. I was keen to try some parts of it. It was too hard to do it all when we were based in one town and John was riding, not walking, so I dropped John off on a bike ride and I drove on to a place where I could walk towards the trail. Following google maps, I turned onto a road and it was rough and dirt. I made a very stupid decision to keep going instead of taking a longer, safer route. I got through ok but I scratched the car on the bushes that lined the narrow road at one point. I simply couldn't avoid them. Arrgghh!
There are dozens of churches in the village, many of them from the Byzantine period.
This church's bell hung from a tree.
There were banners hanging up from a recent festival.
The track from our accommodation to the village was a steep descent but it was beautiful. We wandered past stone houses and a gorgeous water source spot.
People are big on flowers here. Even the rubbish bin and utilities area near a bakery was pretty!
Nena was great at suggesting rides and walks and she recommended one where John could ride and I could walk and the paths overlapped. Nena had warned us to be careful of the shepherd dogs so I always carried a hiking pole with me. I hiked up a valley and found another gorgeous water spring, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. These would have been so important when the only transport was donkey or walking.
My track turned off the road and I passed a lovely church, complete with running spring water so I could wash my face and cool down a bit under yet another large, leafy tree. I walked a bit further then heard a dog yelping in the valley below me. I looked down and, to my amazement, saw four dogs racing flat out up a dirt road with nobody else in sight. The yelping seemed to be coming from one of the dogs who was getting a bit left behind. I watched for a bit then realised someone was on the road ahead of them - it was John! He was stopped on the road. Were the dogs about to attack him?
John is the tiny speck in the centre of this photo.
John is the tiny speck in the centre of this photo.
The dogs soon reached John. I couldn't see enough detail from the distance I was at so I called out to him across the valley. He let me know he was ok. He then yelled back, "They're my friends"! Apparently he had come across the dogs further down the road. Two were loose and two squeezed out of a gap when they saw John. They were friendly but tried to follow him so he tried to outrun them. The road was too steep though and he couldn't get far enough ahead of them. They eventually gave up after John gave them lots of pats at this point. So much for the ferocious shepherd dogs!
There always seem to be churches on amazing peaks. There's one on the peak in the foreground here. The views must be sensational!
There's a long-distance hike here called The Menalon Trail. I was keen to try some parts of it. It was too hard to do it all when we were based in one town and John was riding, not walking, so I dropped John off on a bike ride and I drove on to a place where I could walk towards the trail. Following google maps, I turned onto a road and it was rough and dirt. I made a very stupid decision to keep going instead of taking a longer, safer route. I got through ok but I scratched the car on the bushes that lined the narrow road at one point. I simply couldn't avoid them. Arrgghh!
The walk turned out to be pretty unpleasant - 45 minutes of walking down stone steps was not my idea of fun. When I got to the bottom I worked out that I could follow a road and get back to the car without having to go straight back up those steps.
On the way I saw a map. I love the way things get lost in translation sometimes. I think the road I was on qualifies as a "dirty road"!
We climbed down one side of the gorge, crossed a bridge then climbed up and up and up.....
The older, original monastery is in decay and people are not supposed to visit as it's falling down. We were in two minds whether we would have a look without going inside or not as it was another climb up the gorge wall to reach it. Just as we got near it I realised I'd left my sunglasses back at the new monastery so I slogged back up to it while John had a quick look at the old monastery. It was built entirely of rock and was almost disguised against the rock walls around it. Look closely!
We were allowed in to see certain parts of the monastery but we couldn't take photos. The monastery must have began its life as a cave because a painted cave wall formed part of the complex. A church from 1167 abutted it. Weirdly, this was now all under a high roof.
The small village of Paleochori was nestled prettily in the valley.
John and I met at the larger village of Dimitsana. It was stunning! It was spectacularly set on a mountain top.
There are only two places to eat in our village; one isn't much chop and the other one is often closed, so we took the opportunity to have lunch in Dimitsana. It was too early for lunch when we first arrived - at around noon! - so they suggested we have a drink in the cafe first. Two dining seating areas sat next to each other on the opposite side of the road. The waiter led us to the one with black and white chairs and we had a drink. The drinks came from a cafe across the road. Then, when it was time for lunch, the same waiter moved us to the adjacent eating area and our food came from the taverna a couple of doors down. So weird!
The food was great and we had amazing views from our table.
We then visited the nearby Water Power Museum. It doesn't sound very exciting but we had heard great things about it so we gave it a go. We were so pleased we did!
Before modern mechanisation, the area was well known for using water power to process things. Water mills were scattered all through this area and a collection of them here were restored and turned into a museum.
Water ran down the side of the mountain and was diverted into a series of channels. These were directed into different buildings to be used in different ways.
In the fulling mill, water poured straight in to a vat that was very precisely shaped by coopers into a cone. Fulling cleans the wool and shrinks it, making it denser and more waterproof. Newly made woollen articles were washed in here for three days. Older woolen clothes were washed once a year!
In another building, I was blown away by the complexities of the skin tanning system. The skins arrived salted and it took something like three or four weeks of washing, scraping, soaking, hair removing, liming, drying, more scraping, more soaking and finally dyeing, before a skin was ready for sale. There was so much labour involved! I remember in Morocco years ago being horrified that they tanned the skins in urine. In this one they used dog faeces! This is not a job I'd want, for sure.
Millstones were used for grinding grains but they weren't made from one stone. Smaller stones, brought in from the island of Milos, were shaped then bound together to form one millstone.
Another completely fascinating room was the one where they made gunpowder. Again, the process was so laborious! The main ingredient was saltpetre and this had to be collected from the faeces of certain animals. The final ingredients were mixed and added to small buckets. Each bucket was placed under one of the uprights shafts in the photo below. (My video was blurry so this is another internet pic). A long cam shaft was driven by the water and it lifted the shafts up and they dropped down, pounding the gunpowder mixture. They demonstrated it for us and the pounding was quite loud. Water had to be added to the mixture regularly because if it overheated it could explode. People were killed this way. Another job I'd not want to have!
That night we visited the information centre for the Menalon Trail. It was only open between 7pm and 9pm! The volunteer was helpful and we ended up sharing a tsipourou with him!
Following his advice, the next day we tackled part of the Menalon trail. John gave the bike riding a day off and we hit the trail walking.
The hike took us up the Lousios River Gorge. The views were amazing right from the start.
We did an out-and-back version of the trail. The walk led past steep cliffs.
This photo isn't crooked - the trees all lean downhill!
We walked straight past most of the sights along the way to start with, so we could get to the last one before it got too hot as it was uphill and on the sunny side of the gorge. This furthest destination was the Filosofou Monastery. We arrived there VERY hot and sweaty! A monk showed us the reception area where we were offered coffee, water and really delicious sweets (a kind of Turkish delight but they don't call them that here!)
The artwork on the ceilings was stunning. It was fairly recent and depicted the monks who were the instigators of the Greek uprising against the Turkish occupation in the 1820's.
The original Filosofou Monastery was a bit further down the track but had fallen into disrepair. Another stunning painting showed how Greek schools were carried out in secret in the old monastery during Ottoman occupation.
We also visited the small church there.
Inside, paintings from a couple of hundred years ago glowed with colour.
The older, original monastery is in decay and people are not supposed to visit as it's falling down. We were in two minds whether we would have a look without going inside or not as it was another climb up the gorge wall to reach it. Just as we got near it I realised I'd left my sunglasses back at the new monastery so I slogged back up to it while John had a quick look at the old monastery. It was built entirely of rock and was almost disguised against the rock walls around it. Look closely!
The big drawcard here though is the Prodromos Monastery (also called St John the Baptist).
The main part of the monastery was the section on the left while the rickety rooms on the right seemed to be accommodation for the monks. This higgledy-piggledy collection of rooms seemed to cling to the cliff for dear life. Some had chimneys and the cliff was black in places from years of smoke.
There must be a bit of divine influence keeping the room on the right up there!
The hike was fantastic but it was pretty tough. I just wish it was 10 degrees cooler!
There must be a bit of divine influence keeping the room on the right up there!
Exterior balconies connected the rooms.
The hike was fantastic but it was pretty tough. I just wish it was 10 degrees cooler!
The next day's hike was much easier. I followed a shorter part of the Menalon trail that led up the Lousios River Gorge towards the Prodromos Monastery again, only this time I started from a different place. I found the old monastery fulling mill. It was really just a few remains of walls but I could kind of see where the washing mill would have been. It was very atmospheric.
There were a few interesting places near where I parked the car. This gorgeous old church was tiny on the outside. Considering the stone walls are always quite thick, it must have been miniscule inside! I couldn't get inside it to see sadly.
Nearby was Ancient Gortys. Built on the banks of the Lousios River somewhere between 1700 BC and 750 BC, this ancient temple was dedicated to Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine. It was a place of healing and spiritual upliftment and apparently people came from all over Greece to be healed. Today the ruins lie baking in the sun. Telltale sections of fine gravel showed that mosaics must lie underneath. I would love to have seen them!
I had parked the car beside a swimming spot in the river and we had arranged that John would meet me there. I got there first so I scrambled down to the swimming spot. I took my shoes off and got no further than getting my ankles wet. The water was so cold it hurt! Needless to say, we didn't swim.
John had had a beautiful ride and he took me back to show me some places he found. This beautiful old bridge had to be Ottoman surely.
We had lunch in another stunning mountain village. This one was called Karytaina. A castle perched romantically on top of the hill but it was under renovation and we couldn't visit, however, we found a real gem here. A taverna, with a lovely English-speaking waitress, had one table on a balcony with a stunning view. As we were the first there, we got the table. It was hot though - about 34 degrees.
We forgot to take a change of clothes so we ate in our cycling and hiking gear. Sitting in the heat in hiking boots wasn't great but it was worth it for the view!
This was my first walk where the landscape was dry and scrubby, like most other parts of Greece that we've visited. It wasn't a particularly attractive walk.
I walked to Dimitsana and the views were definitely spectacular then!
I explored the streets of Dimitsana. They were so pretty!
Tucked away in a side alley, I found this open door. The writing over the door said it was a taverna but all it had inside were two tables and six wine barrels painted red! It was lovely and cool as it was below ground level, but there was nobody around to explain anything more about it. So strange!
Back in Stemnitsa, we drove through our village quite a few times and I filmed parts of it once.
On our last morning we went for a short walk and ride before breakfast. I had a great walk even though I picked out three destinations around the town to go to and didn't make it to any of them! One track was too overgrown, I just kinda got my bearings wrong on the second one then didn't have enough time to see the third. What I did find however were some lovely tracks. I also found an old amphitheatre. It was made of concrete so it certainly wasn't ancient. I guessed it had been abandoned for 50 years or so but Nena told me later it wasn't built when she was young and she's about our age!
Looking in the direction of the stage from the seating. Imagine seeing a play in this setting!
I returned via a rough track which led over an old bridge that was so overgrown that it was hard to see it was a bridge. This soon led to the town and I wandered back through pretty, flower-decorated lanes.
We had a fantastic six days in Stemnitsa and the beautiful mountains and villages nearby. It was a really special place. I suspect we'll be back one day.
Cheers,
Heather and John
