Category Archives: Metsovo to Mesochora

Somehow, our relaxed summer on the beach triggered health problems we’d never encountered while hiking. Alan’s knees swelled up, and were so painful he could hardly walk.  I went with him to see a specialist, who took an X-ray and … Continue reading →

We laid out our sleeping bags in the porch of the Monastery of the Lifegiving Spring (Zoodochos Pigi). It had started to rain as we left Metsovo that afternoon, so we were glad to sleep under shelter, and where the … Continue reading →

“You shouldn’t walk through this area,” warned Sotiris, a genial Vlach shepherd with a comfortable paunch, as he passed us in his pick-up. “The dogs are very fierce, and the shepherds further on are Romanians, who don’t control them properly. … Continue reading →

  Kalarites was one of the prettiest, most unspoilt villages we stayed in. The road only reached it twenty years ago, and we could still see the old mule track snaking up from the valley below. But even better, the … Continue reading →

“Push through the tunnel of bushes on all fours….” ran the description in the Mountains of Greece guide. We were a little nervous about the path to Matsouki, and nobody in Kalarites seemed to have been that way for a … Continue reading →

One thing I love about walking in the mountains is the ever-changing scenery from the wild open peaks to the wooded valleys and clear streams below. It was a tough day’s walk to Gardiki, climbing up over the pass at … Continue reading →

The cafe owner at Gardiki had promised he would be open for a breakfast coffee in the morning. So we sat at the table in the square sorting out our stuff, and waited. And waited. We wanted to stock up … Continue reading →

Ahead of us loomed the Mesochora dam: the mountain slopes were scarred with roads and tunnels. It’s a breathtakingly ambitious project, funded by the EU, to provide hydro-electricity as well as irrigation to the plains of Thessaly. Yet there had … Continue reading →