Trekking in Greece. Tim Salmon
found jobs. By the time peace came in the 1950s, village fields had reverted to nature and there was no other work. Many families never returned to their mountain homes.
Kernítsa convent (Peloponnese Way, Stage 5)
Flowers and wildlife
You see surprisingly little wildlife for such wild and remote terrain. The occasional fox or hare, perhaps a deer, an adder, salamander, or tortoise, the odd eagle or griffon vulture, and smaller species like chough, partridge, wheatear, accentor, perhaps a wallcreeper. If you are lucky you might see mountain goats or a wild boar in the north-west. Bear and wolf exist – both, reportedly, in increasing numbers – but you would be extremely lucky to meet either.
Flowers, on the other hand, abound. The best season for seeing them depends on altitude and latitude. In the first half of May in the Peloponnese and southern central Greece, for instance, you will find fritillaries, orchids, ophrys, violets, aubretia, iris, anemones and Daphne oloeides up to 1200m or so. As you approach the melting snow patches, around 1600–1800m, there are crocuses, squills, Corydalis solida, saxifrages and many others. Further south, spring comes earlier; further north, later. Tulips, gentians, narcissus, campanulas, geraniums, aquilegias, lilies – all sorts of glorious species are to be found, over 600 of them endemic.
Clockwise from left: Autumn crocus; Marsh orchid; Lilium albanicum, Astragalus angustifolium; Lilium heldreichii
Navigation and maps
The problem of finding reliable maps has been largely resolved by the appearance on the scene of Anávasi, specialist mapmakers and publishers. They are essentially a mother-and-daughter team, themselves experienced mountaineers. Their maps, varying in scale from 1:25,000 to 1:50,000 and 1:100,000, cover the majority of the most interesting walking areas of the country. No other maps are remotely as good. Penelope Matsoúka also produces beautiful books of aerial photographs which cover islands as well as mountain massifs and make a wonderful souvenir of Greece’s spectacular landscapes.
The maps are all GPS compatible. The digital versions in various formats can be downloaded from the Anávasi website (www.anavasi.gr). Until we are able to get the routes properly and consistently waymarked, they are an absolutely crucial tool. Where their traced paths and our routes coincide – which is not everywhere – and the path on the ground is not easy to follow, you can absolutely rely on them, which is why we strongly recommend using a GPS. If your GPS shows you have wandered off the route, you can trust it.
GPS set-up
Add the metric grid Greek Geodetic Reference System (GGRS87) to your GPS as follows:
User grid
Longitude of originE024°00.000
Latitude of originN00°00.000
Scale factor+0.9996000
False easting+500000
False northing0.0
User map datum
Dx–00201
Dy+00076
Dz+00246
In the UK, maps are available from Stanfords (www.stanfords.co.uk) and The Map Shop (www.themapshop.co.uk). In Athens, the Anávasi Bookshop is five minutes’ walk from the central Síntagma Square. For addresses and contact details, see Appendix D.
There is no uniform system of waymarking in Greece. You will find Bonne Maman jam-jar lids, fading red discs, splashes of parti-coloured paint, more sophisticated plastic squares and diamonds with variously coloured symbols, E4 and E6 signs left over from 40-year-old attempts to hook Greece into a trans-Europe network of paths, plus ribbons, streamers and paint spray added by us – and long stretches with no waymarks at all. It is all part of what the Greeks call ‘the Greek reality’.
A practical tip about path-finding
Right up until World War II in many parts of Greece and up to the 1970s in the furthest mountains, there were few roads. The paths were the roads. The traffic was four-legged and two-legged and had been for many centuries. As a consequence, the paths, even in rugged mountain terrain, were well worn into the ground, a bit like sunken cart tracks in England. The line of them, even when they have not been regularly used for a long time, is often still quite clear to a practised eye. They were made principally by the mules, who have a much better feel for a gradient than a human. They unerringly find the line of least resistance, winding up spurs and along contours, avoiding over-long or over-steep steps.
So, whenever a path is not clear and you find yourself striking straight uphill or straight downhill, pause and ask yourself: would a laden pack animal be doing this? And the answer is almost certainly: no. Goats go straight up and straight down, mules never, and their human drivers, never.
If you have been on a fairly clear path and suddenly it ceases to be clear, don’t panic. One of you should stay put and the other cast around systematically and patiently, thinking of those laden mules with a load of 100kg on their backs. Sections of path get destroyed by landslips; but entire paths seldom disappear completely. You will find the continuation.
Sleeping and eating
Country towns almost always have at least one reasonable hotel, and increasing numbers of mountain villages offer informal rooms or guesthouses – the latter at around €20–40 per room. On the Píndos Way there is no point really in trying to book ahead, except perhaps in towns like Ámfissa, Karpenísi and Métsovo. The villages you go through are not places that have outside visitors. But if you do find the inn full, someone will certainly find you an alternative place to sleep. Besides, you will have your tent or your bivvy bag: vital equipment on the Píndos Way.
The Peloponnese Way, however, is a different story. There, you will need to book ahead, if you plan to hike without camping gear, which should be possible as there is currently accommodation available at every stage. Remember that if calling a Greek number from outside Greece, you must prefix the number with the +30 international code for Greece.
Most villages do not have shops any more. What they do have is a coffee-shop-cum-general-store, the magazeé. This is the place to make for on arrival, for information about a place to sleep or eat or where to get supplies. They will always go out of their way to help. If there is a menu it will be basic – costing (with a beer) around €15–20.
Food for the road can be a problem. Special backpacking products do not exist. In general you have to make do with local fare: bread, cheese and olives, supplemented by endless tins of sardines or spam, which is all that is available in remote places.
Local produce for sale in Vitína (Peloponnese Way, Stages 5–6)
The rule has to be: whenever you hit a place with a restaurant and shops, have a blow out and stock up. Avoid things that leak and squash in rucksacks or are dry and salty – they are horrible when you are hot and thirsty. Be careful with cheeses, especially the ubiquitous feta. The dry variety is often salty, and the more edible wet one leaks. Better to go for the hard Gruyère type of cheese – graviéra or kefalotíri – if you can get it. Taste cheeses before committing yourself. Whole salamis are good, and although they sweat they keep. Halva (khalvá) is a good sugary energy-giver. Nuts, sultanas and dried fruit are readily available in the towns. Muesli is light, unmessy and quite palatable when mixed only with spring water, but unobtainable outside Athens supermarkets. Greeks eat no breakfast, so you need to bring something with you if you do not like the idea of cheese and olives first thing.
The refuge huts are really of little use to the visitor. With the