Trekking in Greece. Tim Salmon
E4 trail here. Turn L up a jeep track (230°) to a telephone pole on the skyline, next to the chapel of Áyios Nikólaos (5hr 35min).
Turn R along the road and after 50 metres fork L (E4 signpost) down a steep and stony dirt road. After 7min, ignore a R turn. The road (now concrete) enters the village of Áno Lousí. Turn R, passing the village church, spring and plane trees. Shortly before the road bears R, turn L down a steep concrete lane signposted ‘ΟΔΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΑ ΠΑΥΛΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ’ (ODOS KOSMA PAYLOPOYLOY) to reach Hotel O Spérhos (6hr).
STAGE 3
Áno Lousí (1050m) to Tourládha (750m) via Planitéro (590m)
| Start point | Áno Lousí |
| Distance | 17km (+ 1km for Cave of the Lakes detour) |
| Difficulty | 2 |
| Walking time | 6hr (+ 1hr–1hr 30min for Cave of the Lakes guided tour) |
| Height gain | 450m |
| Height loss | 750m |
| Waymarks | E4 (yellow + black) all the way |
This is another longish day but, apart from a short steep climb in the afternoon, it is largely downhill. You’re following the E4 trail, but out of step with its daily stages. Long views stretch over fertile valleys and half-forgotten villages to serrated skylines. The terrain is a mix of meadows (flower-speckled in spring, dry thereafter) and Greek maquis (prickly kermes oak), stony underfoot, with little forest. This is the classic pastoral landscape of ancient Arcadia (although it now belongs to the administrative region of Achaia), and you may well meet shepherds tending their flocks. It is best to set off early, to allow time for the Cave of the Lakes detour (an additional 1hr–1hr 30min). In the afternoon, you pass the pretty village of Planitéro and the plane-shaded springs of the Aroánios river (possibility of rooms c/o Panayiótis ‘Belénis’ Melitsópoulos, tel 26920-31831, mob 697-2058496, mob 697-6699898).
The only reliable accommodation is in Káto Klitoría (also called Mazéïka), a friendly little market town 5km off the walking route, with an excellent hotel (Mont Helmos, tel 26920-31221, http://monthelmos.gr), several tavernas and an English-speaking taxi driver (Andréas Kazánis, mob 697-3819130) who can collect you from Tourládha (or elsewhere) and bring you back the following day to resume the route; book him a day ahead and take a mobile phone in case timings change.
Opposite Hotel O Spérhos, take the rightmost of the three tracks, passing L of some stone chalet-maisonettes and bearing R uphill. At the cemetery and cypress trees, continue straight (E4). At the church, continue straight/R (‘Planitéro 3h30’) down the concrete track into Káto Lousí (15min). At the square with springs and plane trees (part-time café on L), turn sharp L along a concrete lane, which curves R and climbs into the S part of the village. Leave the village by a chapel and big bushy oak tree, descending a gravelly jeep track in the direction of the half-fir-clad summits of Profítis Ilías (1489m).
About 150 metres before rejoining the asphalt road (35min), bear L onto a small goat trail (E4 sign). Keeping your eyes peeled for E4 plaques and plastic ribbons on trees, proceed SE across flat stony meadows, maintaining height and staying parallel to the road. Convolvulus, vetch and butterflies brighten your way in spring. After 5min, bear a few degrees L (up) across a very rocky stretch, then a few degrees R again to hit a gravel track by an E4 signpost. Cross straight over, passing a yellow-and-black (YB) waymark on a low rock. The path squeezes between kermes oak trees.
At 1hr 5min, ignore the more trodden path bearing L up towards the peaks of Khelmós, and continue SSE across trailless ground to crest a slight rise. At an E4 post, turn R down a stony jeep track. Near a tiny corrugated iron hut (1hr 15min), turn L along a clearer jeep track. Where it starts to rise, bear L (E4 plaque) on a path to cut a corner. Cross another jeep track (1hr 25min); a deep gully opens up on your R. Where the track swings L, turn R (not signed) down a stony track, with views ahead over the gravelly Langádha riverbed. The track lurches L, then R down stony ground, past a house (dogs), to join a dirt road at a stone shrine (1hr 40min).
Descending into the Langádha valley
Detour to the Cave of the Lakes
The Cave of the Lakes lies 15min to your R – a worthwhile detour, although you’ll need 1hr–1hr 30min in total (not included in timings below). To reach it, follow the dirt road R for 400 metres to a fork, then make your way R across the streambed and up to the road.
You get a 30min guided tour through a sequence of well-lit passages and subterranean lakes, festooned with stalactites. Take a jumper and some cash. It’s open daily from 9am–4.30pm (5.30pm at weekends). Return the same way.
From the stone shrine, head straight down the slope (E), past a walled spring, to cross the wide gravelly riverbed (1hr 50min). Continue SE along a path (E4 sign), traversing up the L bank to reach a meadow. The path levels and broadens into a jeep track. Pass a weak spring L (2hr 5min). The chapel of Ayía Varvára is visible on a wooded spur ahead. You reach this after 20min and join a larger dirt track.
Continue straight/R and after 50 metres fork L up a smaller track (E4 post), and keep L again. After 12min, ignore a track L and continue (SE). Some 8min later (2hr 50min), at a R bend where the ground falls away steeply in front of you, the E4 trail strikes L (YB waymark on rock) down a very stony hillside, to join a concrete track just above a walled spring (3hr). You can also reach this point by staying on the track and then forking sharp L down a smaller track. Ahead, the village of Planitéro nestles spectacularly against a backdrop of darkly forested mountains (Dourdouvána).
Follow the concrete track into Planitéro, ignoring an asphalt road R, to reach a wide square with the health centre L, spring, kids’ slide and a second asphalt road forking R. From here, the E4 takes you L up through the highest part of the village; but it is quicker to turn R down the (second) asphalt road and, at the junction by a forest of plane trees, L to the restaurants and trout farms of the Aroánios springs (3hr 30min).
From here, there is apparently a gentle cycle route (podhilatódhromos) along the banks of the Aroánios river to Klitoría, about 7km away.
However, our preferred route (and the E4 trail) climbs steeply to the hamlet of Árbounas before traversing, with lovely views south-west, to the village of Áyios Nikólaos and then Tourládha, from where you can cab, hitch or walk the 5km into Klitoría.
Planitéro village
From the Aroánios springs, start by locating an arched bridge just before the restaurant Sólas (Rigoyiánnis). Cross this and bear L past some shelters (market stalls), heading 100° through plane forest. E4 markers are sparse. Bear R up a dirt track until, 5min above the chapel of Áyios Konstantínos, at a yellow-on-white waymark painted on the rock, you scramble up the bank R to find a tiny path threading through kermes woods. After 6min (3hr 45min), cross straight over the track (YB waymark on rock). The path, now clearer, climbs at 100° and after 10min eases off. You pass beneath a makeshift sheepfold, bear R up to a jeep track and steeply up this to the asphalt Árbounas road (4hr 10min).
Cross over (ascend the steep bank from the R) and make for the cypress tree below the L cluster of houses. Just below the cypress, bear R towards a big building with a painted cross (Áyios Athanásios church; 4hr 20min). To the R of this, climb up the steep concrete track to the top of Árbounas village and keep R to reach a breeze-block chapel (4hr 30min) next to an abandoned playground. To the north-east and east, the rocky