A restorative walking holiday in Greece, immersed in the beauty of its mountainous landscape
A sheepdog with a face much like a battered teddy bear turns to look at me as I sip an early morning cup of tea in my mountain-top guest house. His eyes are pale yellow and, just as he thinks I might be a soft touch, the shepherd calls him and he reluctantly lopes off down the narrow street.
I am in the charming village of Kapesovo in northern Greece’s Zagori region, around a day’s walk from the Albanian border, about to embark on a five-day hike. Taking in the Vikos Gorge – the deepest in Europe – the route passes through stone villages and meadows with hundreds of species of wildflowers in yellow, mauve and pink.
Zagori means ‘the place behind the mountains’ and it feels hidden – almost secret – and distinct from the rest of Greece. Kapesovo is one of 46 stone villages of the Zagori region, made rich in its heyday 200 years ago from trade with the Ottoman Empire. But as commerce declined, so did the population and, by the 1960s, most of the mountain-top villages were abandoned.
In the last 20 years, families have returned to reclaim these homes, restoring a pride in their culture and renewing a deep and abiding connection to the natural world. My first two nights are spent at the Thoukididis guest house, a traditional fortified merchant’s home dating back to 1875. More Balkan than Greek, it has hand-painted wooden panelling depicting fruit, flowers and trailing vines, and frescoes on the plaster walls. When I walk into the cool of the dining room, our host Joanna and her mother are just back from foraging for mushrooms and fragrant wild herbs. The smell is earthy and deeply comforting.
The thickly wooded mountains appear impenetrable, but a network of kalderimi – cobbled paths wide enough to let two fully laden pack horses pass each other – weave this region together. From Kapesovo, my route goes seemingly straight up a vertical rock face known as the Vradheto Steps. I marvel at the engineering skill of the Greek workers who built the kalderimi and the gravity-defying arched bridges that are so typical of Zagori.
The area is rich in wildflowers, many of them rare, and, in late spring, meadows are full of narcissi, poppies, pinks and orchids. But after the hot summers, when the autumn rains arrive, the mountains bloom again. The slopes are blazing with daffodil-like Sternbergia lutea, known locally as the ‘send-away’ flower, as it opens its petals at a time of year when traditionally Zagori men had to leave to find work after helping with the family harvest.
There are said to be more than 600 species of aromatic plants here, such as wild oregano, sage, mint and balsam, along with botanicals like the health-giving shepherd’s mountain tea (Sideritis raeseri); locals regard the plants as both a food source and a medicine chest. The area provides rich forage for bees and, in woodland clearings, hundreds of brightly coloured beehives thrum with life. In the village of Papingo, I am treated to a tasting at a bee boutique called Papigiotiko, where honey from different flower nectars is as subtle and complex as any wine tasting.
My hike circles around and then through the massive Vikos Gorge, which plunges over 1,000 metres. During the winter months, it is impassable on foot, as the Voïdomátis river, which emerges here from even deeper underground, thunders through, shifting boulders the size of houses as if they were marbles. I am fully limbered up by the time I encounter the Vikos Gorge on day three, but confess to feeling a little trepidation. There is no going back, so when I set out I am committed for the next seven hours.
As a child, I was obsessed with Greek myths and memories resurfaced of the Underworld and the fear, exhilaration, wonder and beauty that I might encounter there. When I descend, the air cools and the acoustics amplify every tiny sound. The steep path clings to the rock face but is never exposed and, in my excitement to reach the bottom, I have to remind myself to look up at the ribbon of dazzling blue sky, where a pair of golden eagles hang hundreds of metres above me. It is something of a jolt to be reminded that I am still in 21st-century Europe.
Zagori is an old Europe that the late travel writer and Grecophile Patrick Leigh Fermor would have recognised, where semi-nomadic shepherds sip raki under shady village plane tree for hours and bears haunt the woods. On my last night, when I am elevated some 2,000 metres at the Astraka refuge by the Dragon Lake – a popular spot for overnight hikers – thunder rolls around the mountains for hours. Sheepdogs fire off volleys of throaty barking in response and, as I lie in the dark, I hear the distinct and unearthly howls of wolves joining the echoing midnight chorus
Caroline Beck hiked the Vikos Gorge with On Foot Holidays (01722 322652; onfootholidays.co.uk), a small company that specialises in self-guided walking trips in Europe and the UK. It provides an app with GPS tracks and directions, and travel information. A six-night trip costs from £890, B&B, excluding flights, but including a transfer to the starting point, luggage transfers between villages, picnic lunches and some evening meals. Caroline stayed at various guest houses, including Thoukididis, Kapesovo and Saxonis Houses, Papingo. The best months to walk the trails are May, September and October, as July and August can be very hot.
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Marco Argüello1/5A typical local dish of beans with wild mountain greens.
- Marco Argüello2/5
Elli Papageorgiou, the founder of Sterna trade store and sweet shop in Papingo.
Marco Argüello3/5Guests at Thoukididis guest house can enjoy wholesome, seasonal Greek meals in the dining room, such as pumpkin soup served with smoked Metsovone cheese.
- Marco Argüello4/5
Marco Argüello5/5The clear blue-green waters of Voïdomátis river flowing through the Vikos-Aoös National Park.
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