“Paths of the gods”

We start the tour in Igo­u­men­tisa, the port in north-wes­tern Greece, which is easiest to reach by ferry from Italy (Ancona, Bari or Venice). There, the guide will be wai­ting for you in the large par­king lot of the port to take you to the nearby Dre­pa­nos Camp for the night (it is recom­men­ded to take one of the fer­ries that arrive in Igo­u­me­nitsa in the late after­noon, but you can arrive ear­lier if you want to enjoy the hot sum­mer day by the sea). From there, our jour­ney takes us first to the enchan­ting area of Zagori and then con­ti­nues along a win­ding clock­wise route that first heads north to the bor­der with Alba­nia and nor­t­hern Mace­do­nia before embar­king on the long jour­ney south towards the sou­thern coast of main­land Greece. We will also visit the Mete­ora rocks, where the most famous Greek monas­te­ries are loca­ted. These monas­te­ries are a true won­der of the world, built on the rocks. Our route con­ti­nues south across the Kozia­kas Moun­ta­ins, over rocky moun­tain pas­ses known only to a few. The tour con­ti­nues through num­e­rous 2000+ m high moun­tain ran­ges of sou­thern Pin­dos, such as Tym­fris­tos and Oti Natio­nal Park, before rea­ching the beau­tiful Mount Giona, whose 2,509 m high peak is the hig­hest moun­tain in sou­thern Greece. During the 10 days we will also see the strikin­gly beau­tiful Lake Mour­nou, as well as pass through num­e­rous pic­tures­que vil­la­ges with the typi­cal Greek stone hou­ses. Lush pas­tu­res where thou­sands of goats, sheep and cows graze will give way to maje­s­tic pine forests, only to take our breath away in front of the rocky for­ma­ti­ons of the mighty peaks. We end the tour in Del­phi, the seat of the anci­ent Greek ora­cle, on a pla­teau over­loo­king Coryn­thos Bay. Greek moun­tain roads are among the best pre­ser­ved moun­tain roads in the Bal­kans, which means that for most of the tour we will be riding on very good roads that do not pre­sent any tech­ni­cal chal­lenges. Howe­ver, from time to time we will tra­vel some nar­row, steep trails over open grass­lands or rocky pas­ses that require sui­ta­ble low gear off-road vehic­les to safely nego­tiate the obs­ta­cles. Most of the tour will be a very rela­xed ride, making it one of the most tech­ni­cally easy of our Bal­kan tours (but still one of the most sceni­cally stun­ning). A winch and snor­kel are not requi­red for this tour. Most nights during the tour we will sleep at beau­tiful nature camp­si­tes in the wil­der­ness, often near rivers, streams or lakes, but we will also check into offi­cial camps in some loca­ti­ons where they are available and close to our itin­erary. Our average arri­val time at the camp­ground will be bet­ween 5:00 and 6:00 pm (sum­mer days in the south are long, but we still want to give par­ti­ci­pants some time to get ever­y­thing ready for an enjoya­ble evening), and the mor­ning depar­ture time will be around 9:00 am. Alt­hough these are wild and remote areas, the dan­ger from wild­life is only theo­re­ti­cal, so you can relax while cam­ping and do not need addi­tio­nal pro­tec­tion. Howe­ver, don’t unde­re­sti­mate the high moun­ta­ins when it comes to tem­pe­ra­tures — it can still be quite chilly at night, even drop­ping below 10 degrees in some places (our average alti­tude when cam­ping is bet­ween 1400 and 1800 meters). To make cam­ping more con­ve­ni­ent, you should have fol­ding tables and chairs, as well as food coo­king equip­ment, por­ta­ble ref­ri­ge­ra­tor (12V), etc. We will stop every 2–4 days of the tour to stock up on food and fuel (when­ever our route pas­ses a town). Usually the par­ti­ci­pants prepare their own food during the cam­ping. We look for­ward to a breath­ta­kin­gly beau­tiful tour with fan­ta­stic natu­ral high­lights with you!

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