The next morning we awoke at the ungodly hour of 5:15am so that we could make it to the bus station in time for a 6am bus out to Monodendri which is in the centre of Zagoria region. Arriving in Monodendri at 7am we quickly found a new hotel and walked out onto our balcony to enjoy the spectacular view. At that wonderful time in the morning the mist was just clearing from the surrounding hills and the view over the green hills of the Vikos-Aoos National Park was amazing. We then went down to enjoy some coffee in our hotel before wandering around the charming little town which was mostly composed of narrow cobblestone walkways zigzagging through the stone walls of the houses there. The town was just beautiful. In the town we found a good map of the area and returned to our hotel to get ready for a day of hiking and to plan our route.
Leaving our hotel we descended into the world's deepest gorge, as claimed by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1997. The Vikos Gorge is on average 1000 meters deep and runs for about 15 km from start to end. Monodendri lies near one end of it and so a popular hike is to walk the length of the gorge to Mikro Papingo, a town at the other end, but we were saving that for the next day. The first day when we finally got to the bottom of the gorge we decided to turn south towards the near end and the town of Kipi. En route we planned on passing some magnificent stone bridges along with admiring the gorge. After passing under the second of three that we hoped to pass by we came to a section of the gorge that was completely flooded with water. Seeing no route around the water we were forced to backtrack to a nearby road from where we decided to then follow the road up to the town of Koukouli where we hoped to find some lunch. After wandering around all 30 houses in the village and finding nothing open we stumbled into an old British lady who lived there and she quickly invited us over to her house for a drink and a tour around. Her house/small hotel was absolutely stunning and the stories that she and her husband had of living in the area were fascinating. After spending near an hour with them they phoned a friend to ensure that the gorge was hikable the following day for us, gave us directions on how to get back to Monodendri and a copy of their book containing the story of them moving there. We bade them thank you and quickly made our way back to Monodendri by crossing over the gorge and getting some great views of it. We arrived back at our hotel none too soon as a few minutes after arriving it started to rain so we spent the rest of the evening relaxing there and enjoying dinner just across the street.
The next morning we got up and after enjoying a leisurely breakfast we went back down to the gorge to hike the length of it. We started off walking along the dried river bed at the base which was fairly slow going and very soon we were forced onto the side to follow the trial due to a large waterfall. Hiking along the trail was much faster and before we knew it we were at the midway point and stopped to enjoy our packed lunch while sitting on a large boulder in the middle of the gorge. After lunch we continued on and quickly came to the end of the gorge so we were just left with the hour long climb out to the village of Mikro Papingo. About 15 minutes into the climb the heavens opened up and it started to just absolutely pour on us. After standing under the shelter of trees for a few minutes we decided it wasn't going to stop any time soon so we would just throw on our raincoats and make a run for it. The next hour or so was us slogging up a hill while a river run down the path and buckets of water continued to get dumped on us. By the time we reached Mikro Papiongo we were absolutely drenched so we found an open restaurant to try and warm up while we phoned and waited for our ride to come pick us up and take us back to Monodendri. The restaurant was really nice and the guy even felt sorry for us as he brought me a new t-shirt with his restaurant name on it when he saw me wringing mine out. A long taxi ride later we ended up back at our hotel in Monodendri where we enjoyed warm showers before heading to the restaurant downstairs for a fabulous dinner.
The following morning was our last day in the Zagoria region as we had to take the Wednesday afternoon bus out or else wait until Friday. So we spent the morning relaxing around the hotel and continuing to dry our clothes before having to pack them. After finally packing up we wandered around the beautiful town one more time and out to a church built on the wall of the gorge. After admiring the view from the church we found a passage that lead around the wall of the gorge on a narrow ledge to a small cave that seemed to be used for protection of the villagers during times of danger as the ledge had a gate on it to block anyone from passing. After exploring this area for a bit we returned to the hotel to wait for the bus back to Ioannina.
Back in Ioannina we got settled in our hotel again and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town before enjoying dinner and heading to bed. The next morning we awoke and made our way back to the bus station where we quickly boarded a bus heading to the Albanian boarder for our next adventure.
The Fethiye Cami (Victory Mosque) in the grounds of the castle in the old town of Ioannina.
Lianne stopping on the descent down to the gorge to admire the great view.
The second stone bridge that we passed underneath on our first day of hiking in the region.
Lianne standing in a very green forest on the side of the gorge which we walked through for a small part of the hike.
Lianne and I standing at the viewpoint of the church built on the side of the cliff face overlooking the gorge.
Lianne standing at the edge of the rock ledge that led away from the church to where the town citizens would hide during times of danger.
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