Greece Trip Report, Day 5: Zagori Villages

Day 5, Nov 13, 2018, Tuesday:

We had breakfast at our hotel (included in the room rate)... pretty dismal but the girl's heart was in the  right place to compensate for lack of basic culinary skills!!

 We started off toward the west. Here's a map we picked up from our hotel. Has all places, bridges, churches marked, scenic roads in yellow and green, distances given etc. A few places we hit are circled in red

We had considered redoing our route the previous day and completing our misses but decided against it just to experience another facet... turned out a great call!

We drove through Ano (Upper) Pedino, Kato (Lower) Pedino... there was pretty bucolic scenery and farms with turkeys, sheep and the inevitable barking sheep dogs!

Then we drove on toward Aristi...scenery started becoming dramatic as the road started snaking its way up

We reached Aristi...

 Orchids...

Aristi square was a ghost town, we enjoyed the views and drove on toward Papigko

Voidomatis River:

We came by a gurgling river...Voidomatis River... amazingly beautiful with the cleanest water.

It has a constant temperature of about 8 C and small variations in water level all year round, as it originates from inside the mountain and not from melting ice, or rain.

Crystal waters and colors which change blue/green under the light of the sun ...a lovely place  

Kleidonia or Voidomatis stone bridge

Huge plane tree... all Zagori village squares have a plane tree!

 Got down at this church at Mikro Papigko and explored the lovely setting.

MIKRO PAPIGKO ,TAXIARXES CHURCH...

 We wanted to drive on to Konitsa... it would have been another long drive... though definitely as scenic as the one we had already taken!

 We reluctantly decided to turn back in home direction

Reached home base. Decided to see the local attraction...

Monastery of Aghia Paraskevi:

We were staying on the main road or on the outskirts… if one can call it that. Monodendri square and the village were reached by taking a fork.

 The cobblestone trail leading to the Monastery of Aghia Paraskevi (15th century) from Monodendri village has great views of Vikos gorge along the way.

 A small dog barked ferociously and did not let us in at first. We waited around, heard it barking at some others inside, then it was shushed . The monk had returned to his paintings. We tiptoed in and enjoyed the lovely monastery.

Then walked to the observation platform and admired the views of the gorge. 

Enjoyed more views of the gorge from the outside platform

Plane tree in Monodendri square... just so so

We then drove on in the direction of the villages we had skipped the previous day... Dilofo, Koukouli, Tsepolovo

Lovely plane tree in Dilofo...

Koukouli

The trail in front of us used to be  the main connecting trail between Kapesovo, Koukouli and Kipoi . This board gives the details of the hike... got it on our video 

Yet another plane tree square... Tsepelovo

We turned back after hitting Tsepelovo
We did not have time for Beloi point or the scala today... so they await our next visit!!

We returned to our home base and slept off  dreaming of the deep blue skies, unpolluted sweet air, stunning mountain scenery, snaky roads winding their way up and up and the absolute charm of Zagori region!

VIDEO LINK: 

Our video of Zagori day 2 is here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hVn9JVrZziTwB6Ms6

Our report continues here with our visit to Peloponnese:
https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2018/12/greece-trip-report-day-6-drive-to.html