Papigo (Zagori Villages)

May 30, 2018

Today we leave Ioannina for a three day side trip to the Zagorichoria (Zagori Villages), in a remote mountainous area near the Albanian border famous for its well preserved traditional villages and pristine, dramatic environment. Today’s destination is Papigo, one of the highest situated and most visited villages.

But first breakfast, at our hotel. Which was disconcerting at first, as we received a prisoner’s meal:bread, water, coffee. Then, a few minutes later, with OJ. Then small cheese pies. Then a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then hard boiled eggs. Then cookies. Then yogurt and honey. Quite substantial, once it all arrived.

As we waited for and ate breakfast we visited with our neighbors - especially two couples from Melbourne, who lead a stressful life: half of the year they live in Australia, and the other half on small Paxi Island, south of Corfu.

When we checked out, our host asked questions about our tour and plans for the day. He was shocked to hear that we were biking to Papigo, with luggage. He said other bikers make this ride, but invariably send their luggage uphill with a taxi or support vehicle.

On the way out of town, we stopped at the bike store to get a new water bottle (to replace one left at a hotel) and a new pump (to replace one that is failing. Also, Rachael asked if they had whistles to deter dogs, because someone last night spooked her with tales of dog attacks. They didn’t, and didn’t seem overly concerned by dogs; but they advised looking large and menacing if a bad animal approaches. I practiced rais8ng my arms and growling, and Rachael resolved to stick closer to me.

Has anyone seen this symptom? My camera is having storage failures like this periodically. Many of today’s shots were like this. I’ll buy a new camera when we return home, but I wonder if there’s anything to be done in the meantime. (An update: as an experiment, we reformatted the SD card, and the camera works normally again.)

Fethiye Mosque and the fortress, from the waterfront. There were several other nice photos from here, all of which were spoiled by the camera malfunction. I’ll try again when we return in a few days.

After seven busy, somewhat stressful miles on the highway, we took the turnoff to Kato Lapsista and enjoyed seven flat, absolutely quiet miles. Then, back up to the highway and a short climb to Kalpaki, where we were all stopped for lunch. Afterwards I went back to pump the tires and found our new pump missing. This explained the strange noise I heard biking out of Ioannina - apparently our new pump fell off the bike and was lost without ever being used.

I’m not sure what has happened here, but it looks like the wheat crop has been blown down by one of the recent thunderstorms.

A beautiful plant, that grows in sprays up to six feet high.

Near Neochori, in a beautiful and very quiet spot save for the chorus of birds and frogs from the creek (see the audio/video clip below from this spot).

A wonderful stretch of road - empty, totally flat for about 7 miles. It ended with a steep climb back up to the highway.

A few miles after Kalpaki we left the main highway, turned off to the road for Aristi, and left all the traffic behind. The rest of the ride to Papigo was very quiet, and very contoured. We immediately started climbing, gaining a thousand feet over the next five miles. At Aristi we stopped for a beverage break and to take a nice set of truly great photos - but you can’t see them because the camera ate them all.

This immense vertical wall forms the eastern side of Vikos Gorge - the deepest Gorge in the world, based on width/depth ratio. We’ll be seeing a lot of it in the next two days.

I’m pretty sure this is the this Voidomatis River running through this valley, which extends northwest to the Albanian border. If I’m right, the river originates in Vikos Gorge. I’m pretty sure the mountains on the horizon are at the border of or in Albania.

Climbing toward Aristi, and the east wall of Vikos Gorge. I have some nice slivers of photos from Aristi, where we stopped for lunch, but they were all spoiled by camera failure. We’ll pass through it again tomorrow and get a do over.

From Aristi we drop 500’ to the beautiful pristine Voidomatis River, and then head steeply up again, up the knife edge of a ridge through a series of sharp switchbacks. As we climb, we get increasingly anxious about the skies - there are flashes of lightning and deep rumbling from time to time, and we’re afraid of getting drenched before we arrive. I’d say that we were racing the weather, but after all of the day’s climbing we’re moving much to slowly to call it a race. On the way up I take my chances by stopping for a few photos. Rachael is anxious about both dogs and weather, but I assure her she can go on alone because we haven’t seen a loose dog in two hours. She continues on alone, and sure enough, a dog is around the next corner waiting for her.Fortunately we’re in luck: we stay dry, and the dog barks but does not bite.