A lengthy trek uphill then a pleasant walk through beech woods high in the mountains.
As I was splitting an expected 44 kilometres to the village of Nimfeo between two days I felt no urgency in starting this morning, so after breakfast I went shopping for food as I will be wild camping tonight. There were lots of different bakeries and pastry type shops in Florina to tempt me so after picking up a sensible tin of tuna and some biscuits, plus apples from by the market, I loaded up with rolls and pastries, finishing off with a cup of coffee and yoghurt topped with fresh fruit at one the many coffee shops. Consequently it was 10:30 am before I started the climb out of town.
First I climbed up through trees following a route also taken by bloggers of a similar age to me (greekhiking.com). At the spring of St John they encountered caterpillars dropping from the trees, whereas I found flies and decaying picnic tables. The path up was mainly on dirt tracks but the E4 followed some footpaths to shortcut the more leisurely bends in the road, steep paths but nice among the trees.
Two isolated churches added interest to the climb. The first, dedicated to St George was open so I peeped inside at the frescos covering the walls. Although dilapidated it still had an air of serenity. Higher up the Church of the Virgin Mary (the "Panagia"), looked in better condition but was locked. So I sat on one of the benches outside and munched away on some of my bakery goods. Fortunately I topped up with water at the church's tap as I did not see any other water sources today.
After the Panagia it was more upward trekking. I stuck to my GPS track and ignored some signs with yellow circles at one point. At the top was a grassy area where the E4 and E6 paths split. The E6 continues west while the E4 eventually turns south east on a dog leg that will take me to Mount Olympus in a week's time. There were occasional E4 and E6 signs on the way up but nothing at this important junction.
The remaining hours of walking took me through beech woods broadly along a ridge but passing by individual peaks on one side or the other and so avoiding too many ups and downs. In meadows and at gaps in the trees you could see for many tens of kilometres across the plain to where I started my walk yesterday and to near and distant mountains. Inadvertently I surprised two large, dirty white sheepdogs, fortunately they let me pass on the other side of the track with a few gruff barks for form's sake. It looked as if their ears had been trimmed, presumably so a wolf or some other dog could not grab them. Then I found the cows I assume the dogs were meant to be protecting, spread out across the woods. Woodland would seem poor grazing for cows but the reddish brown beasts seemed fat, healthy and happy.
As it approached 5:00 pm and as I had covered 23.6 kilometres, about half way to Nimfeo (as well as a 1200 metres total ascent), I decided to pitch my tent among some trees in the shadow of a large aerial. A golf ball, radar dome overlooked me from a nearby summit. Filling up on a large slice of some flaky pastry concoction filled with white cheese, an apple, biscuits and dried apricots, I was ready for bed. By 9:00 pm I was asleep.
A gpx file of my route, with no gaps unlike others on the web, can be found on wikiloc.com, or you can see it on your smartphone using ViewRanger, shortcode johnpon0037.
As I was splitting an expected 44 kilometres to the village of Nimfeo between two days I felt no urgency in starting this morning, so after breakfast I went shopping for food as I will be wild camping tonight. There were lots of different bakeries and pastry type shops in Florina to tempt me so after picking up a sensible tin of tuna and some biscuits, plus apples from by the market, I loaded up with rolls and pastries, finishing off with a cup of coffee and yoghurt topped with fresh fruit at one the many coffee shops. Consequently it was 10:30 am before I started the climb out of town.
First I climbed up through trees following a route also taken by bloggers of a similar age to me (greekhiking.com). At the spring of St John they encountered caterpillars dropping from the trees, whereas I found flies and decaying picnic tables. The path up was mainly on dirt tracks but the E4 followed some footpaths to shortcut the more leisurely bends in the road, steep paths but nice among the trees.
Two isolated churches added interest to the climb. The first, dedicated to St George was open so I peeped inside at the frescos covering the walls. Although dilapidated it still had an air of serenity. Higher up the Church of the Virgin Mary (the "Panagia"), looked in better condition but was locked. So I sat on one of the benches outside and munched away on some of my bakery goods. Fortunately I topped up with water at the church's tap as I did not see any other water sources today.
After the Panagia it was more upward trekking. I stuck to my GPS track and ignored some signs with yellow circles at one point. At the top was a grassy area where the E4 and E6 paths split. The E6 continues west while the E4 eventually turns south east on a dog leg that will take me to Mount Olympus in a week's time. There were occasional E4 and E6 signs on the way up but nothing at this important junction.
The remaining hours of walking took me through beech woods broadly along a ridge but passing by individual peaks on one side or the other and so avoiding too many ups and downs. In meadows and at gaps in the trees you could see for many tens of kilometres across the plain to where I started my walk yesterday and to near and distant mountains. Inadvertently I surprised two large, dirty white sheepdogs, fortunately they let me pass on the other side of the track with a few gruff barks for form's sake. It looked as if their ears had been trimmed, presumably so a wolf or some other dog could not grab them. Then I found the cows I assume the dogs were meant to be protecting, spread out across the woods. Woodland would seem poor grazing for cows but the reddish brown beasts seemed fat, healthy and happy.
As it approached 5:00 pm and as I had covered 23.6 kilometres, about half way to Nimfeo (as well as a 1200 metres total ascent), I decided to pitch my tent among some trees in the shadow of a large aerial. A golf ball, radar dome overlooked me from a nearby summit. Filling up on a large slice of some flaky pastry concoction filled with white cheese, an apple, biscuits and dried apricots, I was ready for bed. By 9:00 pm I was asleep.
A gpx file of my route, with no gaps unlike others on the web, can be found on wikiloc.com, or you can see it on your smartphone using ViewRanger, shortcode johnpon0037.
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| Walking through beech woods |
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| Distant views |
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