A road walk over low hills to start the day, then a climb into the mountains.
E4-peloponnes.info suggests taking a taxi out of Tripoli to Psili Vrisi to avoid some road walking, but having walked the E4 from its beginning in Spain without recourse to a taxi, bus or train, I was not going to start now. So I walked out of town on a moderately busy road past industrial units, occasional houses and patches of cultivated and uncultivated land. Soon there were no longer any industrial units and as I looked at the gently undulating land I was surprised it was not more intensively farmed.
On the outskirts of the village of Stadio, I happened on an archaeological site; a section of mediaeval wall, some masonry from an agora of classical age, some Byzantine remains, not that much but set in parkland, with avenues of horse chestnut. There was even a cafe, where I was the sole customer.
After Stadio, walking conditions improved, small roads with little traffic and farm tracks. If I were taking a taxi from Tripoli, I would get out at Stadio. After passing a few small vineyards in the generally neglected landscape I reached Psili Vrisi, or what little there was of it, a few houses and a war memorial.
A track took me to a small cemetery and then the E4 follows a stream bed. I followed it a little way, stumbling over the round stones, small outcrops and through the water, but I perceived a high risk of getting water in my boots. Since it takes days for my boots to dry I diverted onto the nearby road. The road crossed the stream a little higher up. As the amount of water was much reduced I again attempted the route up the stream. I admit that stream beds are not my favourite type of path, the boulders are awkward to walk on and often loose, wet and slippery, the views are not so great either, with trees and steep banks hidding the nearby landscape. Nevertheless I persisted. At some point I missed a turn and as I was close to a road when I realised, I decided to follow the stream bed up to it. Not as easy as I imagined, I scrambled over large, white quartzite boulders and under fallen trees before finally reaching the easy walking of the road.
Once on the winding road, it was uphill to Ano Doliana. An attractive village on the side of a mountain, the E4's route up it was on a small road paved with white quartzite. Signs indicated locations of actions from a battle that once took place here. One of the tavernas was open (I think Hotel Erasmion) and I was served a late lunch of horti (spring greens), beefburgers (home made with herbs) and fries, crowned with a big slice of excellent orange cake for desert. So it was with a heavy tummy that I climbed out of Ano Doliana.
The climb up various paths (some overgrown) and tracks was rewarded by looking back towards Ano Doliana as it became progressively smaller, with Tripoli in the hazy distance in front of the Menalon mountains. I felt I was now achieving something rather than messing about in a stream.
The following tracks went up and down through the landscape, past orchards of chestnut trees, judging by the husks on the ground. It looked like they were bringing some of the upland areas into cultivation with large areas of newly ploughed land.
The accommodation at Agios Petros was too expensive for a lone walker so I am camping above the town on a wooded slope. There are terraces formed into the hillside so I assume it was farmed long ago, for now they made a flat area on which to pitch my tent. Midges are the only problem, I am hiding in my tent to avoid them.
32 kilometres walked today, excluding diversions to archeological sites, and 950 metres climbed.
E4-peloponnes.info suggests taking a taxi out of Tripoli to Psili Vrisi to avoid some road walking, but having walked the E4 from its beginning in Spain without recourse to a taxi, bus or train, I was not going to start now. So I walked out of town on a moderately busy road past industrial units, occasional houses and patches of cultivated and uncultivated land. Soon there were no longer any industrial units and as I looked at the gently undulating land I was surprised it was not more intensively farmed.
On the outskirts of the village of Stadio, I happened on an archaeological site; a section of mediaeval wall, some masonry from an agora of classical age, some Byzantine remains, not that much but set in parkland, with avenues of horse chestnut. There was even a cafe, where I was the sole customer.
After Stadio, walking conditions improved, small roads with little traffic and farm tracks. If I were taking a taxi from Tripoli, I would get out at Stadio. After passing a few small vineyards in the generally neglected landscape I reached Psili Vrisi, or what little there was of it, a few houses and a war memorial.
A track took me to a small cemetery and then the E4 follows a stream bed. I followed it a little way, stumbling over the round stones, small outcrops and through the water, but I perceived a high risk of getting water in my boots. Since it takes days for my boots to dry I diverted onto the nearby road. The road crossed the stream a little higher up. As the amount of water was much reduced I again attempted the route up the stream. I admit that stream beds are not my favourite type of path, the boulders are awkward to walk on and often loose, wet and slippery, the views are not so great either, with trees and steep banks hidding the nearby landscape. Nevertheless I persisted. At some point I missed a turn and as I was close to a road when I realised, I decided to follow the stream bed up to it. Not as easy as I imagined, I scrambled over large, white quartzite boulders and under fallen trees before finally reaching the easy walking of the road.
Once on the winding road, it was uphill to Ano Doliana. An attractive village on the side of a mountain, the E4's route up it was on a small road paved with white quartzite. Signs indicated locations of actions from a battle that once took place here. One of the tavernas was open (I think Hotel Erasmion) and I was served a late lunch of horti (spring greens), beefburgers (home made with herbs) and fries, crowned with a big slice of excellent orange cake for desert. So it was with a heavy tummy that I climbed out of Ano Doliana.
The climb up various paths (some overgrown) and tracks was rewarded by looking back towards Ano Doliana as it became progressively smaller, with Tripoli in the hazy distance in front of the Menalon mountains. I felt I was now achieving something rather than messing about in a stream.
The following tracks went up and down through the landscape, past orchards of chestnut trees, judging by the husks on the ground. It looked like they were bringing some of the upland areas into cultivation with large areas of newly ploughed land.
The accommodation at Agios Petros was too expensive for a lone walker so I am camping above the town on a wooded slope. There are terraces formed into the hillside so I assume it was farmed long ago, for now they made a flat area on which to pitch my tent. Midges are the only problem, I am hiding in my tent to avoid them.
32 kilometres walked today, excluding diversions to archeological sites, and 950 metres climbed.
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| Acheological site |
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| Ano Doliana |
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