Walking the Vikos Gorge, Epirus

On Saturday, October 1st, I walked the Vikos Gorge with friends from Sydney and Corfu. It's the third time I've done the walk from Monodendri to Vikos Village. It doesn't get any easier, in spite of the orange marks and improvements in some difficult places, but it's a truly inspiring experience.

No sign this time of old Aristakis, the Mt. Gamila goatherd. They used to call him the Lord of the Gorge,


"Alone with his goats
On vertical slopes".


Let's hope he didn't fall off the mountain at the sight of the diochnes (wild crocus flowers that signal the time for departure).

On the subject of  "diochnes" and being sent away, we were privileged to witness the "farewelling" of the bride-to-be from her Vikos family home soon after we had climbed up out of the gorge.

We found ourselves at the end of a three-day "glendi" or celebration. My Australian friends eagerly joined in the dancing while I collapsed with a cold beer. There had been a lot of rifle-shots echoing around the gorge on our way up, so it was good to discover that we were not being aimed at by hunters. The shooting was all part of the pre-nuptial celebrations.