How to use this guide

All the walks in this guide can all be done from the house. They range from gentle strolls taking under half an hour to challenging full day hikes.

The guide is in 2 parts: The Photographic Guide and the Walk Plans. Use the photographic guide to decide which walk you fancy doing. Then take the numbered walk plan from the plastic folders in the blue binder. Each plan is a stand alone, so there is no need to carry the full guide around with you. We have given the GPS reference of key locations/difficult spots. The walk times were measured using GPS, in ideal weather. Please note these give the total walking time and do NOT include having a breather, photo stops, swimming or lunch. In other words, this is the minimum time it could be done in by someone who's reasonably fit and is not interested in admiring the view. When we mapped the routes, we spent almost as much time standing still making notes as we did actually moving. You may spend a long time taking photos, looking at flowers and talking to donkeys, so leave yourselves plenty of time. In some cases, longer hikes can be shortened by driving to a different start point. In this case, we have supplied a different walk plan. The full walk is Walk (a) the shortened versions. Walk (b) (c) or (d).

Grading

We have given each walk a grade, ranging from, "A Piece of Cake" to, "Tough". These are not absolute standards, but relative to each other. How tough, or cake-like you find them will depend on a number of factors, including your fitness levels, fatigue, footwear and, most importantly, the weather and how acclimatised you are. The first time we tried walking in Greece in August, we gave up after I km and called a taxi! Use your common sense: if it's 42°C in the shade, then an “Easy to Moderate" walk gets a Free Upgrade to, "Tough to Impossible". Try one of the easier walks first to set your own personal standard against our assessment, and adjust accordingly.

The Walk Plans

We have personally walked all the routes in this guide and have given GPS readings of key points. The nature of the gadget means that if you are standing in a slightly different spot to where we were when we took the reading, you will get slightly different co-ordinates but you should not be wildly wrong. PLEASE BELIEVE US. These walks do not contain serious errors. If we say it is "uphill", it will not be downhill; if we say -50 metres", it may vary between 45 and 60 of your paces but it will not be a typo for "500 metres”. 

If you are not overly familiar with GPS, you may find the altitude readings easier to follow than the co-ordinates. That wasn't here yesterday!

Getting olives to press four panniers at a time on mule back is a mug's game, and you can't blame farmers for deciding a 4x4 is a better plan. If you come across a bulldozed vehicular access that looks like it was put in a few hours ago, chances are it was. People also build walls, put up fences, knock down fences and so on. If something is very new, we may not know about it, and it may not be on the plan. Use your common sense to pick up the described route!

Trekking routes are walked annually by the Alpine Club of Greece who keep them clear and check the way markings. Nevertheless, paths can get overgrown especially in spring when things are growing quickly so may be more or less distinct according to how recently someone has been through with a brush cutter.

You can't see the wood (or anything else or that matter)for the trees

Mount Pelion Forest is a wonder of nature: Trees as far as the eye can see; lots and lots of trees. We mappect the woodland walks in winter and even then our GPS was grizzling that it couldn't see the sky properly. In summer when the trees are in full leaf, you will certainly lose satellite signal periodically, and when you can't see the view either because there are yet more trees in the way, it can be quite disorientating. Remember: God invented the compass before Man invented GPS, and it works a treat!

Walking in Greece

Greece is a safe country for walkers but you should take basic precautions.

Dehydration

Dehydration (and resulting heat exhaustion) are probably the biggest risks you will face. Never go anywhere, even for a short stroll without taking a bottle of water. Always make use of any re-filling points that you find (we have indicated the ones we know about on the walk plans). Water from obvious fountains is drinkable. Personally, we also drink from fast-flowing leats and have never had any problems (but of course, we are used to the local bugs!)

 

Dogs

Dogs running free on the paths, should, theoretically at least, not be biters but many appear to have ambitions in that department. The trick with a dog that is going for you is to throw a stone, not directly at the animal, but in a glancing shot towards the ground to that it bounces just in front of it (think bowling in cricket). Most dogs have had plenty of missiles lobbed at them and just seeing you pick up a stone is often enough to make them back off.

Just a little prick

The Greek countryside has been moulded over aeons by the attentions of goats. The plants that suffer the least damage (and, therefore, the biggest and most numerous) are those with fearsome thorns. We prefer not to walk in shorts—the scratches sting like hell if you go swimming in the sea afterwards!

Snakes

Greece's only dangerous snake is the adder, which is quite small. Really big snakes are probably harmless grass snakes or whip snakes.

 

Cobbled paths

The joy of walking on Mount Pelion is the extensive network of cobbled paths that were the main commuter routes over the mountain for centuries. You may find the path you're on cut through by a modern road, which has been laid down without taking the old cobbled path network into account. This does not alter the route of the old path, so you should always be able to find its continuation close by on the opposite side of the road.

 

Monasteries and nunneries

Some of the walks include a visit to a monastery or nunnery. Most of these have a dress code and will not admit men in shorts, women in short skirts/shorts/trousers and neither sex in sleeveless t

-shirts. Some establishments keep shapeless bag lady outfits for you to put over your improper clothing at the entrance but you may prefer to carry something decent in your rucksack just in case.

 

Walking on the railway line

Several of these walks make use of the railway line. This is an official trekking route, so train drivers do expect to find you there. There are two trains a day, usually. The main "trainaki-, which leaves Lechonia at around II.00 am and returns from Milies at about 16.30. There is also the "little trainaki", a bright yellow trolley, carrying two men and a shovel, which goes before the "trainaki" to clear any fallen rocks off the line. This could go through at almost any time, depending on how many stops for ouzo (or for fallen rocks, obviously) they make en route. Both the big and little trains hoot incessantly, so you should hear them coming a mile off. 

 

"I'm not walking over that!”

Every now and again you will come across a gap inthe line (for drainage) just a bit wider that you feel comfortable striding over. Fear not! There is always a path for walkers where you can go round— maybe a few metres back from the gap. Just look around you.

 

Mobile phones

There is good reception over the whole mountain.