Exploring Helmos |
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It is going to be a big blog... I have so many to show you this time. It was a promise I gave in one of my previous blogs... the one about the Lake Tsivlou. I promise that I will return at the same area and I will spend some more time at these mountains of Peloponesse. So... time to accomplish my promise and last Sunday I traveled to meet the mountain and capture some of their beauty at my photos. |
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I have designed at the map with the dark blue line our trip. We covered more than 400 kilometers half of them in mountain roads where only SUV's or other 4X4 cars could use. Our trip started at 8 a.m. from Athens and we used the national highway until Xylocastro and from there we entered at the area first of Ziria mountain and then at Helmos mountain. |
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Time to meet my partners at this trip… Dimitris told me about the mountains and I learned from him about the Lake Tsivlou . When he read my blog about the lake he commented to it writing about the Ntourntouvana, the top of Helmos Mountain and he invited me to visit it with him and his SUV as my MG is not possible to reach those areas. |
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| My other partner at the trip was Paris , my sharpei dog. He belongs to my daughter but after this trip he became also my dog. He was always close to me taking care of me and ready to protect me and... he obeyed to my commands. Still I could not believe that this crazy male dog was so perfect at this trip. |
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| The first stop was at the Doxa lake. The wonderful scenery of Doxa Lake makes it outstanding. Its colors change depending on the season and thus the view is always breathtaking. |
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| Girdled by massifs and their verdant forests, the lake is ideal for a circuit. In fact, if you go as far as its shores, you can light a candle at little picturesque “Paliomonastiro”, built almost on the waters of this lake. |
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| We spent some time at the small monastery and we met some other crazy types like us who decided to climb the mountain that rainy day. Satisfaction at their faces and release from the stress that a life at the big city leaves to each of us. |
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| After the calm time near the Doxa lake it was time to continue our trip. We started climbing Helmos. Our destination was the top of the mountain that you can see at the photo. We passed from the big forest of fir trees and we made some short stops to enjoy the view of the plateau between the mountains. A few small villages of the mountain decorated the wild mountain scene with warm touch of a paintbrush. |
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| As we climbed at the mountain the weather started to become colder and the rain transformed to snow. That snow was the first snow of the year for me and I asked many times from Dimitris to stop the car and leave me to play with it. |
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| The top of the mountain was so close. Ntourntouvana at my back at this photo but unfortunately the snow did not allow us to go higher. |
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| Somewhere there, close to the top of Helmos, covered from the snow we discovered a small chapel. This chapel is honored "Agioi Pantes" which means that honors "All the Christian Saints". I have read about this small chapel of the mountain Helmos. It is dedicated to hundreds of Greeks that some other leftist guerillas of ELAS killed and throw their bodies at the "Tripa" a huge hole of the mountain, a cave escarpment. The after the World War II period Greece had to face a terrible civil war. Still today if you decide to go down at this hole you can see bones covering the whole area. |
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| We started to come down from the top of the mountain and the snow stopped but we had to face again the rain. We reached Planitero, a sightly area with a beautiful small village and a huge forest of oaks and Platans. The place is famous for its beauty and the sources of the Aroanios River . The water comes from nowhere... it comes out under the rock and the river is shaped very fast at the valley between the high mountains. |
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The huge forest of platan and oak trees keep some of their leaves but they have also contributed with those that have fell from them at the magic carpet with the warm earth colors that covers the ground of the wooded hollow. Yellow orange and brown are the governed colors this period of the year. I walked under the heavy rain at this forest that comes from the myths of my grand mother. She used to tell me stories about these yellow forests... the pixies and the other magic creatures that hide under those leaves. I thought that they were myths but when you are there and you are trained to see... when you leave your imagination free to travel, you can see them... you can feel them around you. |
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| I left Paris free at the forest of Planitero under heavy rain but he enjoyed running at this wonderful area and being for a while part of it. |
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We ended this amazing exploration of Helmos and Ziria mountains with a great dinner in a small warm tavern at Planitero. Our main dish was trout broiled over charcoal and it was... yummy. |
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We travelled back passing from many more villages at the mountains of Peloponesse. We stopped at Levidi for our coffee and the city of Tripolis was also a stop point of our return trip to Athens. I enjoyed a lot this small exploration of one of the prettiest places of my country and I must thank from this blog my partners. Paris was more that I have ever imagined tame and stilly and a very good company for me and Dimitris. Dimitris... was the perfect partner and guide and his knowledge about those mountain roads was the reason I didn't worry at all at this new unknown environment and at those bad weather conditions we had to face at this trip. I finish this blog with a note for my online friends who live all around the earth... to those who have seen Greece from the posters which advertise the beautiful and popular islands during summer time... “ Greece has a lot more to show you. Just prepare to explore it and you will never regret it.” |