Zagori and Vikos Gorges

A dense network of gorges, stone bridges and mountain villages.

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Why this ride

A dense network of gorges, stone bridges and mountain villages. The road: EO20 and local mountain roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Roadbook

1. Ioannina start

   Ioannina wraps itself around a lake, and the lake is the first thing to understand about it. Lake Pamvotida lies flat and grey-green beside the city, with a small wooded island in the middle that holds a cluster of monasteries and a village, reached by a short boat from the waterfront. Behind the city rise the limestone ranges of Epirus, the Pindus mountains, which isolated this part of north-west Greece for centuries and gave it a character quite unlike the islands and the south.

   The history is thick here. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Ioannina was the capital of Ali Pasha, an Ottoman governor who ran his own near-independent state from the fortress of Its Kale, a walled citadel on a peninsula above the water. The mosque of Aslan Pasha and the Fethiye mosque still stand inside the walls, and silversmiths still work in the narrow lanes. Byron visited Ali Pasha in 1809 and wrote admiringly of him. The old town also had a long-established Jewish community, the Romaniotes, whose synagogue survives, a reminder of the many lives that crossed the place.

   For a rider, Ioannina is a good base. To the north the Zagori villages, with their stone bridges and slate roofs, sit below the Vikos Gorge, one of the deepest in the world for its width, and the lanes that climb to them are narrow, steep and magnificent. To the east the road climbs over the Pindus toward Metsovo, high on the Katara pass, then down to the plains of Thessaly and the strange rock pillars of Meteora. The modern Egnatia motorway has made the journey faster, but the old road still has more character, with long bends, forests of oak and beech and small villages. Surfaces are generally good, though rockfall and frost damage appear in the mountains, and in winter snow can close the heights.

   Ioannina has plenty of fuel stations, shops and places to eat, from tavernas serving grilled meat to pastry shops that sell the local milk pies and syrupy sweets. Summers are hot, so start early, and spring and autumn are best for the mountain loops. A walk around the citadel at sunset, with the lake turning gold below, is a fine way to end a day.

2. Monodendri stop

   Monodendri is a stone village on the rim of the Vikos Gorge, in the Zagori region of Epirus in north-western Greece, and the first thing you notice is how everything is built from the same grey-gold stone: houses, cobbled lanes, walls and slate roofs. Zagori is a cluster of around forty-odd villages, and in Ottoman times they enjoyed unusual privileges and autonomy, so merchants grew rich and built grand houses, churches and the arched stone bridges that cross the rivers. Paved mule paths, called kalderimia, still link many of them.

   At the edge of the village a path leads to the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, a small whitewashed chapel set right on the cliff, with a drop below that makes you step carefully. Further along, the viewpoint known as Oxya looks across the Vikos Gorge, which is often described as one of the deepest in the world relative to its width. The Voidomatis river runs along the bottom, and on a clear day the opposite walls glow in the afternoon light, with eagles and griffon vultures riding the air.

   The road here is the kind that rewards a careful rider. It climbs from the plain near Ioannina through oak and plane forest, twisting up in narrow, sometimes rough bends, with little shoulder and occasional rockfall or loose gravel. Traffic is light, and often the only thing you meet is a local van or a flock of sheep. Early summer and autumn are lovely, while winter brings cold, snow at altitude and the risk of ice, so check the forecast before you commit to the heights.

   Fuel is not something to gamble on in these villages. The nearest big town is Ioannina, roughly twenty-four kilometres away, with the bigger lake city offering everything you could need, so fill up there before heading into the mountains. In the village, small guesthouses and tavernas serve pies, mountain greens, local cheese and sturdy red wine, all in a setting where the main sound after dark is a distant river. Allow time to wander on foot, since this is a place to look closely.

3. Vikos Gorge stop

   Vikos is a gorge that people struggle to describe without numbers. It runs for about twelve kilometres through the limestone of the Zagori in Epirus, in north-west Greece, with walls that in places drop nearly a thousand metres from rim to river, and it has been listed in the Guinness book as the deepest gorge in the world in proportion to its width. A road cannot take you into it, but the viewpoints on the rim, near Monodendri and Vikos village, do the job well, with the stone walls falling away into a green shadow.

   The best-known viewpoint is the one called Oxya, just outside Monodendri, where a short path leads to a rocky platform over the abyss. The view runs down the length of the canyon, with the pale cliffs, the dark forest on the floor and the high peaks of the Tymfi range beyond. A little further on, the Beloi viewpoint looks out over the gorge from the other side. Both are best early, when the light is soft and the clouds are low, and the mist in the canyon can be dramatic after rain. Stay behind the barriers, as the drops are sheer.

   The villages around the gorge are the other attraction. Zagori has forty-odd stone villages, with slate roofs, cobbled lanes and arched stone bridges built by local masons in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the region was wealthy from trade. The bridges, such as the three-arched Kokkori bridge, are beautiful and many are still in use. Monodendri has a handsome monastery perched on the rim, from which a path descends to the bottom of the gorge.

   The roads here are twisty, narrow and often rough, with steep climbs and tight corners, and fog or rain can arrive quickly, so ride carefully. Fuel is not available in the small villages, so fill up in Ioannina, the large lakeside city about thirty kilometres away, or in Konitsa to the north. Cafés and tavernas in Monodendri and Vikos serve grilled meat, local pies and cheese. Summer is dry and warm, but the nights are cool, and autumn colours are superb.

4. Papingo stop

   Papingo is two villages, really, the big one and the little one, climbing the foot of the Tymfi massif in the Zagori, where the stone houses and slate roofs seem to grow out of the mountain. Above them, a wall of grey limestone rises to Astraka and the ridge that reaches nearly two and a half thousand metres, and the cliffs catch the last light in the evening in a way that makes people stop in the street. It is a very quiet place, with a few guesthouses and tavernas, and the sound of water running somewhere.

   That water is a feature. Below the village, a stream called the Rogovo runs through a series of clear rock pools, cold enough to take your breath away, and in summer people walk down from the village to swim. The pools are small and shallow, and the water is snowmelt, so a dip is more of a shock than a swim, but it is wonderful after a hot ride. The area is part of the Vikos-Aoos National Park, which is home to brown bears, wolves, chamois and many birds of prey, though you are unlikely to see them from the road.

   The road up to Papingo is a good one for riders, with a long winding climb through oak and plane woods, tight bends and a few hairpins, and a surface that is mostly decent but narrow. The traffic is light, apart from the odd local car and the animals, but the road is steep and there are drops, so keep to the right. The last stretch into the village is cobbled in places, which can be slippery after rain, so park at the edge and walk in.

   Fuel is not available in the village, so fill up in Konitsa, about ten kilometres away, or in Ioannina, thirty-odd kilometres further. The tavernas serve local food, with pies, grilled lamb, wild greens and sheep cheese, and the guesthouses are warm and simple. Mountain weather changes fast, so bring a waterproof, and in spring and autumn pack a warm layer, as the nights can be cold, even in a stone-walled room.

5. Konitsa stop

   Konitsa sits at the northern edge of Epirus, in a bowl of mountains close to the Albanian border, and its position tells you what it was for. Roads and rivers meet here, the Aoos coming down from the Pindus range and the Voidomatis joining it nearby. The town, home to about three thousand people, spreads across a hillside above the valley, with stone houses, tidy squares and the sort of cafes where conversation never seems rushed.

   The great landmark is the stone bridge over the Aoos, a single graceful arch spanning the river gorge, built in the early nineteenth century. It is one of the largest single-span stone bridges in the Balkans, and standing on it, looking down at the cold, green water, you can feel why it became a symbol of the region. The river is popular for rafting and kayaking in season, which gives the town a cheerful, outdoorsy feel at weekends. To the north rises Smolikas, among the highest mountains in Greece, with snow lingering well into summer.

   For a rider, Konitsa is a good fuel and food stop in a thinly populated corner of the country. The roads approaching it wind through valleys with oak, beech and pine, with long, moderate bends and plenty of changes in altitude, and the surface varies from smooth to patched. Distances between villages can be longer than they look on a map, and weather in the mountains can change quickly, so a waterproof layer is useful even when the lowlands are warm. Shepherds and their dogs are part of the scenery, and the dogs take their job seriously.

   The food is mountain food, which means pies made with hand-rolled pastry, grilled lamb, cheese, and a lot of wild greens. A slow lunch here, with the Aoos audible in the background, sets up the afternoon nicely. Spring brings snowmelt and high water, autumn brings colour in the forests, and summer is the time to stay late over a cold drink and watch the light fade over the ridges.

6. Back to Ioannina finish

Where this sits

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