CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
169 km round from Ioánnina - plan on about 3 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Monodendri, Vikos Gorge, Papingo and Konitsa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Greece Meteora and Pindus Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Read the complete Ioannina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ioannina is where the day begins. Next is Monodendri.
Monodendri is the village from which you see the Vikos Gorge best, and that is reason enough to come. It sits on the lip of the canyon in the Zagori region of Epirus, in north-western Greece, a district of about forty stone villages tucked into the folds of the Pindus mountains. The gorge, cut by the Voidomatis river, is about twelve kilometres long and nearly a thousand metres deep in places, and it is recorded as one of the deepest in the world in proportion to its width. From the Oxya viewpoint, a short walk from the village, you look straight down the grey limestone walls to the green ribbon of river below, with eagles and vultures floating at eye level.
Read the complete Monodendri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monodendri comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vikos Gorge.
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.
Read the complete Vikos Gorge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Vikos Gorge. Next is Papingo.
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.
Read the complete Papingo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Papingo, about halfway. Next is Konitsa.
A single stone arch, about forty metres wide, crosses the Aoos river just outside Konitsa, and it is one of the finest bridges in the Balkans. It dates from 1823, in the last Ottoman decades of Epirus, and for two centuries it has stood over a green river with high mountains beyond. The bridge looks fragile, but it has survived floods, wars and earthquakes, and in the summer, local youths dive from its parapet into the cool water, a tradition more frightening to watch than to do.
Read the complete Konitsa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konitsa sits at 71 km, late in the day. Next is Ioannina.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ioannina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 169 km.
Ioannina → Monodendri is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monodendri → Vikos Gorge is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vikos Gorge → Papingo is 2 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Papingo → Konitsa is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konitsa → Ioannina is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.