For C, one of the highlights of the holiday this year was our trip to Loutses cave, on our way back from Old Perithea. I've attached an image from Google Earth - you can see how barren most of the road up to it is - real karst landscape. A lot of it was one of those ridged concrete roads, not so comfortable on a bike, but probably better for us than for the jeep safari we had seen come off the road earlier on in the day!
So, we climb ever upwards through the bare country, with a couple of pauses to admire the scenery and a bird of prey circling not that far above us (a short-toed eagle, we thought) and at the end of the road when we could drive no further there was a little half-built shelter, and a foot track leading into the trees. It's quite amazing - you walk along the track and all of a sudden there was a fairly steep path down, as if we were in a bowl. You can see, from Google Earth, how there's a little patch of woodland right at the top of the mountain/hill (about 480 metres, 1500 feet). There must be a rift in the centre. We clambered down and down, and then reached the entrance to the cave. The roof has plenty of stalactites, and the bottom is a bit damp and covered with green algae.
It had great acoustics for singing, which C made the most of - but it was full of rooks who kept flying out.
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| View from the top of the mountain. |
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| Entering the wooded area |
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| Perpendicular tree |
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| Rim of the "bowl" |
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| Cliff face |
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| Looking down to the entrance of the cave (sorry, a bit over-exposed!!) |
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| Looking up out of the mouth of the cave |
Definitely a place we'd visit again - and if we do, I'll make sure that I'm wearing my trekking sandals rather than just flip-flops. I managed OK, but trying to pick my way down the path with a camera and camera bag - and my not-so-good head for heights - was just a little precarious. I didn't actually venture much beyond the mouth of the cave.
What an adventure. You find the neatest places to visit.
ReplyDeleteLoutses Cave - I've Just pedalled there from Kalami in early June, very steep!! Did you get swarmed by hundreds of big black bees or is this just different times of the year? Where the parking place is and the road ends the path was completely overgrown this early in the season. I too wish I had the sense not to do it in sandals and shrorts! Decent shoes & long trousers and a bee keeper outfit a must!
ReplyDeleteGood heavens, I'm glad we didn't encounter those big bees! Maybe it's the time of year - though when we were in Corfu in mid-May a few years back, I certainly don't recall any then.
DeleteThe path was pretty overgrown when we were there too - if we hadn't been sure we were in the right place, we might have just turned back.
That was quite some bicycle ride - I'm impressed.