Monodéndri - Víkos gorge - Víkos

Evaluation: One of the finest - and longest - hikes that you can do in Zagóri is the crossing of the Víkos gorge. Most of the time, you can begin that walk in Monodéndri, but it is also possible to start in Víkos or Mikró Pápingo - we describe below the variant starting from Monodéndri.
For the hike in the other direction, see the walk Víkos - Víkos Gorge - Monodéndri. If you prefer not to go to Vikos, but to Mikró Pápingo (which will add one hour to the time of the hike), you can see the end of the second part of the hike Mikró Pápingo - Voïdomátis - Víkos and back.
This walk of course deserves the maximum rate of ****.
[The translation of this walk was made with some help of Google translate - so, do not mind the mistakes...]

[It is not easy to solve the problem of the return to your starting point: there are indeed very few taxis and no bus connections at all. If you are staying in Monodéndri, you can arrange with the owner of the hotel; in Vikos, you can stay to eat something at the tavern next to the church, and there you can ask the owner to take you back to Monodéndri - which will cost you € 30...
We solved the problem another way: the first day, we left from Monodéndri and we made the trek up to halfway (this is about 2h40 AWT) and then we retraced our steps; a few days later, we left from Vikos and we walked up to the same point (about 2h05 AWT) and then returned to Víkos ...]

Estimated time: The time of 4h30 that is announced on the hiking sign in Monodéndri corresponds roughly to the reality: this time means of course the actual walking time (AWT), and this time is 40 minutes for the descent into the gorge, 1h20 until Klíma, another 2 hours until the turnoff to Pápingo and the source of Voïdomátis and finally 45 minutes for the final climb up to Víkos - a total of 4h45 AWT.
The total time (TWT), breaks and picnic included, can mount to 8-9 hours - we walked from 9am until 6pm.

Route description: [We went down by car until the lower platía in Monodéndri (so you have to keep to the right while approaching Monodéndri) - you can leave your car at the end of the road...]
 
(0h00) You go up to the platía with its plane trees:  to the north and between the largest plane tree and the building of restaurant Kíkitsa, there is the start of the walk to Agia Paraskeví (see the walk Monodéndri - Agia Paraskeví), but you head towards the east, between the restaurant and the Agios Minás church (hiking signs "To Pápingo 6h" and "Víkos 9km, 4h30"). You pass Agios Minás and you also see the sign indicating that the Víkos gorge was chosen for the Guinness Book of Records in 1997, for the fact that the gorge has the largest depth-width ratio in the world.
You pass to the left of the theater and its dependencies and the recent path gets to the old trail, which continues to the left.
You also see the O3 marks, a small white sign with a red diamond - the path with a nice pavement descends in the shade of trees.

(0h11) After 11 minutes, the descent becomes steeper - sometimes the path is stony, sometimes with rocky steps, often meandering – and soon you can enjoy magnificent views of the gorge.
 
(0h17) After this steep descent, you arrive again amidst the trees; you now descend on steps or on a stony path, always with many zigzags. Another 11 minutes later, the descent becomes easier, while you follow a beautiful forest trail - but further, it becomes steeper again, with tight turns. The cliffs rise above you, and you are already seeing the bottom of the valley. The steep descent gets finally to a side path.

[To the right (lots of red marks), you could go in the direction of the Mísios bridge.]
 
(0h41) You take a left (two arrows on a tree, O3 sign a little further), you go up a little, but then you go down slowly, and you continue above the bed of the river on a beautiful trail. You are approaching the bottom, but you do not go down to the right - so you continue to the left, above the bed (2 X O3). You go down then up several times, then you begin to climb again - you pass a small avalanche of stones, where you enjoy a beautiful view.
 
(0h53) You pass a very high cliff; after a difficult descent, you go up again, and so you continue for quite some time above the riverbed.
 
(1h00) You then continue pleasantly under the trees, more or less flatly, with steep cliffs on your right. Five minutes later, you arrive at some stony slopes, always with beautiful views; then you continue easily for a short time, but later there is a steep descent, in sharp turns, and you finally get by a concrete staircase to the river bed, next to a huge boulder.
 
(1h14) You continue to the right of the rock, but you carefully follow the orange markings to the left of the bed, amidst the rocks. It takes a little clambering for a few moments, then you can leave the bed by a staircase - and you find again a good path. You continue easily for many minutes, sometimes flatly, sometimes while going up gently - and so you arrive again high above the valley.
 
(1h28) After 10 minutes, you cross a slope of brownish earth - you see here that the trail is well maintained - and you continue without problems, mostly under small trees.

(1h37) After this pleasant stretch, you arrive next to a sharp rock, again with great views. You begin a descent, often between trees with unusual shapes, then the descent becomes steep and difficult, winding on gravel.

(1h52) Pay attention: just after a kind of cave, you should not continue to go down, but you should go straight ahead: at first, you have to hold on to a rope while carefully following the orange dots. This difficult stretch takes only a few minutes, then there is a bit of climbing up and down - but then you find an easy forest path, while you continue quietly under the trees.
 
(2h01) You hear the sound of water, and after another nice part, you descend quickly until you get next to a sign "Víkos/Monodéndri".
 
[If you go down here to the right on the rocks, you can get close to the "Klíma" source. You then can still go down on the moss-covered pebbles, until you get in the bed itself ...]

For the continuation of the hike, do NOT go down, but you should continue on the main trail (no mark!); you pass an avalanche of stones and you then proceed on a beautiful forest trail (only here, you will discover a trail marker O3), that runs through a sparse forest. If you keep your eyes open, you will find here on the right a small sign "Chorió Víkos 2h30"...
 
(2h30) You continue easily, with many superfluous signs O3. After this fine stretch, sometimes with beautiful views, you descend on piles of stones, and you arrive at the foot of a high cliff - a splendid spot. You then get to a nice part: you arrive first at the height of the river bed, then you go up slowly through a sparse forest with thin little trees – and in this way, you again arrive high above the valley.

[This is the place where we stopped crossing the gorge and retraced our steps to Monodéndri...]
 
If you continue straight ahead, you pass underneath a fallen tree, you cross a rocky slope and arrive high above the river.
After some nice minutes, you descend quickly on a gravel path and you arrive again at the height of the river bed.
 
(2h52) You pass the ikónisma (chapel) of Agia Paraskeví and 2 minutes later, the trail passes under a very impressing overhanging rock. The beautiful forest trail arrives between large rocks covered with moss and so you continue for many minutes. You cross a pile of stones, with a magnificent view of the rock-face on the other side of the valley.
 
(3h17) After a total of 25 minutes of forest trail, you cross some clearings, then you continue again in the shade of the wood. About 4 minutes later, there is a rocky passage: first, you need to clamber down - but NOT into the bed! - and then you go up again, and you still go down and up again a few times.
Soon, there is another winding forest trail; once arrived at an open ground, you again have a wonderful view of the strangely shaped rocks on the other side. You descend until next to some big rocks, on the left side of the river bed - a nice spot to get some rest, always with wonderful views. After a shady forest path, you get to a gravel slope - and very slowly you veer to the right.
 
(3h46) On the other side of the valley, the black shape of a huge triangular rock passes slowly, and far ahead of you, the first house of Víkos becomes visible. The gravel path now runs rather high above the river, but then you begin a long and very slow descent that ends near a major junction.
 
(3h58) On the right, there is a path that goes down to the source of the Voïdomátis, but then rises to Megálo and Mikró Pápingo (a walk of some 1h55 - see the return route of the hike Mikró Pápingo - Voïdomátis - Víkos and back).
 
[If you do not have the intention to do the walk from Mikró Pápingo to Víkos, it is worth making the detour now until the source - it only takes 4 minutes to go there...]
 
For Víkos, your goal of today, you continue straight on: the trail rises slowly, and soon it is paved, later it becomes gravel. There is a side path that arrives on the right side from the valley, but you continue your climb straight, always with a beautiful view on the other side, and once also on the Voïdomátis, which makes a loud noise.
 
(4h12) You get to the side path leading down to the small monastery of Panagiá, a pleasant descent of 8 minutes - see also the hike Mikró Pápingo - Voïdomátis - Víkos and back.
You continue straight on, and from here onwards, the trail has an uneven pavement, sometimes with rocky steps. You go up in a straight line, with views that are becoming wider and wider. After another 10 minutes, you can take a little break - you now have a nice view on the Panagiá and the Voïdomátis.
 
(4h22) The climb gets steeper, first in 4 sharp turns, later in 16 zigzags - in the 9th turn, you can take a short rest next to an ikónisma (small chapel). About 20 minutes later, you get to the asphalt road, where you take a right, for some minutes, until you arrive at the platía, the church and its plane tree. (4h45)