In this post, I narrate my 3-day trip hiking across Mount Taygetos and Vyros Gorge in Peloponnese, southern Greece. If you are looking for information and inspiration for planning your hiking adventures throughout Greece, check out this resources page.
Having spent the last week camping on various beaches along the coast of Laconia, it was a good time to add some variety by heading to the mountains. The destination for this hiking trip would be no other than the praised Mount Taygetos.
Mount Taygetos is situated between Laconia and Messinia prefectures, whose border it defines. It extends for about 100 km in a northwest-southeast direction. Reaching an elevation of 2,404 meters, it is the highest mountain in Peloponnese and the 12th highest mountain in Greece. Its main summit is of pyramidal shape and is known colloquially as Profitis Ilias or Agiolias, while it’s often referred to by its ancient name Taletos as well. One of the mountain’s most spectacular geographical features is the Vyros Gorge which runs from the foot of Profitis Ilias summit to the town of Kardamyli on the Messenian Gulf coast.
The slopes of Mount Taygetos have been inhabited since at least the Mycenaean era. The mountain has been especially known in history with relation to Sparta. This was the place the Spartans abandoned the infants they deemed physically ‘unfit’ for their society, as well as the location of Caeadas chasm where they dumped their criminals. On the northern slopes of Mount Taygetos is also located the renown medieval town of Mystras: the last surviving stronghold of the Byzantine Empire.
The plan for this trip was to cross the mountain from northeast to southwest in three days, starting from the village of Anavryti near Sparta and heading over to Kardamyli via the summit and Vyros Gorge. So on a late night of July – the moon, one night prior to its full state, casting ample silver light over the forests and rocky cliffs of Taygetos – we arrived in Anavryti village. We slept for a few hours in the car, beside the road by the village entrance, and got up early in the morning…
Day #1: From Anavryti to the Refuge of Mount Taygetos
We drove to the village center, got to fill up water from a public spring, and stopped by at the village’s coffee shop for breakfast. The family that owns the place proved very kind and helpful. They showed us a good safe spot to park the car for the following days. They promptly answered questions related to the trail. And most appreciably of all, they gave us a phone number to call them for driving us back up to the village once we’d reach back to Sparta some days later.
Lingering and all, we only started hiking shortly before midday. For today we planned to overnight near the Sparta Mountain Club refuge by the eastern foot of the summit (36.9504-22.3676). We had about 12 km of distance to cover and some 900 m of altitude to gain. It took about 7 hours.
The trail, as it is part of the E4 European Long Distance Path, was perfectly well maintained and excellently well signed throughout its entire length. The first part of it ascends steeply through a charming fir forest. It then moves smoothly by the tree line, in parallel with the mountain ridge until the foot of the summit. The first amazing views of the Eurotas Plain, Mount Parnon, and the Laconic Gulf become visible to the east above the tree line.
Water was affluent along the trail and can be found in the following locations:
- Platanitsa Spring (37.0221-22.3663)
- Lacomata Spring (37.0035-22.3619)
- Kanellakia Spring (36.9892-22.3613)
- Some spring (36.9767-22.3692)
- Agia Varvara Spring (36.9519-22.3681)
The last of these springs is situated soon before the refuge, and is the place we chose to spend the night. We could have continued a little further all the way to the refuge, where there is fitter ground to pitch a tent, though there is no water up there. We found a decently level spot beside the spring and settled.
While we prepared dinner (buckwheat with canned chicken) we got a brief visit by an elderly French hiker who was on his way down to some nearby village. He was the only hiker and the second human, besides a shepherd, that we encountered throughout the day.
It was a lovely night. The air was as chilly as you wish it to be when sea-level temperatures exceed 40 °C. Soft gusts and melodic birdsongs reverberated occasionally through the strict quiet of the night… until the alarm rang at 4 am.
Day #2: Up to the summit of Mount Taygetos and down the other side to Agios Dimitrios
The idea was to get up in the night, get ready quickly, and make it to the summit by sunrise, so as to marvel at its pyramidal shadow being projected onto the west. However, we snoozed a good deal and lazed about enough, so that by sunrise we hadn’t even started.
We eventually packed and got moving early in the morning. Coincidentally (I only got to hear about it on the previous day before we came to the mountain), we happened to be there one day prior to the celebration day of Profitis Ilias saint, to whom the little church located on the summit is dedicated. Folks from the surrounding villages climb up the mountain and hold a feast every year on this date, which is the 20th of July. We were still a day early but we could well expect exceptionally numerous other people climbing concurrently with us.
So it was. As soon as we reached the refuge, we met the first hikers’ group consisting of a father with his two young kids. Later we spotted more people going up ahead of us.
The trail to the summit goes straight up after the refuge and is still well-signed. It gets a little steep at times but it isn’t overall significantly tough.
Some two hours later, we’d made it to the top. There we met a group of some 20 men from various local villages who’d come up a day earlier for having a more private feast. Other than the church, there is quite a complex of stone constructions made on the summit, like little shelters one can spend a warm, calm night in. The views from the summit are totally splendid. The Arcadian mountains are visible to the north. The rough and wild Mani Peninsula penetrates boldly into the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Kithira and Elaphonisos islands are also faintly visible before the southern horizon.
We duly enjoyed the grandiosity of the moment, brunched, and continued on our way to the other side of the mountain. Our destination for the day was the Agios Dimitrios Spring located where the trail into Vyros Gorge begins.
The way south along the mountain ridge was probably the most spectacular part of the trip. Shortly before we reentered the forest, at 36.9322-22.346, there is a scant spring known as Mousgia Spring. This is the only available summer water source between the refuge and Agios Dimitrios.
Back in the graceful forest, shaded by colossal, ancient firs, we got to rapidly descend and made it to Agios Dimitrios by early afternoon. An absolutely charming position. A little church has been built over the spring so that the water gushes out from the church wall. Adorable walnut trees and a lone apple tree hem the church in.
There we spent a quiet night of sound sleep – interrupted only by a party of boars who came to drink water and raised quite a clutter – until we got up at dawn.
Day #3: Hiking down Vyros Gorge
We packed everything fairly quickly and started on our long way down through Vyros Gorge. Contrary to what I’d heard, the route was decently well signed. Although the trail wasn’t as well maintained. When it runs through the thickets on the banks, as the vegetation is very dense, I found it easier to quit it and remain on the dry river bed instead.
In the winter, the gorge gets copiously flooded and a mighty torrent rushes down through it. In the summer, it is bone dry. We spotted a couple of scant water sources near the upper end, but then we relied on whatever water we carried with us in order to make it down. Three liters per person proved just enough to make it. Perhaps, even more, would be needed in case one goes up.
It took us quite many hours hiking and scrambling over the bright white boulders to reach the mouth of the gorge. The first village we encountered is called Tseria. A steep, winding path leads up to it over the northern wall of the gorge. A very cute village indeed. I found it very pleasant concluding this trip with a stroll amid the picturesque stone houses and a cup of coffee on the porch of the village’s taverna, overlooking the broad Messenian Gulf and Kardamyli town beneath.
We soon got to walk down the road, looking for a ride. By the next morning, three car rides, two buses, and an overnighting in a field near Sparta later, we were back at my car in Anavryti Village. The hiking trip across Mount Taygetos and Vyros Gorge was completed.
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