Prasonisi, Oros, Vigla, Vouni
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Oros | 218m | 143m | Rhodes, Greece |
| Vigla | 236m | 161m | Rhodes, Crete |
| Vouni | 562m | 337m | Rhodes, Greece |
Continued from day 2… Continue to day 4 …
Prasonisi
Prasonisi is a peninsula at the very south tip of Rhodes. It is connected to the main island when the water levels are low enough. The main goal was to visit the lighthouse and perhaps get a glimpse of a turtle. This was solely based on something a Danish tourist told me. I didn’t expect to find any…
It was a 2,8km walk from the parking to the lighthouse, a bit of up and down along the way. There were steep cliffs between us and the ocean, and we didn’t quite understand where we would see any turtles. The only wildlife we saw was a small herd of goats by the lighthouse.
Upon return, Anne decided to follow a path down to the beach while I returned to the trailhead and visit the local top Oros. Anne got a nice swim in the ocean, but no turtles were to be seen.
Trip statistics: 5,6km, 160 vertical meters, 1h:20m.
Pictures from the hike:
Oros (218m)
From the Prasonisi parking, I drove 1km up the road until I found a dirt road towards an antenna building. This would get me halfway up the mountain without any problems. To my relief, the terrain above the antenna was quite easy, and so I arrived at the high point without any painful experience at all. This was almost in the “bonus hike” category.
I took the same route down and returned at the Prasonisi parking just as Anne was returning from the peninsula. Then we enjoyed lunch in the local village.
Trip statistics: 2,1km, 170 vertical meters, 30 mins.
Pictures from the hike:
Vigla (236m)
We decided to do one more hike on the south side of the island – up to the windmills on Mt. Vigla. The discussion was about which route to take. We ended up hiking from the north side – along a mountain service road that ran all the way to the top. The only obstacle on this route was dogs barking close to the trailhead. You never know if the dogs are behind a fence, or not.
In this case, they seemed to be, and we arrived on what appeared to be the high point after a nice and easy stroll up the service road. There was a 2nd batch of windmills on a hill a bit further south, but according to my GPS map, this was not a higher point. So we did not bother taking the trip to prove the map right. Instead, we took another service road down, which eventually merged with our ascent route. The dogs resumed barking as we passed, but they never came out.
According to Mr. Dimitris (rhodes@trekking.gr), the other top is called Stavroti, but Vigla is the highest of the two…
Trip statistics: 5,6km, 180 vertical meters, 1h:15m.
Pictures from the hike:
Vouni (562m)
On our Freytag & Berndt map (1:50 000), this top has no name, but according to Mr. Dimitris, rhodes@trekking.gr, this mountain top is called Vouni.
On our way back to the hotel at Lotharika, we followed the road up to the Skiadi monestary just west of Mesanagros and the road suddenly seemed to end. That was NOT what the map said, and after a narrow section of a dirt road by the monastery, we found that the paved road continued on the other side.
Mt. Vouni seemed to be too much of a bonus top to ignore. Anne said she would read in her book while I went up the mountain service road from the south side. I could also have taken the path from the monastery, but the south road would be faster.
The mountain road was quite rough and I was wondering what type of car would be driving here. On top, I found out, as there was a guy doing some maintenance on the antenna. He was busy and we just nodded.
My feet were starting to become sore, as I had been hiking a number of 1300-1400m peaks the week before the trip, breaking in new shoes. And if it hadn’t been for the rough off-trail terrain on Marmari, I might have been OK. But now, jogging down the mountain road was extremely painful and I had to settle for fast walking.
I was already looking forward to get back to the hotel, chat with Steve (our guy in the reception – he thought we were pretty good tourists…) have a shower, a beer and check out a new restaurant.
Trip statistics: 3,4km, 200 vertical meters, 45 mins.
Pictures from the hike:
