Summer holiday, day 3
Index
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| 06.07.22 | Stavrota | 1158 | 1158m | Lefkada, Greece |
| 06.07.22 | Óros Mnimati | 1157m | 132m | Lefkada, Greece |
| 06.07.22 | Mega Óros | 1033m | 158m | Lefkada, Greece |
| 06.07.22 | Profitis Ilias (Ekklisia) | 1036m | 103m (est.) | Lefkada, Greece |
Continued from day 1 & 2…
Stavrota
Wednesday: Having “acclimated” to Greek weather, temperature, food and driving patterns, we were now ready to go into the high country on Lefkada island and visit the highest point on the island – Stavrota. Or Stavrotas as the mountain is sometimes called.
From Nydri, we followed the road towards Vafkeri and Egklouvi. The roads were OK, albeit curvy. Passing through the villages with the ultra-narrow streets is something I’ll never get used to. But it’s charming.
After passing Egklouvi, we paid close attention to the maps and found the right combination of turns that led us to the mountain road to Mnimati – the southernmost top with antennas on the high mountain plateau. This road runs all the way to the top of Mnimati, but as we would start with Stavrota, we parked in a sharp left-hand curve (N38.71340 E20.62656, approx. 930m) – thinking there was a path.
We did find some sort of track, but soon lost it. So, we decided to just head straight up the mountain.
That didn’t work. The bush forced us sideways and then we found a vague path that led us up to a point where we a) lost the path and b) realized we had misunderstood where Stavrota was. A closer look at the map clarified the confusion and we could set course towards the island high point.
The main takeaway from most of our hikes were butterflies and spider webs! They were everywhere!
After a little while we found the path that we followed all the way to the top.
It felt really good to be on the highest point. The maps say this summit is 1182m. But my GPS read only 1156m. Later, I checked peakbagger.com as well as other sources, and they have 1158m on this top.
We loved the views…
On the south side of the plateau, we saw Méga Óros and Profitis Ilias (Ekklisia). I didn’t think we would be visiting these tops today, but we ended up visiting all 4 tops that was on my “list of interest”
We found a better route down and returned to the car without too many cuts and bruises.
Trip statistics: 5,4km, 350 vertical meters, 2h:08m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/ Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Óros Mnimati
We drove up to the fork where the road to Mnimati goes left and the road across the mountain goes right and parked there – approx. 1020m. While we could drive all the way to Mnimati, we wanted some hiking along the visit.
I was so busy with taking photographs and hardly noticed the ascent.
The main question was – would we be allowed to get to the high point?
Law abiding citizens as we are, we weren’t.
But I noticed that the fence was broken, and I figured that if this was a top-secret site, they would have had their fence in order. So, I snook through until I reached a point where everything seemed to be man-made – which doesn’t define a high point.
I felt a little guilty about this, and promised myself I wouldn’t repeat this stunt on Méga Óros, if this summit was also fenced in.
We strolled back to the car and sat course for the other side of the mountain plateau.
Both OSM and peakbagger.com has this top as 1157m, only 1 meter lower than Stavrota.
Trip statistics: 3,8km, 150 vertical meters, 56 mins
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/ Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Méga Óros
We parked in the fork where the road went up to Méga Óros. Anne decided to sit this one out.
I followed the service road for a little while then headed off-trail straight up.
After a while I noticed the fences. As such, I didn’t even consider checking if the main gate was open. These fences were solid and there were signs of photography not allowed.
I followed the fence to the highest point possible and decided that this would qualify as ascent. While some disagree on this, I don’t find it rewarding to blatantly break the law…
Nor did I take any photos, except for one towards Profitis Ilias.
I returned to Anne and then we sat course for the 4th and final top today.
OSM has this top as 1044m while peakbagger.com has 1033m – which is the height I’m going with here.
Trip statistics: 1,2km, 150 vertical meters, 40 mins
Profitis Ilias (Ekklisia)
We drove to the start of the road going up to Profitis Ilias and parked there. A road was leading to this top as well.
On top, we found a chapel – which was no surprise, given the name of the mountain.
OSM has this top as 1036m while a signpost outside the chapel says 1015m. I’ll go with the OSM map on this one. My own GPS reading was 1022m.
From here, we had a good view towards the other tops on the mountain plateau that we had visited today.
This had been a fun and rewarding day, but now it was time to get back to Nydri and throw ourselves into the sea before going out for dinner. And Kalypso was chosen as the dinner restaurant today as well. After a nice meal, we asked what they had for dessert. I don’t think they have a dessert menu, but they served us something that was quite tasty. “On the house”, as they said – probably trying to make us regulars. And they did succeed in that…
Trip statistics: 2,9km, 150 vertical meters, 48 mins
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/ Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Continued on day 4…
Have you been up Mt Olympus? It’s pretty high about 2500m and is somewhere between Athens and Thesolaniki.I haven’t been up it but I have been up the Mt Olympus in Greek Cyprus which is about 1950m..I have only been up two mountains in Greece one just outside of Athens at about 1200m and one on Corfu at about 950m..
No, we typically always go for the country high point when we go abroad. But not this time. Too long drive from Lefkada. Next time though!