Day 23 Ioannina to Meteora

We headed off into the mountains to visit the Vikos Gorge area. We stopped at the cute little village of Monodendri that felt like it belonged in the Swiss Alps, although everything was made from the local stone which gave it different look. We went looking for some breakfast and although it was after 9am the village looked asleep until we found a place where we could order coffee and cake for brekky, very Greek.

We then drove on through the fascinating Stone Forest which is something we have never seen before, literally a forest consisting of massive greenery interspersed with natural layered slate type stone. We stopped at the Oxia viewpoint which has impressive views of the gorge that is classified as one of the deepest gorges in the world, it was also lovely and quiet with only two other couples there.We drove onto Vradeto village which has a great lookout of Vikos Gorge.

The mountain roads are really interesting because every couple of kilometers you come across sheepdogs, Mareemas and other breeds that are looking after flocks of goats and sheep, its fascinating to see so many of them doing their job without any shepherds overseeing them. At one point on the road the flock decided to cross the road in front of us, one of the rams got its horns stuck in some pig wire and the Mareema was standing behind it while the flock moved on. How does a dog deal with the difficult dilemma of sacrificing one for the greater good?

We continued our country drive dodging all the cattle who believed the road belonged to them and stopping at some stunning old stone bridges that crossed the Vikos River.

The country roads are very winding with many switch backs and there are many shrines, some of then quite beautiful and elaborate, originally we thought they were to mark a death on the road but there were so many we decided they must be for people to offer a prayer for safety while driving, but we later found that the former is correct and that they are recognising the death of a loved one. We were sad to leave this beautiful part of Greece but we needed to get to Meteora that night.

We made good time and arrived in the town of Kastraki at the foot of the majestic Meteora. Once again the cute village of Kastraki wouldn't look out of place in the Swiss Alps. We were amused to find the Sydney Hotel complete with a large sign of a map of Australia with the obligatory kangaroo in the middle.