The duelling dragons of Zagori
In Epirus, the country’s wild northwestern state, a snaking five-mile trail rises above the stone-built villages of Zagori to reach the fabled Drakolimni, twin alpine lakes dating to the last ice age.
Words: Helen Iatrou
Departing in heavy mist, our hiking party zigzags its way up the mountain track from the still-sleeping village of Mikro Papigo, stopping to fill flasks at a spring-fed fountain half-concealed by the morning haze. Local lore claims our destination, the twin alpine pools of Drakolimni — ‘Dragon Lake’ in Greek — take their name from ancient duelling dragons once poised atop the opposing mountains of Tymfiand Smolikas. The boulders they cast at one another are said to stud the hillsides.
Deflating the tale with a smile, guide Achilles Papaefthymiou explains that the age-old moniker may instead originate from the newts inhabiting the lakes. “They probably reminded the local villagers of miniatures of the fire-breathing creatures,” he says, with a note of apology.
This more mundane telling doesn’t diminish the magic of Northern Pindos National Park. Resting at our first waypoint, the shuttered Astraka Mountain Hut, perched at 6,398ft, Achilles, founder of adventure tour company Alpine Zone, hands out homemade cake to nibble as we take in humbling views of the Towers of Astraka. One of Greece’s great natural wonders, the undulating wall of this impregnable massif looks like the turret from a giant’s castle, their buttresses and jagged crenelations carved by mighty hands.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2021 من National Geographic Traveller (UK).
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 2021 من National Geographic Traveller (UK).
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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