Olympus

A few days ago I visited mount Olympus for the second time in a few months. Most people go to the mountain to climb to the highest peak since Olympus is the highest mount of Greece, but our goal was different. From the “Prionia” location which is the most popular starting point for the ascent to the highest peak of the mount, we descended through the gorge of the river Enipeas to the city of Litochoro.

Of cource you do not get the satisfaction that you conquered the mountain but the route through the Enipeas canyon is probably the most beautiful path of the mountain. Don’t get fooled from the fact that the path is a descent of 700 meters. It is in fact a path of 11 kilometers with continuous uphills and downhills and is not easy to complete.

However the beautifull landscape is a very nice compensation for all that effort since the path passes through forests and clearings or next to small ponds and waterfalls, and at several points crosses the Enipeas river via small wooden bridges. Eventually we arrived at Litohoro after about 6 hours. We were tired but happy.

Apart from crossing the Enipeas river gorge I did a brief photo excursion to the forest but I didn’t manage to get any good photos of uncommon species. The most notable findings were a few Crested Tits and even fewer Marsh Tits but I didn’t manage to get any decent pictures of them. In order to avoid leaving the place empty handed, I spend some time with a Short-toed Treecreeper that was quite cooperative.

Finally I found a Balkan Green Lizard (Lacerta trilineata) that despite the fact of losing most of the tail it didn’t seem to have any other major problems.