E4 long-distance trail Peloponnese

09.05.23

Wow, what a start to the long-distance hike. It's only 5:00 PM and I'm trying to keep my eyes open as much as possible to capture some of the impressions from the first day of hiking.

The first day was already truly spectacular.

It all started at the Diakopto train station. In light rain, we followed the tracks of the old cog railway out of town, deeper and deeper into a gorge. The path always followed or crossed the tracks, meandering between mighty sandy rock formations and constantly uphill. A wild river also made its way through the mystical gorge landscape alongside us. At some points, the river flowed to our right, sometimes to our left, and frequently we crossed it on one of the numerous bridges. At some spots, the water shot straight under us and shaped the rocks in an extraordinary way over thousands of years.

Although it was quite arduous and uncomfortable to walk on the rough gravel in the track bed, we were rewarded constantly with the sight of beautiful nature, blooming and growing everywhere in its full splendor. I was very impressed by all the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Such diversity is definitely not seen everywhere. It is not surprising that there is also an abundance of animals in the local flora, but it was still something special to see a snake as well as a scorpion. I wasn't quite sure why Mr. Crabs was in the track bed, but apparently crabs don't only live on the beach.

Except for one or two small villages, the route was mostly outside civilization. Although I did wonder from the beginning if the railway line was still being used... I thought a line like this, on the old tracks, probably not, until I heard something in the distance that sounded like a horn. It wasn't until the warning signal got closer and was clearly audible that I was surprised by the opposite. There was actually a small train passing by us. Slowly and occasionally honking, with friendly passengers waving at us. We had to make way for the train three times in total. The old train or cog railway is probably a kind of tourist attraction, but at the same time, the E4 also follows the track bed for a total of 20km. You don't walk a route like this every day. A truly spectacular start that was admittedly already quite demanding. 1040 meters of altitude and 23km of distance. My backpack is as heavy as always and I unnecessarily brought enough food for a whole week. At least I have the opportunity to compensate for the pain with delicious food. That worked out quite well today.

We reached today's destination, Kalavryta, after about 7 hours. A very nice little town that we passed through quickly, hungry and looking for a place to sleep. A small church with a canopy offered itself a little above the center. This way, I save myself the trouble of setting up and taking down the tent. Buenas noches.