Hotel O Spérhos, take the rightmost of the three tracks, passing L of some stone chalet-maisonettes and bearing R uphill. At the cemetery and cypress trees, continue straight (E4). At the church, continue straight/R (‘Planitéro 3h30’) down the concrete track into Káto Lousí (15min). At the square with springs and plane trees (part-time café on L), turn sharp L along a concrete lane, which curves R and climbs into the S part of the village. Leave the village by a chapel and big bushy oak tree, descending a gravelly jeep track in the direction of the half-fir-clad summits of Profítis Ilías (1489m).
About 150 metres before rejoining the asphalt road (35min), bear L onto a small goat trail (E4 sign). Keeping your eyes peeled for E4 plaques and plastic ribbons on trees, proceed SE across flat stony meadows, maintaining height and staying parallel to the road. Convolvulus, vetch and butterflies brighten your way in spring. After 5min, bear a few degrees L (up) across a very rocky stretch, then a few degrees R again to hit a gravel track by an E4 signpost. Cross straight over, passing a yellow-and-black (YB) waymark on a low rock. The path squeezes between kermes oak trees.
At 1hr 5min, ignore the more trodden path bearing L up towards the peaks of Khelmós, and continue SSE across trailless ground to crest a slight rise. At an E4 post, turn R down a stony jeep track. Near a tiny corrugated iron hut (1hr 15min), turn L along a clearer jeep track. Where it starts to rise, bear L (E4 plaque) on a path to cut a corner. Cross another jeep track (1hr 25min); a deep gully opens up on your R. Where the track swings L, turn R (not signed) down a stony track, with views ahead over the gravelly Langádha riverbed. The track lurches L, then R down stony ground, past a house (dogs), to join a dirt road at a stone shrine (1hr 40min).
Descending into the Langádha valley
Detour to the Cave of the Lakes
The Cave of the Lakes lies 15min to your R – a worthwhile detour, although you’ll need 1hr–1hr 30min in total (not included in timings below). To reach it, follow the dirt road R for 400 metres to a fork, then make your way R across the streambed and up to the road.
You get a 30min guided tour through a sequence of well-lit passages and subterranean lakes, festooned with stalactites. Take a jumper and some cash. It’s open daily from 9am–4.30pm (5.30pm at weekends). Return the same way.
From the stone shrine, head straight down the slope (E), past a walled spring, to cross the wide gravelly riverbed (1hr 50min). Continue SE along a path (E4 sign), traversing up the L bank to reach a meadow. The path levels and broadens into a jeep track. Pass a weak spring L (2hr 5min). The chapel of Ayía Varvára is visible on a wooded spur ahead. You reach this after 20min and join a larger dirt track.
Continue straight/R and after 50 metres fork L up a smaller track (E4 post), and keep L again. After 12min, ignore a track L and continue (SE). Some 8min later (2hr 50min), at a R bend where the ground falls away steeply in front of you, the E4 trail strikes L (YB waymark on rock) down a very stony hillside, to join a concrete track just above a walled spring (3hr). You can also reach this point by staying on the track and then forking sharp L down a smaller track. Ahead, the village of Planitéro nestles spectacularly against a backdrop of darkly forested mountains (Dourdouvána).
Follow the concrete track into Planitéro, ignoring an asphalt road R, to reach a wide square with the health centre L, spring, kids’ slide and a second asphalt road forking R. From here, the E4 takes you L up through the highest part of the village; but it is quicker to turn R down the (second) asphalt road and, at the junction by a forest of plane trees, L to the restaurants and trout farms of the Aroánios springs (3hr 30min).
From here, there is apparently a gentle cycle route (podhilatódhromos) along the banks of the Aroánios river to Klitoría, about 7km away.
However, our preferred route (and the E4 trail) climbs steeply to the hamlet of Árbounas before traversing, with lovely views south-west, to the village of Áyios Nikólaos and then Tourládha, from where you can cab, hitch or walk the 5km into Klitoría.
Planitéro village
From the Aroánios springs, start by locating an arched bridge just before the restaurant Sólas (Rigoyiánnis). Cross this and bear L past some shelters (market stalls), heading 100° through plane forest. E4 markers are sparse. Bear R up a dirt track until, 5min above the chapel of Áyios Konstantínos, at a yellow-on-white waymark painted on the rock, you scramble up the bank R to find a tiny path threading through kermes woods. After 6min (3hr 45min), cross straight over the track (YB waymark on rock). The path, now clearer, climbs at 100° and after 10min eases off. You pass beneath a makeshift sheepfold, bear R up to a jeep track and steeply up this to the asphalt Árbounas road (4hr 10min).
Cross over (ascend the steep bank from the R) and make for the cypress tree below the L cluster of houses. Just below the cypress, bear R towards a big building with a painted cross (Áyios Athanásios church; 4hr 20min). To the R of this, climb up the steep concrete track to the top of Árbounas village and keep R to reach a breeze-block chapel (4hr 30min) next to an abandoned playground. To the north-east and east, the rocky peaks of Khelmós encircle you: the dominant pyramid of Profítis Ilías (2282m), Gardhíki (2182m) and Dourdouvána (2107m).
Turn L and slightly uphill (YB waymark) along a jeep track which very soon becomes a clear goat path, contouring at 1150m, with views over the lush fields of Klitoría to the serrated peaks behind. After 25min (4hr 55min), you pass L of a rocky outcrop, lose height and veer unexpectedly R before switchbacking L towards the houses of Áyios Nikólaos. At 5hr 20min you pass just below the cemetery and climb up to join a concrete track. Follow this through the village to just above the main church (5hr 30min). You could get the taxi from Klitoría to collect you here.
To continue to Tourládha, turn L (E4 sign) and at a four-way junction go straight over, up a lane with tall cypresses and pines on your L. Pass a signpost (‘Tourládha 0.30, Likoúria 4.30’) and a gushing spring, then fork L (E4 sign) along a flat concrete lane which leaves the village heading S. After 2km, and just beyond a spring shaded by plane trees (possible campsite), ignore a L turn, follow the track sharp R, past an E4 plaque on a tree L, and enter the village of Tourládha (6hr). The E4 plaque on a tree marks the onward E4 route to Krinófita, which we don’t advise – see beginning of Stage 4.
The taxi from Klitoría can collect you from Tourládha. At 1.5km along the road to Klitoría, look out for tomorrow’s ‘pleasant dirt road’ forking L at a R bend.
STAGE 4
Near Tourládha (700m) to Dhára (660m) via the Ládhonas river (480m)
| Start point | Road bend 1.5km below Tourládha |
| Distance | 18km |
| Difficulty | 2 |
| Walking time | 6hr |
| Height gain | 560m |
| Height loss | 600m |
| Waymarks | E4 from below Pangráti to Dhára |
This morning’s route follows a lower, gentler and more direct route than the E4 (with which it overlaps briefly in the village of Krinófita) to the head springs of the Ládhonas (or Ládhon) river. Be prepared for some route-finding challenges around the river valley –
