Dragonlake hike (lots of pics)

[Nikos]

As mentioned in the Scenery thread, I spent yesterday on a hike to a beautiful place called the Dragonlake (or Δρακόλιμνη), one of two Greek alpine lakes bearing that name.

Our hike started from a small village called Small Papigo, at an elevation of ~950m. The first 15'-20' of the trail passed through a nearby forest, under some towering rocky mounds.


As we went higher the forest got thinner and thinner, eventually ending up in a mixture of snow and rocky terrain...


Three or four fountains with running snow water were spread along the path, giving us an excuse to stop and rest for a couple of minutes, till our first stop at the busy Astraka refuge (~1900m) after 2.5 hours.


On the other side of the slope of the refuge, at an elevation of ~1800m, there was the first of the alpine lakes of this region, surrounded by small glaciers and rocky passages.

There was also a small albeit noisy waterfall feeding it...


After that the terrain got grassy and muddy, due to the glaciers melting and sipping through the ground.


The path wound up through a rocky/mossy terrain until we reached the top, ~1.5 hours after the refuge. There, at an elevation of ~2100m, just by an intimidating cliff...


... we found ourselves before this place of breathtaking beauty that is the Dragonlake.


The way back was much more tiresome as the rabbly terrain made it difficult going down the slopes we had passed earlier. We also had this guy trotting and sniffing along... He even accompanied us all the way back to Small Papigo, all by himself...


EDC of the hike: a silver alox Farmer and my BO CC Spirit-X (later I realized I also had a Crunch in the backpack... ). Gratuitous pics:


Pole stabbing? Meh... Try stabbing some rocks instead...


More (cellphone... ) pics and higher resolutions here.

[Magic Bus]

Bl@@dy hell that beautiful Nikos!! Thankyou for sharing   

[DaveK]

Stunning Nikos - I like the way you structured the pictures too, makes it much easier to follow than what I've been doing!

The ice-caps in the lake, are they islands or just floating ice?

[Dunc]

Wow really nice photos  and very suited to the vic spirit which looks at home 

[Nikos]

Thanks guys.

Dave they seemed like floating ice. You probably can't tell from my shots but they were a more blueish tint of white than the surrounding snow.

Now, this place being called a Dragonlake, I expected to at least see some of the dragonkin... Well, nope... The closest thing we got to that were some alpine newts (tritons) that live in and around the lake. They were quite fast and shy so I didn't manage to grab a pic of one though...

[Magic Bus]

Thanks guys.

Dave they seemed like icecaps. You probably can't tell from my shots but they were a more blueish tint of white than the surrounding snow.

Now, this place being called a Dragonlake, I expected to at least see some of the dragonkin... Well, nope... The closest thing we got to that were some alpine newts (tritons) that live in and around the lake. They were quite fast and shy so I didn't manage to grab a pic of one though...

Baby dragons!  

[yud]

Wow that is amazeing

[Nikos]

Being super bored lead to extensive manual geotagging of said photos... just in case anyone wants to see the trail on google maps/earth...

[Nikos]

Thanks guys.

Dave they seemed like icecaps. You probably can't tell from my shots but they were a more blueish tint of white than the surrounding snow.

Now, this place being called a Dragonlake, I expected to at least see some of the dragonkin... Well, nope... The closest thing we got to that were some alpine newts (tritons) that live in and around the lake. They were quite fast and shy so I didn't manage to grab a pic of one though...

Baby dragons!  

This being the first time I saw such a newt in person, I wonder how could these things ever kill anyone (nethack quote)... Perhaps they're really baby dragons mate.

[Sidhartha]

Thats what i call an EPIC place to be!  yaaay baby dragons!!! here in mexico there is a place called nevado de toluca, its an inactive volcano with two lakes on the top very beautifull place 

great shots Nikos, looks like a very exciting hike!   and tiring.....

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Awesome shot's mate

[nuphoria]

I didn't realise there were such amazing Alpine terrains in Greece!

Thanks for sharing your pics Nikos - looks like a wonderful place

[Gareth]

Lovely place and great shots Nikos.

[Ashley]

Nice 

[J-sews]

Wow, that was a beautiful hike Nikos. The views look to have been rather spectacular

[David]

Beautiful country Nikos!!!!!!!!!!

[Nikos]

Thanks a lot guys and gals!

PS: Some more/better shots here. These were taken by the other guy we hiked together... who has a real camera.

[Zed]

thats stunning nikos, my partner worked in Greece for 5 years and talks about it fondly, ive been to lesvos and i loved the mountains there, but ive seen pics she shows me and i would love to take my mountain bike over , one day mate, thanks for sharing the pics,

oh i want survlika bad spelling but meat in bread with a amazing sauce i want one NOW   

paul

[Gareth]

Thanks a lot guys and gals!

PS: Some more/better shots here. These were taken by the other guy we hiked together... who has a real camera.

What a place mate.  I'm green with envy.