The Cave of Lakes and Greek Mountain Explorations
We are beachfront on the Gulf of Corinth where we are staying. However, immediately to the south of us are mountains galore. This is part of why it takes forever to go around Greece to explore the various ancient sites as we regularly need to go up and over or around the mountains. We have taken several day trips out into the mountains for various reasons to explore the beauty of nature.
But there is one day in particular that stands out when we spent a good chunk of our day in a UNESCO World Heritage national park. This area was also associated with the worship of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Given the gorgeous beauty here, it’s easy to see why people wanted to worship Artemis here.
We debated taking the Odontotos Rack Railway from Diakopto to Kalavryta, but decided driving was our preferred choice after seeing how busy and crammed the trains were. And we are happy with our decision. It meant we still went through Kalavryta and saw the beauty there, but also got to go further afield to explore.
We loved the views as we drove up the mountainside. It was stunning! We passed tons of farmers selling cherries and other produce and cafes with breathtaking views. We decided to stop at Grand Chalet for a coffee and Greek pie and realized after the fact that it was across the street from the Mega Spileon Monastery we had looked up. We didn’t have time today to make it here, but hopefully one day we will get back to this area to check it out. The views from the café were stunning. We thoroughly enjoyed our stop here.
We carried on and drove through Kalavryta and some other towns. We saw their impressive war memorial, though were unsure of what exactly happened on December 13, 1943. We have since looked it up and it was horrifying! The German army enacted Operation Kalavryta to wipe out the resistance guerrilla fighters in Kalavryta and nearby. En route there, they burned and looted villages and monasteries. Once there, they rounded up all the citizens, separated everyone into two groups: the women and young children; and, the men and older male children, looted, and then began killing all the citizens. The male group were all shot, though 13 survived under the pile of dead bodies. The women and children were locked in the school and it was set on fire. They managed to escape, thankfully. Rumour has it one of the Austrian soldiers is to thank for that, as he left one of the doors unlocked on purpose. Such a tragic history for this small mountain village.
We made our way to the Cave of Lakes, which was our main destination for today. We unfortunately were not allowed to take any photographs inside but were able to take a few photographs of their photographs. There was minimal water inside the caves at this time of year. But that did not take away from the impressive nature, with the huge open caverns and the impressive number of stalagmites and stalactites in here. The formations were gorgeous and we learned how these grow by 1 millimetre per year. Many of these were several metres in length, which is mind-boggling how long they have been growing!
The cave is estimated to be approximately 2.5 million years old. It has been formed by water flowing here from nearby Apanokampos Plateau approximately 4 km from the cave. The water found its way in via underground ducts and sinkholes. Over its history, it has been used to house all types of people and animals, including hippopotami! So cool! Today, it is home to 18,000 bats, the largest bat population in Greece. We saw a few of these beauties fly past us while we were in the caves exploring.
After walking through the caves that tourists could access (there are tons of additional ones that no one is allowed to enter), we went into the museum and were given a tour and tons of information from a very knowledgeable employee. We also got to see the cross-section of a piece of a stalagmite that had been cut open, which I’d never seen before. It looked cool inside, reminding us of a tree with various concentric rings.
This was such a worthwhile experience. The girls loved seeing it and learning so much about caves and cave formations. After leaving the Cave of Lakes, we carried on to Klitoria, a small village for some Greek lunch and to buy some local honey.
After lunch, we then made our way out to the Planitero area where we found some hiking trails before heading home for the day. We parked and saw yet more local honey. While the man at the stall didn’t speak a word of English, we did manage to enjoy trying several different kinds of honey, two different kinds of cherries in syrup, and smelling various herbs. We decided to buy another jar of honey, because why not? Also, some cherries, which would be soooooo good in a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned cocktail! We are still carrying around the cherry liquor we bought in Montenegro and mixing it with sparkling water for a refreshing cocktail on hot days, and the cherries are also perfect for them, too!
We carried on and did our hike up a mountain trail and then down a more gradual sloped, deserted country road back into the small town near the trailhead. We saw some gorgeous trees and mountain views along our hike. We found some beautiful flowers and made sure to find a special spot during our hike to each place our flowers and say a prayer to the goddess Artemis.
Once we got back to the small town, we decided to stop for ice cream for the girls and wine for Jon and me to cool down and refresh. We sat outside next to a gorgeous little stream, enjoying the peaceful surroundings. As we were enjoying ourselves, what should we see but a herd of goats walk down the main street, being herded by both man and dog. It was quite the sight!
Finally, it was time to start making our way back home. We drove through the various mountain roads, seeing tons of goats being herded home for the end of the day along the way. It was quite the sight!
We had a great day exploring these areas. We definitely could have spent multiple days out here exploring, as we didn’t get to see nearly everything. I’m sure we will make it back out here at some point!