The Mountains of Greece - Trekking in the Pindhos Mountains

The mountains of Greece are beautiful, undeveloped, remote and yet accessible. The guide describes a month-long traverse of the Píndhos range, and provides routes around Athens and the east coast, and in the Peloponnese. Use the routes as day-walks or put them together as multi-day treks.

Kevin Andrews The Flight of Ikaros (Penguin, 1984). A well-written and readable account of the author’s experiences wandering about southern Greece during the Civil War in the late 1940s.

Juliet du Boulay Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village (Oxford, 1974). A detailed study based on the author’s personal experience. Again, very interesting, though indigestibly academic in parts.

J.K. Campbell Honour, Family and Patronage (Oxford, 1964). A very interesting anthropological study of the Sarakatsani shepherds in the Mt Gamíla region in northwest Greece.

Patrick Leigh Fermor Mani (John Murray, 1958) and Roumeli (John Murray, 1966). The two best travel books about remote rural and mountain Greece.

Arthur Foss Epirus (Faber, 1978). A readable, if unexciting, account of the history, traditions and people of Epirus.

Tim Salmon The Unwritten Places (Lycabettus Press, 1995). An account of travels in the Píndhos mountains and especially of life among the Vlachs. Obtainable in the UK from: Edward Stanford, 12–14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP (www.stanfords.co.uk); Daunt Books, 83 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4QW; The Hellenic Book Service, 91 Fortess Rd, London NW5 1AG (www.hellenicbookservice.com).

John Anthony Huxley and William Taylor Flowers of Greece and the Aegean (Chatto and Windus, 1977). The best field guide by far.

Oleg Polunin Flowers of Greece and the Balkans (Oxford, 1980). Expensive and bulky. Its big attraction is that it describes in detail particularly good flower-hunting areas of the mountains.

A.J.B. Wace and M.S. Thompson The Nomads of the Balkans (Methuen, 1914). A fascinating account of living among the Vlachs, when Vlachs were truly Vlachs.

C.M. Woodhouse The Struggle for Greece 1941–49 (Hart-Davis, McGibbon, 1976). The best and most balanced account of the Resistance, with whom the author fought, and the ensuing Civil War.

Michael Cullen Landscapes of the Southern Peleponnese (Sunflower Books, 2003) for more details of walks in this area.

Of the numerous general guidebooks, The Rough Guide to Greece remains the most readable and useful.