In the past few weeks I’ve been spending quite a bit of time navigating the river canyons of Ikaria doing a river feature mapping project. The work basically involves following the river, either upstream or downstream (whichever might be easier for a given section) and marking down coordinates for pools, waterfalls and other points of interest.

I can tell you that Chalares river, for example, has over 70 swimmable pools (over 1m deep) starting from the beach in Nas and ending at Megalo fragma (dam of Chalares) and Raksounia waterfall (the second fork) with the average surface area of between 50 & 60 square meters (based on rough estimates, varies with season and amount of water) and there are about 40 waterfalls over 2m high (again, depends on amount of water).

The time it takes you to make it from one end to the other will depend greatly on your swimming habits and other variables but I’d suggest you take your time and divide the hike between at least two days. The other two major rivers in Rahes area offer a similar challenge.

If the title evoked images of canyoning of the adrenaline kind (such as the ones in the video below) I can assure you it is not the most likely situation you will find on these rivers. There’s simply not enough water to allow for such sliding or jumping over waterfalls (except in certain specific sections).

No, canyoning on Ikaria is more of a peaceful kind that takes you to places rarely seen by others since the trails mostly stay higher up on the sides of the valley.

Ratsos waterfall in Chalares, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

upper Raksounia waterfall, Chalares, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

Why such places are rarely seen becomes quickly apparent once you try to get to them. Most of them are inaccessible for the most part of the year when water levels are too high and even in the summer they can present quite a challenge.

Eva & Jude climbing in Myrsonas, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

I would sum up the skills required into three groups. First off we have classic rock climbing. Mostly this won’t be that hard or high and can often be avoided by climbing out and around on the sides of the valley rather than over the obstacle. But not always (especially the section of Myrsonas between Vathes reservoir and the first bridge downstream) and you will have to find a way forward right over the wall, usually next to a waterfall. I would suggest bringing some safety equipment just in case you’re not too confident.

Next up is bouldering. You might argue this is the same as rock climbing but as it involves low obstacles it is not as dangerous and much more common in all of these rivers. Sometimes it might be hard to get over a particular problem but a little skill and ingenuity goes a long way.

Thirdly we have parkour. True… you may not actually need this skill per se but it sure makes life a lot easier. If you do know some of the moves and principles involved you’ll be saving a lot of time and energy getting over the obstacles.

In short that would be it. I may expand it at a future date though.

(photo by Johanna Robinson)

A couple of weekends ago we rented Suzuki Jimnys (one of the best miniature 4x4s you can find) to explore the island properly. Since most of us don’t get the chance of leaving the office during working hours, such day trips provide some much needed relaxation. For those of us that have been to pretty much everywhere within walking distance of the base however, the cars provide a very welcome extension in range of operations. And if you’re willing to get up before sunrise it means you have pretty much half a day head start before everyone else gets out of bed (on a weekend that is) so you can spend the whole morning on your own.

On one such Saturday I managed to convince Johanna to get up early as well. Coming home from a wedding party a few weeks earlier I noticed how the morning sun lit up the Loupastra-Schiza ridge in most glorious light so that’s where we were going. It’s nearby so you don’t have to get up ridiculously early (time is relative of course) and I was hoping of getting some nice photos but, as is always the case, reality wanted nothing to do with my imagination. So rather than chasing images I couldn’t get I went chasing what I could. I got some acceptable photos of this and that but my mind quickly switched into climbing mode while we were walking down from Loupastra and towards Schiza.

You can take the easy way up (from that approach), of course, but I noticed a particular set of rocks leading up to the top on the right. It was a gentle morning introduction to climbing on Schiza.

(click to open larger)

From the top I took some photos of Chalares river below and came up with a perfect framing of a photo.

(photo by Johanna Robinson)

It just needed someone to stand on a particular rock… there were no goats around on that side (how odd?!) so I asked Johanna to come up to the spot I was standing on and started a descent (see yellow line on photo above). My plan was to come up from underneath since that looked like the best approach to where I needed to go. As I was scrambling down it gradually became obvious it probably wasn’t. It was definitely possible, but not without proper climbing equipment.
So I turned around and started making my way back towards the other peak.

The beginning was very easy with some loose rocks that were sliding down occasionally but as it turned towards vertical the rock became much more pleasant to hold on to. I turned into a chimney so rather than looking for footholds I could just use friction (so easy on this granite).

But even so there were plenty of nice grips and cracks all over the place so I was never fumbling around too long.

Somewhere midway I noticed an easy escape to my right that led me almost to the spot I envisioned earlier. I didn’t want to spend more time going down again (by this time Johanna must have been pretty bored waiting for me) so I turned around, got back into my couloir and continued up all the way to the top.

(photo by Johanna Robinson)

All in all, I’d give this route an overall climbing grade of III or IV, apart from putting up with the sun shining directly at you, there’s nothing seriously demanding that would absolutely require the use ropes and other safety equipment. You just better not have vertigo.

There is, of course, a lot more you can do around here, as far as rock climbing is concerned, but use of ropes and other stuff quickly becomes a real necessity. One such area worthy of exploration is the canyon leading from Dipotama to Raksounia waterfall.

Raksounia waterfall, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

The trail that takes you to the waterfall is easy enough (if a bit steep at times) but the sides of the canyon closer to the stream itself (especially the northern/right side one) are very inviting. Don’t forget about safety though. The rock is very loose and often falls apart when weight is applied… judging from the short bit I climbed before abandoning the idea for the day.

Nothing major to declare… but due to uncomfortably long page load times (which meant that certain things didn’t work as intended) I decided to start a new album of photos from Ikaria. Old album thus ends with 88 photos inside and the new one opens with 14 from another drive around Ikaria in a rented Suzuki Jimny last weekend.

I’ll write more about the climb down and up Schiza and some other things some other day… wow, there’s a lot of repeating going on in that sentence…