ALTITUDE (min): 160 m (Stone bridge at Voulgaris River) (max): 335 m (Stavros near Vatoussa)
ALTITUDE DIFFERENCE: 175m
AREA MORPHOLOGY: Gentle hills, steep hills, ravines, waterfall
ROUTE VEGETATION: Sparse oak forest, thickets with holly oak, cultivated and abandoned olive groves, riverside vegetation, plane trees, grazing lands, farmland and small cultivated vineyards
MONUMENTS OF HISTORY AND CULTURE: Traditional settlements, chapels, old stone bridge, watermill ruin
CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER ROUTES OF THE NETWORK: Dirt road from Pterounda to Pigados, for the "Trekking Trails of the Rhododendron"
ΠΡΟΣΒΑΣΕΙΣ και ΔΙΕΥΚΟΛΥΝΣΕΙΣ: Asphalt road to all villages. Drinking water, coffeehouses and food: Vatoussa, Chidira.
This Circular Trail runs inside the caldera at the bottom of an extinct volcano crater millions of years old. It passes through areas where the geological history of the land and the history of habitation and activities of the local population are at plain view with each step the trekker takes. The aristocratic Vatoussa, a traditional settlement and the ‘head village’ among the caldera villages, small Rema, the active Chidira with the Georgios Iakovidis Digital Museum and the famed ‘Mithymnian Wine’, and charming Pterounda built with the unique ‘Pteroundian stone’, are all connected with trails from olden times under the shade of ancient oak trees scattered on the hills and the grasslands. The ruins of the water mill at the waterfall of Vathylimno and the stone bridge of Voulgari River stand there physical evidence of the past in a region that preserves its tranquillity, away from big roads.
