The deepest gorge in the world: Welcome to Zagoria National Park

I am not quite sure I can explain how spectacular the north part of Greece is and in particular Zagoria. This area is known as the villages behind the mountains and has some of the most spectacular views. The Vikos Gorge is the deepest gorge in the world in relation to its width and it truly is amazing.

Kokoros Bridge

When we headed up there, our first stop was at Kokoros Bridge, the legend says that it brings you good luck to cross this bridge so I guess good things will come my way now. After that we headed over to Kalogeriko Bridge, to be fair there are thousands of little bridges in this area – no one really knows exactly how many. I am pretty sure that it is impossible to visit them all to be honest.

Oxya viewpoint

We went to two different viewpoints to discover the gorge: the oxya viewpoint – where we stopped on the very edge next to the “End” sign, looking down over the scenery. I don’t think I could have expected it to get any better but then we arrived to Agia Paraskevi, where there is an old monastery where there is still a monk living who makes icons. We saw him sitting drawing the icons in his little workshop as we walked past.

Agia Paraskevi

But then we took the road less travelled – the one with warning signs and enter on your own risk on the gates. We walked on a small path right on the edge of the gorge which even got the big muscle guys to get nervous. It was stunning and scaring at the same time – you wanted to turn back at the same time as you wanted to explore more. It was definitely a moment of pushing your boundaries of your comfort zone and a bit of a relief once you returned back to a proper path that wasn’t on the edge of the deepest gorge in the world! It is a bit like jumping out of a plane – you don’t really want to do it when you sit there on the edge but you really want to be able to say that you have done it so you just go for it – though to be fair I have jumped out of a plane twice so maybe that’s not the best similarity, but I think the point is still made.

Zagoria is a natural wonder – one that I did not expect to find in Greece. This entire experience has just made me realised how little I know of the world and all the wonders that are in it. It makes me excited to explore what else is out there – both here in Greece and the rest of the world.