Sunday morning, 29th of February 2004.
We met with Zan Coester, who would join us to this day's adventure. Heading southwest, via Kastania, we passed a fresh snow covered pass, to reach Tria Potamia, were Aspropotamos (upper Acheloos) is formed by Lakmos and Kraniotikos tributaries. While we spent a few minutes argueing whether we should paddle Lakmos river, who was obviously in perfect flow conditions, or stick to the original plan of Kamneitikos, some of us didn't care to contribute to the conversation and headed into the wood to spend their morning private time, in the best possible place!
Kamneitikos plan prevailed and we continued south for 10 more kms, driving right next to Aspropotamos, watching all these "useless" signs of kayak slalom courses, until we reached a junction. To reach the put in at the village of Pyra (or Neraidohori, for upper Kamneitikos), we should keep straight. We took the sharp right turn downhill to Alexiou bridge.
From there a not so good dirt road, follows the river (called Acheloos from now on) until Arthamanio and then Mesohora dam.
The works for this hydroelectric project, one of the greatest constructions in Greece, have been completed 5 years ago, but certain roadworks and habitants rehabillitation, still hold the project inoperative.
The dirt road proved quite difficult for Pavlos's Astra - I will never understand why this guy has the impression that this car should be treated as a jeep and most important, to be considered as one - so we followed it until Kamneitikos confluence to Acheloos, where the map shows a secondary dirt road approaching the river, near a sheep pen, at a place called Katsineles.
Unfortunately, the road is old and unpassable and the main dirt road gets worse further on, by recent rockfalls, so we decide to leave the return car at the pen and head back to the asphalt road to the put in.
On the way up, Zan couldn't help a remark about our "particular way" of organise things. He always wanted to know, how we end up putting in so late. I guess that while in the put in, he had all the time to figure it out, all dressed up and ready, while we were taken our time to organise things, always busy, doing something remotely nescessary. Welcome to the world of TEAMadara!
From the village of Pyra, we kind of guessed our way to the river, only to reach an extremely small stream, tight and barely paddleable. A quick look in the map, revealed that this was only a side stream, Kamneitikos was 1km further.
The weather is now getting worse, nearly snowing. The water is pretty cold, so we start paddling fast. I 'm sure, Zan was surprised of our speedy rythm in the water, as it was our turn to wait for him in the eddie. Or, perhaps, he was just keeping a safe distance...??
The river was fast, with continuous class II-III ledges, woody canyons, and virgin surroundings with picturesque waterslides. A wooden bridge, covered with every possible structural material, serves a likewise built pen.
At a couple of places, big, bigger, or huge logs, demand some scouting and in one case, portage. After the steel bridge, below Agios Nikolaos, the river gets more volume and starts speeding into tighter - but never too tight, or shoreless canyons, in succesive class III+ stretches. Eddy by eddy, we boat scouted almost all of them, keep moving fast, to finally arrive at Acheloos confluence in almost 3 hours.
Shouldering time now, with Zan and Konidis hiking up the steep path to the pen, in no time, I had to stick back with Pavlos, who after the first meters, looked like in the brake of a serious heart attack episode. Thankfully, Zan came back to help. Looking at Pavlos, he didn't bother to ask who needed any help...
On our way back now, one more stop, to collect the reminants of "jeep's" bumper, which after a close encounter with a 15cm high rock, decided that it was time to seperate of the main vehicle. Enough is enough...well I can't say I blame it. So guess what joined our four boats in the top of my roof!
More pages about Kamneitikos:
Kamneitikos river report
