Our trip report's first pages: The trip to Aoos, First section's trip report

9th of June 2003. 6.30 in the morning, we are having breakfast at Palioseli village square, enjoying the panorama of Tymfi range. The north faces of Tsouka Rossa, Karteros and Gamila, are turning red as the sun reaches their peaks. Everytime I 'm standing here, it's always the same...The best mountain view in Greece.

After a fulfilling dinner and a good night sleep, we are strong again to face the shorter, but more demanding second section of Aoos. As we did well with our yesterday's run of the upper section, the spirits are high.
We put in at 9.30, at the bridge we took out yesterday. The flow is nearly the same. We paddle easy stretches for a couple of kms, enjoying the last of Tymfi's magnificent view, as we slowly getting into Palaiomonastiro windings. The surrounding walls start rising and we enter the first gorge after 6kms.

The first difficult rapid is close. It can be scouted and portaged from the left. In this boulder garden, the flow is divided by a protruding rock in the middle, pushing to the right, over some ledges to a big white undercuted boulder to the end. This place needs attention as it is a potential siphon, one that awarded our friend Antonis with a membership to the club of siphon masters. Alfredos, already a member of the club, volunteers for the cameraman post. Dimitris runs it first, not succeding to follow the left line, avoided the trap at his last stroke.

Giving it another try, I focused on the dividing rock, to catch the left flow this time. Miscalculating the speed of water, I hit the rock and flip on turn. After being stacked sideways for a second, the right flow drifts me upsidedown towards the siphon, where I follow exactly the same route as Dimitris. Not a scratch, but taken a good lesson. Not every rapid is as innocent as it looks!

In a while, the riverwalls close above us and house-sized boulders are closing entrance. All but a meter wide micro canyon on the right. This one leads around the boulder, just before a powerful one-drop rapid. This 1.5m high and 4m wide drop creates a big backwash. No problem, if it wasn't for the exit to the rapid, less than 10m from the drop. From the three possible "exit gates" only the one far left is free. The normal exit to the right is trapped with a log, waiting for you to fail rolling. We chose to portage on the right (see photos).

The river continues into this impressive gorge, into WW III to III+ rapids, most of them scouted from inside the boat. We cover some more distance, until huge boulders block the whole river once more. Little openings, only lead to tight dead end corridors, logs and siphons. An arduous portage on the left for 100m is the only option. A 2m ledge drop at the end, can be boofed, but safety can't reach you if trapped at the undercut behind the stopper.

We continue paddling in easier, up to WW III stretches, scouting for traps and avoiding siphons, when we first see Stomiou monastery at the edge of the left canyon wall, less than 500m far. We stop for some rest, as we know that the next 2km will be hard.
Stretches of 100 to 150m, up to grade WW III+, come next. Breaking in and breaking out, eddy by eddy, drop by drop, we paddle this rewarding part until the end of the gorge. In this section, two stretches need attention: a type "S" rapid, demands safety settings, as if you miss your line, there is a possibility of pinning sideways or upside down, between boulders on the right. Then, after a 50m stretch, ending in a 15m long pool, with a huge gray boulder to the left, there is a tricky repid: a right leaning drop into a corridor with a powerful backwash, extended over 10m to the other side of the canyon. The whole river drops through this 1m wide stretch. It's depth and power must be awesome. We chose to walk this last one.

As the sidewalls open, one more time (the third), we find ourselves manoeuvring among huge boulders. You can only see until the next eddy and then to the next. One by one we progress into this labyrinth. At this point, it's more than appreciated, that the flow is not high. We get out to scout the "Alexandra's undercut". The river squizes through three tight, unfriendly 1m drops, while the main flow drives you right, close to the undercut wall, which features a couple of logs to make it more interesting. Of course there is a possible, but tricky line to avoid the undercut, but as we couldn't arrange safety there, we walk along river left.

Two more significant rapids, in a now open gorge and we'll reach the Konitsa weir, 2km from our take out. We spot the first civilisation signs, in the path that follows the left bank and starts climbing up the slope towards the monastery. The path continues afterwards through formidable woods, to the foot of the north face of Gamila on the right, or to Karteros crossing and from there to the high plateau of Gamila, the alpic "Dragon-lake" and down to Zagori villages. On the left, to Skamneli and Tsepelovo villages .
Dimitris spotted the first rapid from far away, where the river drops over a ledge, at the base of a pillar on the right wall. A leaf-bearing tree on top of it, leans over the drop. Behind the pillar there is a large eddy and then the river turns left. In lower water, the rocks in front of the drop cause a pinning threat, but today the powerfull stopper of the drop was the only difficulty (III+).

A 50m boulder garden (III) scouted on river right, was our goodbye to magnificent Aoos gorge. We now entering a 2km WW II to III section of bouldery and playful run, followed by a dirt road along the left bank. A familiar run, bringing back memories of Evathlos outdoor races, a famous international event that started from river people, with kayaking it's leading sport. Unfortunately, the games have lost their prime glow in the last couple of years, without a kayaking race in the program. Pity, as most of young kayaking athletes, live in Konitsa!

The weir's gate was closed, complicating the artificial rapid, which is normaly runnable (IV). Portage on river left.

The gaugemeter 100m before the bridge of Konitsa, on river left, was at 173cm (medium flow). We resisted a run at the slalom course after the bridge and stopped on the right, where the guys have driven the jeeps to the river bank. We draged our boats out, tired but satisfied.
Stavros and Giorgos were waiting by the old arc bridge. Their faces, fresh and smily...after a quick interrogation, they confessed that after leaving us at the put in, they retuned to Palioseli, to hit the soft matresses until 12.00. Then they speeded their way to Konitsa, just to be sure that they 'll be there before we arrive. And as they did, well... they tried the local cuisine, while waiting!
Congratulations to Alfredos, Spiros and Giannis, on their first Aoos run. Congratulations to all of us, for running as a team, one of the longest and most demanding rivers. I'm sure, every one of us, came out this one, a better paddler.

Looking forward to the next year.

More Aoos pages:

• Aoos river data
• Aoos river map (NRY)