Greece: E4 European Long Distance Trail in the Verno mountains from Florina to Amindeo
near Flórina, West Macedonia (Greece)
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Trail photos
Itinerary description
Leaving Florina, the route crosses the Verno mountains. There are two isolated churches on the way up into the mountains. After walking through beech woods along a ridge you drop down into a valley near the village of Drosopigi. I saw a wild tortoise on my way down. There is another church and old cemetery as you climb out of this valley, above the cemetery the original E4 path has become overgrown and the current GPS track follows dirt roads instead.
The highlight for me were some bear footprints that I found on the route. There is a bear sanctuary at Nimfeo run by a charity where you can get much more information on wild bears in the area as well as see some of the bears that have been rescued from various places. Nimfeo itself is a picturesque, stone built village high in the mountains and I can recommend Guesthouse Enterne. After Nimfeo there are more beech woods and a descent onto the plains where a road section takes you to the town of Amindeo.
More details on johnpone4greece.blogspot.com.
A GPS file of the next section of the E4 can be downloaded from https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/greece-e4-european-long-distance-trail-from-amindeo-to-mikri-santa-29315156
For my complete trek on the E4 across Europe read my book "Six Pairs of Boots: Spain to Cyprus on the E4 Trail" by John Pucknell available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, the Bookdepository.com, lehmanns.de, bookspot.nl, and other good online bookstores.
Waypoints
Arktoýros Bear Sanctuary
Arktoýros is a charity devoted to the welfare of wild bears and wolves in Greece. They run a sanctuary at Nimfeo for bears that had been rescued from private collections and the like which cannot be returned to the wild. I found the talk that they give most informative.
Church and Cemetery
There is a church, bell tower and overgrown cemetery at this point. Above it the original E4 path has become too overgrown to use so this track follows some dirt tracks.
Panagía - Church of Virgin Mary
An isolated church on the mountain side with benches and a tap. The church was locked but it was a pleasant place to stop for lunch.
Bear footprints
This is where I spotted some bear footprints. They have five toes (unlike dogs) and the rear paws are much larger than the front paws so they can stand up. They are also pretty big. The bears themselves have survived as they keep well away from humans, which in the past have killed them.
Ágios Georgios Church
A small isolated church on the way up the mountain from Florina.
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