Not sure about you but the title alone was enough motivation for me to visit this one. This area South East of Athens used to be rich in silver with intense mining activity from the prehistoric times. Keep in mind that the oldest mine around is dated around 3000 BC!
The spot I am about to visit is located here and I ignore Google's recommendation about the most convenient route as I follow a more scenic shortcut instead. It doesn't make my car's suspension happy but it definitely fills my eyes with much better views than just tarmac and concrete. Right after the village of Agios Konstantinos I'm already happily driving through an olive grove:
Which later gives it's place to this fantastic pine forest while still in total absence of tarmac:
The scent scent of those pine trees is mesmerising and as I am heading East I see from the corner of my eye on my left some relics in the woods that might be of some interest. I deviate and park the car for a closer look.
This large (for the standards of the area) gate is a sign that there used to be some short of wealth here:
You might laugh at it now but consider that the vast majority of the properties around have way more humble doors and I bet that the rest of the fence left and right was a later add on as the original one was gone over the year.
The spot is so beautiful - wish I had a property at a place like this:
I can't find an easy way to get in so I walk by the fence to have a look on what is what. Interesting to see that they used all these stones to built this road back in the day (late 19th - early 20th the latest):
Which means that either the property owners were wealthy enough to do so or the road used to lead to something important or both. That's quite the opposite of today as even locals don't use this anymore.
The vegetation is so dense today as the whole thing has been left unattended for god knows how long but those massive stone walls tell the story of the past's wealth - hope you manage to see them behind the woods:
As I reach one end of this property I get a better view to the road I took to make this deviation:
As you can see it looks like a dam in the middle of nowhere. Pretty weird looking at it and driving on top of it. Lovely view to this olive grove from the same spot:
Here's some more from the same property:
I walk back to the gate and try to find a way to get in without much drama but doesn't look like that the case here. I climb this hill in search of a point of entry:
As you can see not much luck except the luck of being surrounded by pine trees:
Time to go down again unfortunately empty handed:
I can't complain though, I can be happily lost in those wonderful dirt roads:
Just in case one finds pine trees boring the vegetation becomes more diverse at points like this:
After several km driving alone (with an exception of one (1) car) through this sweet pine forest I am back on tarmac. I make a stop at the following bridge cause it is similarly named to the bridge I want to visit later:
As you see it's an old stone bridge but other than that nothing so interesting. Here's a picture of the stream that goes under though the penetrating sun and high humidity are not picture friendly:
These conditions make it even worse as I try to picture the bridge from the otherside:
I'm reaching the limits on this post so will (hopefully) see you in the next part as I am one breath away from my destination.
To be continued!