South Píndhos
Most hikers arriving at Ioánnina have their sights firmly set
northwards, especially on the Víkos gorge and the Zagóri villages.
If you're feeling adventurous, however, and are not too particular
about where you sleep or what you eat, the remote villages
of the south Píndhos provide an interesting, and far less touristy,
alternative. They perch on the beetling flanks of mounts
Tzoumérka and Kakardhítsa , two overlapping ridges of
bare mountains linked by a high plateau, plainly visible from
Ioánnina. There are few special sights, but you'll get a solid,
undiluted experience of Epirot life.
On weekdays buses leave from Ioánnina's southern station
at 5am and 3.30pm for Ágnanda and Prámanda, with an additional
Saturday service at 3.30pm and on Sundays at 2.30pm; there is also
a service from Árta to Prámanda and beyond. Buses run a couple of
times daily in either direction along the secondary road between
Árta and Ioánnina, stopping at Pláka , which has an
eighteenth-century bridge over the Arahthós amid stunning scenery;
here you can flag down one of the twice-daily Árta-based buses
continuing along the sideroad east as far as Melissourgí.
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