Leaving Leonidio on a showery day, we turned south to head down to the very tip of the Laconia peninsula, the “index finger” of the Peloponnese, dropping in to Vlychada about 50km south to break the journey. You’d imagine you’d just nip around the coast, hugging the seafront, but the local geography has other ideas. Instead you climb up endless zigzags onto the 1,000m mountain ridge that runs parallel to the coast, into a wild and desolate landscape populated by the occasional goat and an increasing number of wind turbines, before even more zigzags lead you back down to sea level. Top tip – as you head through Zarakas, the last village before Vlychada, be sure to keep an eye out for the discreet signs that indicate the “bypass” suggested for through traffic, as entering the village in anything larger than a Fiat 500 might mean you never leave!
I blogged about Vlychada on our previous visit, so suffice to say that if Carlsburg did crags…
No sign of rain here, but I had absolutely promised myself a rest day!
Not a bad spot to wake up…
… and only a couple of minutes to the crag.
We did a few of the juggy orange routes on the righthand side including Laloudi, 6a
If you read the previous blog post you’ll find it ends with us getting rained off the 3* 40m 6a+ of La Sabre when the heavens opened. Unfinished business was settled, and what a stupendous route up tufa and a huge lay back flake.
I then sandbagged myself (or at least 2017 me did – he assured me that Artemis was a soft touch but it took me a second go to figure out the moves out of the rest in the cave). Here’s a shot of Gregor on one of the stunning steep pocket lines on the front face to give some impression of the quality of hard routes available (and the quality of the backdrop you get to enjoy them in!)
Cooling down in the full shade by the early afternoon so we ended our flying visit, but we did go to recce the approach to the newly established Balogeri sector, accessed by a dirt track from one of the Vlychada zigzags. An on-foot explore of the final kilometre reassured that there would be somewhere to turn our van around on a future visit, though we’d hope to avoid the goat-jam!
Arriving in the parking beneath the main Zobolo crag, we still had the sense of a pristine, little-travelled climbing paradise, with the only noticeable (and welcome) change being that the last couple of km of the coast road are now tarmac.
Cape Malea lays claim, (a bit cheekily) to being the southernmost point in mainland Europe (whereas Gibraltar beats it by at least a nose). However, playing with the Google Maps “Measure distance” feature, reveals its true claim to fame – it’s as far as you can get from our house, at around 1,680 miles, a good 50 miles further than the most easterly point in Bulgaria or the most northerly place in Norway. We’re a l-oooo-ng way from home!
We had four days in 2019 exploring this impressive array of cliffs, set around three sides of a headland (handy to seek / avoid shade and shelter from what can be fearsome winds). See this blog post and the following three for details.
We’d been put off visiting the even more remote Hioni sector by the advice in the Aris guide “it’s not easy to get to Sector Hioni” but the tarmac road now extends another kilometre or so to the chapel, and we were more reassured by the approach descriptions on the excellent Climb Zobolo website: https://www.climbzobolo.gr/ What’s more, we were also incentivised by two further new sectors accessed via the same route: Kotróni and Likogremos. Time to go exploring!
From the main Zobolo Parking you head about 1km along the coast road until the tarmac peters out at the chapel. Signs here point you sharp left, uphill, towards all three sectors, and in about 3.2km of fairly benign but little-travelled dirt road you arrive at the Hioni parking spot on a hairpin.
Hioni and Likogremos (another km up the zigzags) both have morning shade so we pressed on to Kotróni, the farthest sector, about 1.6km from Hioni.
Not a huge amount of parking space, but I don’t imagine it often fills up.
The start of the climbing is only about 5mins along a well-crafted and cairned path.
The rock is generally vertical white / grey and compact, with routes either following natural crack features or the blankness in between and a good spread of grades from 5s to 8s.
There are great topos to be downloaded from the Climb Zobolo website https://www.climbzobolo.gr/guides/ and to make matters even easier, most lines have neat aluminium name plates.
The bolting is immaculate, with reassuringly chunky glue-ins and the spacing is generally friendly, which helps offset the slightly friable nature of some of the holds (the crag is only a few years old and is still settling down).
Oh, and the views are stunning with 180 degree vistas into the Med.
Here’s Helen on Karamela, 5b
… and we also did Magkes, 6a+, up a long juggy natural fault line, Pouthenades, 7a, on the right hand side before it went into the shade around 2pm. The left side of the crag is more featured, with some orange caves, and gets an extra hour’s sun. Ante Geia, 7a+, was a bit too bouldery, but Vromiko Kolpo, 6a, was another wild jug-fest with a slightly Gogarthesqu feel.
Chilly in the shade, but the other two sectors were clearly visible and coming nicely into the sun. Time for a few downwards zigzags…
… to Hioni. Only 5mins to the crag up another very well cairned path.
This is a much more tufa-strewn crag and the path brings you to the crag at the foot of Anidoto, 7a, which looked right up my street. I came out on the top of that particular wrestling match.
Quitting whilst we were ahead, we were back at the main Zobolo parking area for a magnificent rainbow
… not a bad van spot
… with the bonus of a gorgeous sunset
… and a red wash over the crag.
Next morning is pretty windy, but we head up to the main crag and there’s a bit of shelter to be found in the centre of the main face. Helen did Zobel, 6a
… and Bougelo, 5b
I had a go at Myrtoo Palagos, a 7a+ that I’d managed to onsight on our last visit, which only went to prove that you should never go back! Melomeno Kotsi was a good 6c consolation.
… and to be honest, just being here is consolation enough. What a fabulous place – and all to ourselves!
RockAroundTheWorld 