Something to bear in mind if planning a trip to Manikia is that much of the climbing, and certainly the most popular crags, are actually nearer to Vrysi at the bottom end of the valley (see previous two posts). Not a deal-breaker as it’s only a 10mins drive, but worth being aware of when you book accommodation. Having said that, whilst the further 5km or so of rock on the north side of the valley towards Manikia is only sparsely developed, the crags nearer to the namesake village are really impressive and well worth visiting if the grade range suits.

Manikia Kentro is one stunning feature (accessed via a 10mins walk up a dirt track immediately left of the tiny roadside chapel – not entirely obvious from the guidebook map but there’s a wooden sign if you look carefully).

This is a Malham-esqu chunk of rock, complete with an underground river emerging from its base. A giant face of gently overhanging orange limestone, composed of tangled tufas and stuck-on blobs, but happily at least some of them face in the right direction! The foot of the routes are accessed by a fixed rope up a scrambly gangway, making for a slightly precarious belaying spot.

I made a couple of brief visits as parts of two-crag days, after Helen had clocked off from a morning’s toil in the lower valley. I did Hyperion, 7a, taking a line just left of the low black roof to the top of the crag for a gob-smacking, rope-stretching pitch. Absolutely stupendous climbing on unlikely holds to a steep finale. New entry at the top of the “Route-of-the-trip” leaderboard.

On a later visit I got 3/4 of the way up Afaxanon Tonos 7a/+ but got spat off at a cruxy roof. I had better success on the adjacent Rheia, which gives a brilliant 30m introductory tufa groove for a 6c/+ tick, followed by a short, steep (or rather even steeper!) corner extension for the full 7a+. The extension took me a couple of goes (and no I didn’t start from the ground the second time, but there’s a commodious no-hands rest). Both brilliant! One more 7a+ to come back for and then I’ll need to up my game!

Le Bal Con is situated just above and to the left of Kentro, and accessed via a track barely 50m left of the Kentro one. It’s a bit steep and bumpy to start with but soon becomes more reasonable as it winds up towards a large flat parking area after less than a km (navigable with care in a hire car).

The path isn’t entirely obvious to start with – park at the large flat area, resisting the temptation to drive another 100m up the main track (this doesn’t get you where you want to be!) Instead, walk rightwards along a rough track marked by a couple of large cairns and after 100m or so you’ll spot a wooden sign and ubiquitous red triangles leading up through a steeper rock band. Arrows and cairns lead on a fairly decent winding path to the foot of the crag in about 20mins as advertised.

There’s only a dozen or so routes, but with an extraordinary range of grades from 5a to 8b! Helen did both the 5s which were OK rather than awesome. We both did Le Bouc en Pet up a cracky groove (6a or b depending on source – stiff for 6a with some lingering dampness). I then put in a huge effort on Golo, 7a+, sketching through a couple of really tough sections before misreading a final heart-breaking crux above the last bolt. Stunning 40m 7a+ that might be an even better 37m 7a 😦

Around on the left end of the crag are a pair of absolutely cracking 6b+s: Dans le Kosmos and Durex Lex Sed Lex (both highly recommend and the latter a tad stiffer).

Great views to the lower valley and down onto Manikia village.

With a late start and a full day, we ended up wandering down in the gloaming (glad of the occasional downwards pointing red triangle!)

Canyon Just in case you think the sun always shines on RockAroundTheWorld we’ve had a couple of weather-enforced rest days (as well as a few showery / chilly climbing ones). It’s certainly not just a feature of Manikia – Feb/March seems to attract the occasional major weather front that sweeps across the country…

I used one of these for a recce of the Canyon sectors in the side valley beneath Manikia village. It’s a slightly tortuous drive…

You drive through Manikia village (taking a slight right at the world’s smallest roundabout in the square) and on over the hill towards Makrychori. Just before you enter the village there’s a sharp left marked by a Manikia Project sign (the start of the pink trail on the map above). There’s a fairly obvious sign to Canyon on a bend…

… but not long after there’s a fork in the dirt track where you need to go left, slightly uphill (there’s a further sign just after the turn to reassure you, but not visible from the junction!) The track peters out just before a fenced field with a cairn. You skirt the left edge of the field and soon pick up a path with occasional red triangles and cairns.

There’s some impressive chunks of rock along here, much of it in caves festooned with tufa. Not much below 7-something, and little evidence of much traffic, but I suspect it would look a lot more appealing in the dry.

You could even conceivably have found some dry rock, but these were the only climbers in evidence…