Train and Rail Travel in Thessaly Page 5 (see Greece train map)

Ta Agrafa continued

There is a fascinating book by an Englishman fascinated with this area in the southern Pindos range, published by Lykavittos Press in the late 1990s: The Unwritten Places by Tim Salmon. As this author explains very beautifully, the mountains have always been the refuge for Greeks striving to maintain independence (and also their own culture) from the incursions of the outsider-the invader. The Agrafa mountains in particular, with all fertile land cultivated, once produced as much olive oil and wheat as the entire Peloponnese (just as the upper Pindos, as Salmon points out in his book) once had a flourishing trade in textiles, furs, and other goods, with huge annual fairs where those goods were dealt).

During the Greek Civil War that followed the horrific destruction perpetrated by the Nazi occupiers during WWII, the Greek right-wing army forced villagers out of the mountains (which were controlled by the Greek andartes or guerillas who depended on those villages for food and other supplies as well as for refuge). They were forced into towns on the plains, and their painstakingly nourished mountain land reverted to wilderness, while their villages crumbled. In recent times the area has attracted trekkers and now there are guide books, maps and organized groups exploring this area.

Agrafa continued: Peaks in this region include Mt Bolero (2,032meters), Mt. Plaka (2013meters), and Mt. Flindzai (2,018meters) with high mountain valleys, old kalderimia (cobbled paths), and small villages are to be enjoyed by trekkers.

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