A few weeks ago, I was studying the maps on the countryside near Stroumpi. I noticed that a new landmark had been added. A bridge had appeared in the countryside near Koili! I had explored the area before, by car, and knew that there were a lot of narrow valleys. I had never seen a bridge though, so I couldn't resist checking it out.

The exact location of the bridge was unclear. The person who added it to the map said they couldn't drive there, and had to walk the final bit. So I decided to start out at a place I had been to before. It seemed reasonable enough.

This is the map. I originally drove to the point to the right of the arrow where the road crosses the river. It turns out I actually wanted the next track along, directly below the arrow. But we will get to that in a moment.

I parked in the vineyard and had a walk around. I could hear running water, and headed towards it. I came to a small cliff which turned out to be a river bank. In the reeds below I could see some rocks with numbers scrawled on them. Regular blog readers will know that these numbers are in fact dates, and they are left by inspectors when they visit the area to spray insecticide near water sources.

It was clear that there was no path to any bridge from this direction, just a huge expanse of vegetation.

I should point out that this blog, and the following two, are the result of numerous visits to the area, with photographs taken on each visit. Consequently, some may have clouds in them, and some will have rich blue sky. On this visit, for instance, we also visited Agios Georgios Monastery which we blogged about a few weeks ago. Indeed, we found the monastery when we were looking for the bridge.

On our next attempt, we took the next track along. You can follow this down from Koili, and we recently published a film of us doing that exact route. If you aren't driving in a really good 4x4, you should park when you get this far down, and walk the rest.