Whitewater kayak Greece
Whitewater kayaking in Greece
| Author: Lena Grüb, S2S Pro-Team
Greece is a whitewater paradise, especially if you like remote streams in beautiful gorges. Canyon walls come in all colors and dimensions. In late spring, the whole thing - surrounded by lush green forests - offers a backdrop in a class of its own.
Despite the deep canyons, Greece is not just for lovers of difficult white water. Most of the routes are in the easy to moderate range (a lot of WW around grade 3 on the whitewater scale). Daniel and I wanted to paddle a lot in order to start the kayaking season at home warmed up and with more lard.
We were able to successfully paddle many classics including Erymanthos, Krikellopottamos, Arachtos, Kallaritikos, Voidomatis, Milleapottamos and Aaos.
Admittedly, as always when whitewater kayaking in Greece, our vacation included a lot of long shuttling through winding terrain. The roads are not always paved. The bike is usually not the means of choice here, as some shuttles by car are an hour one-way. There are also lots of dogs that like to chase tough calves.
The good thing about driving in Greece, however, is that you are usually in beautiful countryside and it never gets boring: sometimes an entire lane of the road is broken off, sometimes you have to clear stones out of the driveway, sometimes you have to brake abruptly because of crossing flocks of sheep.
The Erymanthos was one of our first streams and we decided to run all the sections in a row. This meant that we had around 30 km of continuous whitewater including a 4-person forced passage canyon. For WW3 and geology enthusiasts, the lower section, the conglomerate canyon, is an absolute must!
One of our highlights was definitely the Milleapottamos, which we caught with plenty of water so that we were able to run both sections in one go. In the Black Canyon, we found fantastic white water with lots of boofs, beautiful tongues and great eddies for undercutting. The only thing you shouldn't miss is the exit. An old picturesque stone bridge spans the river before it disappears between high walls into an impassable canyon.
There is also an ancient stone bridge at Voidomatis, which is unrivaled in terms of water quality and the overall whitewater experience. Several cubic meters of turquoise water bubble out of the springs right at the entrance. Later in the year, the river only rises from these springs at the entrance. This time, however, some water also came from above from the Vikos.
Staying overnight in Greece
Wild and beautiful places to sleep can be found almost everywhere in Greece. Of course, "leave nothing but footprints" should apply here. As you can still clearly see the traces of last summer's devastating forest fires, I would advise against campfires at this point. Instead of a barbecue, we recommend a visit to a taverna to round off the day's paddling perfectly.
River information Greece whitewater kayaking
Information on Greek rivers can be found in the Greco canoe guides by Franz Bettinger. As there are hardly any online gauges, it is very helpful that Christoph Scheuermann initiates a WhatsApp group every year so that we can share assessments of the water levels and the latest information with each other. That's when you realize how helpful the paddling community is!
Efkharisto! Thank you very much! And have fun paddling in Greece!
