OrestisTrips: "Ράθες" - Water heaven at Lake Marathon

04/02/2023

"Ράθες" - Water heaven at Lake Marathon

Who can complain at a place like this even if it's a sunny but freezing cold morning?

Today's excursion brings me at the North end of Lake Marathon. I can already see a little tiny wee bit of the lake in the background:

But I still have some way to go:

I make a stop around 1 km before my destination to check out one thing. The reason is that the satellite image showed some things on both sides of the road that could be of some interest - top right and bottom left on the following image:

Funny what these turned out to be in real:

I guess these blocks where put there to prevent some dirt from making its way to the lake as a result of landslide during rainfalls.

So instead of gold I stroke coal but no complains in this heaven - look at these baby chamomile waiting to paint white the place in a couple of months:

Speaking of white, pay some attention on how white these guys look instead of green:

I realise that this is actually hoarfrost! Now I understand why it feels so cold even though its 9:30 and the sun is up.

The toughest roads lead you to the best places and this one tries to confirm that:

Pictures don't tell the truth about the depth of the grooves but they are half to one tire deep and rather steep.

With a view like that you have to be beyond miserable to complain though:

The road goes on rough and steep:

But the elevation gives an even better overview:

Let's get higher:

This tree looks like a lonely green planet up here:

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to Lake Marathon, a masterpiece in the middle of this heaven:

Let's get a little higher:

High on nature's beauty if nothing else:

Just in case this looks like a hiker's heaven to you,

it's because it officially is:

I'd better let the green do the talking:

I guess I don't have to try hard to convince you about the low traffic of this road but this pine tree that has covered almost all its width speaks for itself:

It's all downhill from here:

Finally I arrive at the watery heaven I was impatiently looking for as it's my first time here:

Nothing like a mirror generously offered by mama nature:

The serenity of this place with the water reflections and those little waterfalls around is a super soothing experience. I hope the following summary of slow motion clips with my own original soundtrack will give you a good idea about how it really feels like:

Feel free to put this on repeat in case you suffer from insomnia 🙂

You can call this heaven:

Those trees around here sure have stories to tell:

Look at this huge boulder waiting to fall, hopefully with no one around here:

I am walking up this stream which puts a smile on my face from ear to ear:

As you can easily imagine there's no shortage of water or humidity around and the latter helps nature paints the rocks green. My favourite one is the following which looks (and kinda is) like a giant ball:

I said something about trees with stories to tell before - here's some more of them:

I walk next to the stream trying to find a view point in this small jungle:

And finally I do:

It's a pity I didn't manage to capture fishes in this pristinely crystal clear water though I saw a few black ones which were too fast for me to identify them.

As I can tell by the tire marks on the mud some guys have fun with their 4x4 right here:

I'd better walk a bit more though as I'm glad they are not around to mess with this wonderful nature's soundtrack so I take this path:

And it really pays me back big time after a while offering me this wonderful view including Lake Marathon:

I find out that there's an olive grove here:

A little odd as there's nothing like that around but feel free to envy the farmer for the view he gets every time he visits his property:

Don't envy at all the level of access this field has though. I'd like to see how they carry the harvest in such roads after some rainy days. Fortunately I only carry myself so it's easier to get through such stuff: