Greece
Tzoumerka
Stone villages abandoned on a mountain ridge where the only sound is wind through empty doorways.
The road climbs through switchbacks until it runs out, and then there are only stone villages on a ridge — some with thirty residents, some with none. Doorways stand open to rooms where plaster is falling and wildflowers grow through the floor tiles. The wind is constant, and the mountains beyond are trackless.
The villages of Syrrako and Kalarrytes sit on opposing sides of a ravine at over 1,200 metres — connected by a footpath but a 45-minute drive apart by road. Syrrako was the birthplace of the poet Kostas Krystallis (1868–1894); his house is now a small museum in a village with fewer than 30 permanent residents. The Tzoumerka range receives heavy snowfall and remains largely unvisited — the trails connecting abandoned settlements are unmarked and require route-finding. The region's stone bridges and water mills predate the more famous Zagori equivalents; some date to the 16th century but lack signage or visitor infrastructure. The mountains are part of the Tzoumerka National Park, established in 2009, and support populations of chamois, wolves, and golden eagles.
Solo
Unmarked trails, abandoned villages, and mountains where you will not see another hiker — Tzoumerka is for those who want to disappear.
Friends
Multi-day ridge walking between stone villages, wild camping on unmarked plateaux, and evenings of tsipouro and smoked cheese by the fire.
- The villages of Syrrako and Kalarrytes sit on opposing sides of a ravine at over 1,200 metres — connected by a footpath but a 45-minute drive apart by road.
- Syrrako was the birthplace of the poet Kostas Krystallis (1868-1894) — his house is now a small museum in a village with fewer than 30 permanent residents.
- The Tzoumerka range receives heavy snowfall and remains largely unvisited — the trails connecting abandoned settlements are unmarked and require route-finding.
- The region's stone bridges and water mills predate the more famous Zagori equivalents — some date to the 16th century but lack signage or visitor infrastructure.
Tzoumerka pies baked in wood ovens — cheese, leek, or wild greens, the pastry blackened at the edges.
Tsipouro from village stills, drunk in cold mountain air with plates of smoked cheese and cured pork.
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Arki
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Forty-four people, one taverna, one church — a speck of Aegean that time forgot.