Pelion via ferrata & canyoning (October), GREECE

Made a video feature, via ferrata & canyoning organized by Hellas Canyon

Pelion is one of the many beautiful corners of Greece, situated in the southeastern part of Thessaly. The splendid city of Volos is the entry point to the region. We started early in the morning, making a stop at this hotel to pick up one more person.

While waiting we were greeted by this mother and her three lovely puppies!

Reached the meeting point, the whole team met, gear distribution and then we walked just a few meters down the road to enter the path leading us down to the canyon.

Although the weather was cold and cloudy the landscape was really wild and beautiful, autumn colors everywhere.

Entering the path to take us down to the canyon.

Scenery was so beautiful, like a dream!

Went through a nice cool pool to reach the start of the via ferrata.

"Via Ferrata" in Italian means "iron road". The essence of a modern via ferrata is a steel cable (in our case here for canyoning a rope) which runs along the route and is periodically fixed to the rock. Using a via ferrata kit people can secure themselves to the cable, limiting any fall. 

Waterfalls, green emerald crystal clear water, fauna hanging...

We kept on ascending using the via ferrata.

Beautiful rock formations inside the canyon.

And from this viewpoint you can see the canyon which we would descent through canyoning soon.

And that was the end of the path for the via ferrata... next phase, canyoning down to where we started!

Regroup and ready for canyoning!

Canyoning back to where we came from! Was a great feeling to go inside the beautiful formations we were watching from above during the via ferrata.

You could choose to go back through via ferrata as well if for any reasons you didn't want to go back canyoning.

The last rappel, such a beautiful scene with the leaves floating in the pool... you had to swim through them. 

And I was so amazed to watch our instructor and team leader walk through this waterfall (!!!) in order to recall the final rope...incredible skills!

Taking the same path back to the road.

Sophisticated moment.

Autumn ground!!

Once we were out of the canyon, while changing back to our clothes the temperature was 3 degrees Celsius! And then we noticed this guy coming in with his truck intending to dump all these in that beautiful nature. We all protested and he eventually left, probably to go a bit further to dump them far from our sight... 

Final stop was the hotel restaurant "Manthos" situated in a village a bit further down the road named "Chania".

Was a beautiful place and had a nice view from its terrace, too cold to sit out at this time of the year though.

There was a fireplace inside which was perfect to warm us up. On the walls there were many interesting old photos of the area. The food and service was excellent as well! 
The canyon experience might have been a bit cold due to the seasonal weather but the beauty of the canyon was very wild, a significant amount of water flow, Autumn colors everywhere, leaves flying around and falling with the smallest gust of wind... it was like we were inside a fairy tale dream!

Additional information

GPS coordinates for places in this post, click on them to be redirected to the exact point in google maps. Click on the names to be redirected to their official websites (if applicable).

Hellas Canyon website with annual program for canyoning all over Greece and lots of useful information about many canyons (Greek & English): https://www.canyoning.gr/
Meeting point & carpark (short walk to the path): 39°25'28.5"N 23°05'17.5"E

Manthos hotel & restaurant in Chania, Pelion: 39°23'42.4"N 23°03'21.9"E