I wonder what it's like to see the mysterious river along which souls were taken to the kingdom of darkness!? Creepy...
Today, I finally took a little time to share with you my mystical walk along the river Acheron, which leads to the gates of hell, in between travels! When I first heard about this fascinating canyon near the city of Parga in Greece, I decided to go there to feel the spirit of Greek mythology.
...The river of sorrow, the door to the underworld, the last path of human souls... Acheron carries its waters through many mythological plots...
We arrived here by taxi and agreed that they would pick us up in four hours. The road from Parga took 40 minutes. The mountains became higher and more beautiful... By the way, it happened that my daughters got sick yesterday, and I was a little worried about their health: how are we going to swim in cold water?! But we came to the city of Parga for just two days and we won't have another chance.
So we set out along the shallow river, which glistened with its turquoise water between thickets of alder trees. On the other side was a green wall of mountains. After a few hundred meters, we saw a small stone beach lit by the sun and a deep natural pool in the river.
It was very hot outside, and I hurried to cool down! But the water was really icy! Even for a person like me, who is used to swimming in cold water.
There was an interesting attraction there: people lay down on the water and the water carried them like a boat on the current. And we had fun with the children. For a while we forgot about their illness...
My kids love to do funny things. So they told me to make a certain movement, as if I were starting the car and sat behind the wheel))) Then they selected the appropriate music! Enjoy!
Then there was a path in the middle of an exotic forest, where the trees were intertwined with their branches, as if in a jungle. There were figs and maples here, and here and there there were already yellow leaves. It reminded me of my favorite autumn in Ukraine...
And finally we came to such a place, where there was no further path, but it was necessary to walk on water! All the people walked in shoes, because the stones on the bottom were spiky. We didn't have special shoes, so we went in our sandals!
On both sides of the river there were high white rocks that created unique ledges and hung over the river. Trees grew on the rocks and their roots were in the water, like the strange inhabitants of this road to the gates of hell, according to mythology. I felt some otherworldly presence and awe!
The water was cold and my children wanted to rest and warm themselves on the sunny stones. But the stones were cold, as indeed in the underground kingdom!
Streams of water flowed everywhere from under the stones, which we collected in bottles. The water was very tasty! And finally we came to a place where it was no longer possible to walk, but only to swim. I would have gone for a swim, but my children didn't feel well, they started to have a headache and the temperature rose! And we are back! There we lay on the beach near the icy natural pool and it was an incredible feeling, as if we had visited a mysterious kingdom of nature's majesty!
P.S. By the way, ice bathing benefited my daughters. After two days they recovered.
This is my contribution to the #wednesdaywalk challenge, initiated by @tattoodjay :)
This post is written about where I am now. But I'll be back to telling my travel story, sequentially describing all the places I changed in my #TheLongestTrip
Thank you for your support ❤️