Lake Doxa in the Ancient Feneos Area was like a trend check-in spot in social media during the last couple of years; not hard to guess that I put it on my bucketlist. I grasped the opportunity to have a visit there not long after, mid July 2016, attending the 76th PanHellenic Annual Meeting as a member of HMC of Kalamata. Undoubtedly, this amazing place is absolutely worth the publicity that has received.
Few words about the place
Doxa is a relatively newly founded (early ’90s) artificial lake in an altitude of 900m. The contrast between the still lake water and the surrounding woody mountains sets a scenery that could be easily located somewhere in the Alps. The closest village is Goura, where you can find food and shelter. Camping around the lake is forbidden but as always, there are people that break the rules.
The meeting
Saturday evening and we arrived at the lake. We camped to a site next to the lake amongst other hikers from all over Greece. A warm-up short hike to St Fanourios chapel to watch the sun setting. A welcome traditional dinner was served by the hosting HMC of Korinthos; star gazing and storytelling followed later on. We got up early and we had been offered tea for breakfast, thus we were ready for getting up to the top.
The hike
Trail starts west of the lake to Col of the Hunter (Kinigou) in a roughly two-hour hike. From that point you move on for around one hour and a half to reach either Rose (Triantaphilia) or Ntourntouvana Peak. Both of them offer a unique view to Chelmos, plateau of Feneos and, of course, the heart-like Doxa lake. Relatively that particular route is considered an easy one, apart from the last few hundred meters. Note that there are almost no water taps along.
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