A km north of Beloren to Belos
Starting km: 245
Finishing km: 264
Distance walked: 19km
A beautiful day's walk in the mountains.
Morning was fresh and cool, almost cold, and we walked 3km along and down to the 8th century Byzantine church of the Archangel Gabriel. Only one wall and a small section of a chapel are still standing, but between these, the tumbled blocks, column capitals and porticos it was an amazing place for breakfast.
From there it was up, up and up. The climb up the side of the valley wasn't difficult so much because it was steep (though it was) as because the trail was loose and rocky underfoot (when you could find the trail) and it was difficult to figure out exactly where you were meant to be going.
But once the climb was over it was a wonderful cool and sunny afternoon up on the tops. Sometimes the expanses of bright white rock seen through the trees looked like snow. There were new short needled pines, a few majestic old cedar trees and even maples that were starting into their fall colour change.
On our walk back down we passed through a few mostly abandoned summer grazing settlements, with cloud almost coming down to reach us as we walked through one. Sarah was pretty tired when we reached out campsite at another around 16:15. But tired or not, she'd done amazingly. This section is one of the hardest on the whole trail, and we made it through with flying colours.
Today's last minute additions: At around 1770m, we passed the highest point on the trail today. The only water sources on the way were Wells where you tossed a bucket on a rope down to the bottom and pulled it up by hand.
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