Greece
participants
The objective of the activity was to explore the Dragonlake of mountain Tymphi via trekking while we would discuss about the flora and fauna and generally the environment.
We arranged a new adventure,to go for trekking to one of the most mystic places of Epirus,the Dragon Lake of mountain Tymphi!
We had to wake up early at 06:00 to prepare ourselves because our bus would waiting for us at 06:30! We started from the parking area of our University's restaurant! We saw the sunrise and that was amazing. Fun fact that some of us they fell asleep again and we saw some people returning home from their Friday's night out. Anyway, during our route we shared with the international students some information about the places that we pass through. And as we arrived to one of the most known villages of Zagori, the Small Papingo we went to the toilet and to refill with water. That village was our starting line for our feet. The distance was almost three hours to achieve our goal and see the Dragon Lake and other three the way back.
In path we were walking mostly as one group but some were have other rhythms and strengths, so we also had times that we were three groups at most. There was a team spirit and so we were reuniting very soon. There were narrow paths, slippery fields and for some's salvation stations for breaks. Also we had the chance of observing the wildlife, for exaple some salamanders. It was also a pleasure to meet other people returning of the Dragon Lake and sharing with few words their satisfaction and taking group photos.
Finally we did't it seethe Dragon Lake due to mist. But we took a deep breath and we watched also a canyon in between. Then we had a big break for pictures, food etc. And because we noticed that some past visitors were at least uncivilized we collected some trash.
The last comment lead us to have a conversation on our way back about the climate changes and what impact our actions have on this planet! We shared stories of our home countries and some ideas of how we can be more friendly to the environment, opinions about the environmental education in the schools and generally educational institutions.
Our last stop was the Small Papingo of course, where we had a coffee.
The bus returned us back where it picked us up and some of us we had dinner together as some others left to the city centre.
Another fun but valuable fact is that some of the participants joined this event because they wanted to lose some weights, and also some others didn't drink or smoke about two days ago.
At the end everyone wanted to organize more events of this type!
