Mount Ainos
Mount Ainos
Written by Thursday, 05 February 2009 00:00
"The Beauty of the Mountain is hidden for all those who try to discover it from the top, supposing that, one way or an other, one can reach this place directly. The Beauty of the Mountain reveals only to those who climbed it..." Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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Mount Aenos (or Ainos), Cephallonia, Greece Mount Ainos is the tallest mountain in Cephallonia, Greece, with an elevation of 1628 m (5,341 ft). Most of the mountain range is designated as a park area. Pine forests are found between the elevations of 700 to 1200 m. At the elevation from sea level up to about 300 m, there are beaches, farmland, communities ranging from Argostoli to Poros are placed. A main road connects Argostoli and Poros (40 km long) is commuted. At elevation of 300 to 500 m, olive and laurel trees are founded. Above 1200 m, mountain slopes is mainly barren, rocky and harsh. The mountain range covers almost 3/4 of the island from Poros to Assos. A view of the Peloponnese (from Patras to Pyrgos, Psathopyrgos NE of Patras down to the Krestena area and tiny bits of Erymanthus valleys during clear and hazy-less days) and Aetolia along with the islands of Zante, Lefkada and Ithaca is spectacularly seen. Nightlights of almost all of Cephallonia's villages and Argostoli, Kyllini coast, Chlemoutsi, most of Zante, most of Lefkada, entire Ithaca and the islands appear in total darkness, after dusk and before dawn. Some lights of Western Achaea, the Western Peloponnese and Aetoloacarnania (Western Aetolia and southern Acarnania), and from huge boats appears during clear nights. (1) Perhaps the most spectacular thing with this mountain is the impression you get when you reach its highest point, Megas Soros (meaning large pile). When you stand there you get the feeling that the whole island is there just to support Aenos. Although we reached that point in the afternoon (haze does not allow you to see very far, especially during hot summer days in Greece) we were taken by the sight. The blue sea and the coastline were clearly visible, seemingly under our feet. Though the photos we present here cannot manage to fully capture this sight, they can still work as appetizers for people planning their own visit there. During our trip to the crest we often changed from telephotos to wide angles and the light levels differed greatly depending on the spot we were standing (i.e. in the open or under the very dense tree canopy). Thus although we usually used the basic ISO setting in all our cameras, in some instances we had to raise it to ISO 400, as in the shot taken in the forest, showing a plant thriving on the dead trunk of a pine. We had a very hard time selecting the other five photos which would comprise this album. We ended up with a shot taken from Megas Soros showing the coastline below us, a shot of the surrounding trees taken from the path we followed using a fisheye lens, a shot of an opening in the forest which allowed us to see another peak of Aenos naturally framed by pine trees, one shot of the path we followed showing the contrast between the open spaces and the forest and one shot showing a dead pine which has almost disappeared in the surrounding dense vegetation. Photos by Marina Parha and George J. Reclos Shooting data: 1. Camera: Nikon D300 6. Camera: Nikon D80 (1) Wikipedia
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