UKC

I am looking for paper hiking maps around Leonidio to go for walks in the mountains there. Does anyone know which maps to look for and where to get them from?

It is surprisingly hard to find the right maps. Preferably something like 1:25000 scale that covers Parnonas Mountains for example

Thank you!

This should do you for Mt Parnon: https://www.cordee.co.uk/Mt-Parnon-map-%5B8.7%5D-det-12-66-199-11667.html

I am in Greece now and have climbed Mt Taygetos and Mt Parnassus using Anavasi 1:50000 maps and they were good. I also climbed Mt Parnon which was a lovely walk from the west. I didn't have this map but used this excellent guidebook which had an adequate map in it: https://sunflowerbooks.co.uk/product/walking-in-the-peloponnese/

Don't know about Leonidio but be careful, don't expect OS/Harvey levels of reliability. I have the 1:25000 Terrain map of Kalymnos and have twice battled through trackless thorn scrub trying to follow paths that allegedly existed on the map but not on the ground.

(And this is not because I am crap at navigation or mapreading. I was in an orienteering team at school and have decades of UK mountain navigation experience)

I couldn't fault my Taygetos map, but the 50m contour intervals on my Parnassus map did make things a bit tricky in complicated terrain.

I have used The Map Shop at Upton-on-Severn over many years. They have a good web site, but I find a phone call usually gives you the ear of the owner(?) and his knowledge of maps and what he has in stock is phenomenal. Overnight delivery is the norm if you order by mid afternoon. 

Blundering around the Rhodhopi range finally sold me the idea of getting a GPS so at least I had a breadcrumb trail to keep me out of Bulgaria.  A few years earlier I "navigated' across some of the Pindhos on magazine sketch maps.  Learning a little Greek was the only navigational strategy that worked on that trip (1986).

Obviously since then there are some online resources so things have improved.  Enjoy!

By the way, has anybody else found that the principal mountain hazard in this part of the world is dogs? I've spent some nights sitting in the front seat of my hire car at the first hint of barking or distant jingling of sheep or goat bells. Currently sitting by my car on a high pass cooking, with a big stick and ready to leap into the car and slam the door.

Yes! 

One night tent surrounded by them, then a distant whistle and they were gone (Smolikas), Very, very scary creatures.  

As some have said, we found it difficult to get an OS level map for the area but there are good hiking guidebooks which offer an alternative. We used this one for a 10 day trip last year: 

https://sunflowerbooks.co.uk/product/walking-in-the-peloponnese/

Yes, that's the one I linked earlier and used for Mt Parnon. Worth mentioning that there are some roadside noticeboards showing maps of waymarked paths in that area.

So you did, totally missed that 

The Anavasi 1:50 000 covers the area from the high peaks of Parnon down to the coast around Leonidio. Some but not all paths are marked. The older 1:50 500 version has less paths. The local council recently provided a free 1:30 000 for a smaller area (Poulithra- Leonidio - Tyros ie the coastal hill range - clearer, but no more paths. You might be able to find a copy still.

Download the 1:50 000 from the Avenza site. Very useful.

if you need more details of actual paths in the coastal hill range, message me.

Just noticed that you can view the   Leonidio 1: 30 000 on the Anavasi site.

This.  They got me some 1:50,000 of the back of beyond in Italy recently

The maps are helpful but not perfect. Both paper and digital maps (in GaiaGPS for example) There are definitely many more trails that are not shown on the maps, while some trails on the map are not always maintained (spiky bushes) or sometimes just not where they are drawn. Expect a little more adventure as any off trail terrain is often quite some effort to get through!