Crossing Nestos River with a Canoe.

Do you know that Nestos River is one of the last nature shelters of wild life in Europe? The river has a rich flaura and fauna and is one of the biggest rivers in Greece. You can enjoy its nature and amazing landscapes by train from Drama to Toxotes, but we chose to cross it in a much more adventurous way, with a canoe.

So we called Elias, the person responsible at Riverland and booked our activity for 10.30 am the next day. We had already seen pictures of the activity and the river and we were very excited for the next day!

Shoes, extra underwear, sunglasses and camera was the equipment we took along. Elias and the team of Riverland gave us the rest we needed to do the canoe tour. We got dressed and headed to Stavroupoli train station where we had to take the train and drop off at the next station of Livera. Livera is a station you can only reach by train. No road or trail can take you there.

Within the 15 minutes on the train to Livera Station we realised what we were going to experience during the canoeing. We went down the Canoe base of Riverland, we packed our belongings in small barrels, we took our paddles on hand and entered the Canoes. We were ready to go!

Words are very poor to describe what we experienced next, so just check the pictures (1.000 words) in the gallery to get a grasp of our small trip. Canoe might seem easy to control but the river is more powerful and Elias gave us courage and instruction when we did circles with the canoe.

Nestos river is a very calm and easy river and is suitable for all ages. The drive was a blast! We had a lot of time to observe the surroundings, the birds, the mountains, the dropped trees. A heron bird was following us almost during the whole journey and dropped from branch to branch to give us the chance to take a picture.

After an hour we stopped at a place called the "Beach", to take a break and have a pick nick! Our guide Elias treated us with tea, coffee, cookies, sandwiches and fruits to revive ourselfs so we took the chance to eat, drink and observe the nature around us. Absolute peace. Absolute nature.

The river guided us with its streams and revealed its self in a calm way. Elias told us that during the summer months, they are able to swim in Nestos waters, so we booked the canoe trip for May, when the nature holds different colors and the temperature is higher. Every season you get to enjoy a different view of the river, which makes it even more exciting.

We want to come back.

Total Canoe time: 2 hours.