The Oxya viewpoint over the Vikos gorge

Oxya is the easiest of the Vikos viewpoints and still the most dramatic. A short drive up from Monodendri ends at a small parking area, and a level path of a few minutes brings you out onto a rock shelf at the very edge of the gorge, with a railing along the drop. From there the canyon opens both ways — a chasm of grey and white limestone with a bright green floor of trees far below.

For photographs it gives two completely different frames from one spot. Facing out, you get the scale: figures on the rock read as small marks against a wall of stone. Turning back, the pines and the flat rock make a clean foreground with sky behind, which is much kinder to portraits than shooting into the void.

Early morning is the hour. Mist collects on the gorge floor overnight and burns off slowly, the eastern wall catches the first light while the western one stays in shade, and there is nobody there. By late morning the sun is overhead and the gorge goes flat and hazy; late afternoon brings back some warmth but also backlight.

It is genuinely exposed. There is a railing at the main platform but not along the whole rim, and the wind can be strong. Not the place for loose fabric, long veils or anyone unsteady near an edge.