LAKE YLIKI LOOP

Yliki has been mentioned since Homeric times, thanks to the ancient city of Yli, where the famous Boeotian shields were crafted. Although the lake is natural, its area more than doubled with the drainage of the neighboring swampy Copaïs Lake, completed in 1931. A system of canals—visible along the route—directs the waters of the Boeotian Kifisos River into Lake Yliki.

In 1959, an ambitious project connected Yliki by tunnel to the artificial Marathon Lake, allowing its waters to supply the ever-growing capital. However, in the 1980s, following the construction of the Mornos reservoir in Fthiotida and its eponymous canal in 1979, Yliki’s energy-intensive pumping stations fell into disuse and have since remained as backup only for emergencies.

Lake Yliki and the nearby Paralímni are home to at least ten fish species, with the Scardinius graecus—a locally endemic freshwater fish, critically endangered due to its limited distribution—standing out. The area also hosts, from time to time, large numbers of waterfowl, wading birds, and raptors.

Starting from Mouriki, a typical agricultural village in the Thebes plain, we initially ride on a provincial asphalt road and quickly transition to dirt roads. Approaching the eastern shore of the lake, the deteriorated road nearly disappears but soon opens into a well-packed riverside dirt road. Gradually, we move away from the shore, gaining elevation and enjoying beautiful views of the lake.

The route follows agricultural dirt roads, and for a few easy and fast kilometers, it briefly uses the highway service road—which is, in practice, much more pleasant than it sounds. We re-enter a dirt road for one of the most impressive sections along the lake. A short, unremarkable segment next to the highway fence leads to the old national road, which we soon leave for the sake of a short trail and a beautiful descent—back to the lake, of course.

We cross the terminus of the Copaïs drainage works and now head back toward the starting point. The good dirt road becomes rough and steep in places, with the reward of small, isolated bays, before sharply rising onto an open and pleasant provincial asphalt road through the Boeotian agricultural plain to finish the route.