About Polilimnio Waterfalls (Καταρράκτες της Πολυλίμνιο Μεσσηνίας)
The Polilimnio Waterfalls (also Καταράκτες Πολυλίμνιο της Μεσσηνίας or Polilimnio of Messinia Waterfalls in Greek) consist of a series of waterfalls and natural swimming holes.
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that there are many waterfalls here because the word “polilimnio” (sometimes spelled “polylimnio”) is said to mean “many lakes”, where several of these lakes either feed into or sit at the bottom of a waterfall.
In my experience with this waterfall collective, I actually witnessed at least a half-dozen of them (though I did miss at least one more).
Each of these waterfalls appeared to have Greek names attached to them such as Panagos, Stathoula, Polilimnio, Kadi, and Mavrilimna or Mavrolimna (as well as others that didn’t seem to have names).
Of these waterfalls, I found the 25m high Kadi to be the most impressive one as it dropped into a large heart-shaped blue-green pool surrounded by sheer cliffs.
That said, each of the other waterfalls were scenic in their own right, and this included those that were even further upstream of Kadi as well as others that were on the trail downstream of Kadi.
Visiting these waterfalls can be a short experience focusing on just a few of these waterfalls for swimming and relaxing.
However, in order to get the full experience and visit the ones that were further from the trailhead, those required some degree of adventure.
By adventure, I mean you might have to get wet climbing a waterfall to get past it, scrambling over boulders, or clinging to a cliff while holding onto ropes or metal footholds to stay on said cliff.
In this write-up, I’ll just focus on a loop hike that I managed to do encompassing all of the scenic spots except for the pool and waterfall at Mavrilimna.
I wound up going about 3.6km (according to my GPS logs), which took me 2.5 hours to complete with plenty of photo stops along the way.
The difficulty and scenic ratings are reflective of this experience as a whole (so you may have to mentally adjust the difficulty rating if you’re looking for something less ambitious or adventurous).
Trail Description – The Trailhead to the First Waterfall
Driving to the trailhead can already be a bit of an adventure if you’re not used to driving narrow lanes and unpaved roads.
I go into more details about it in the directions section, but the bottom line is that as long as you pay attention to the signs while driving slowly and respectfully (letting people pass if possible), you should be fine.
That said, if you do get to a part where maybe the road carries risks beyond your comfort level, then you might have to look for a pullout or layby to park the car, get out of the way of traffic, and walk the rest of the way to the trailhead.
That latter scenario was what I did due to a particular deep rut in the unpaved road that made me worry about bottoming out the rental car.
So I ended up walking 450m of the 1km unpaved part of road to the trailhead (though in hindsight, I might have been overly conservative).
Anyways, as far as experiencing the waterfalls, you can at least get to the first one easily, which sat right at a trail fork on a well-established trail 400m from the trailhead.
Getting to that trail fork pretty much involved going downhill to a picnic shelter roughly half way down before continuing downhill the rest of the way.
The first waterfall and its attractive plunge pool was just a few paces below the aforementioned fork (you can see it in the second photo on this page not counting the hero image at the top).
So for the least amount of effort, this first waterfall can be the stopping point to just enjoy its nice blue-green plunge pool before returning to the trailhead.
That said, at this signed fork, you can see that the trail continues in either direction to keep the adventure going…
Trail Description – Going Downstream from the First Waterfall
If you go downstream, the excursion remains on a pretty well-used trail where the signs point the way to Panagos and Strathoula, which are two features identified by the sign at the trail fork.
Each of these named features have a small waterfall or cascade spilling into plunge pools (or “lakes” as suggested by the name polilimnio), which can also act as swimming holes.
The first downstream waterfall and pool at Panagos is pretty easy to reach as it’s a mere 200m from the signed trail fork.
One of the signs here said (in broken English) that someone named Panagos Grammankopoulos had drowned here trying to cross the creek.
However, the named feature at Strathoula (another 150m downstream of Panagos) requires a bit of a dicey, vertical scramble down to its “lake”.
I personally didn’t attempt going all the way down to the lake at Strathoula given the risky nature of that scramble (and neither did a local dog that was following me around on this hike).
Even signs warned that this trail was “not completely safe”, and I believe this dicey scramble was exactly what they were talking about!
So the brink of the cascade at Strathoula (while leaving much to be desired) was my turnaround point for the downstream direction, which made this about a 700m out-and-back detour.
Trail Description – Going Upstream Towards Kadi
Back at the trail fork, I then went further upstream on a more well-used and well-signed path leading to more of the Polilimnio Waterfalls.
At a mere 100m or so beyond the signed trail fork, I noticed the next attractive cascade and pool situated beneath the second footbridge (you need to cross the first one to get right up to it).
According to my GPS logs, this waterfall as well as those immediately upstream from it may actually be labeled as “Polilimnio”.
Indeed, after crossing the second footbridge to access the other Polilimnio Waterfalls, the trail starts to become more ill-defined and more “adventurous”.
At this point, further progress involves crossing the stream and doing some mild bouldering to continue past this Polilimnio series.
After getting past these obstacles, the “trail” then gets up to an intermediate waterfall where the best way forward involves getting the shoes wet to climb that waterfall (actually the local dog helped me to identify the best way forward).
Just beyond this “climbing waterfall”, the path then picks up again as it approaches the impressive Kadi Waterfall fronted by its heart-shaped plunge pool (sometimes called Lake Kadoula or Kardoula, which is Greek for “heart”).
The Kadi Waterfall is roughly 220m beyond the second footbridge (at least according to the signs here) or roughly 350m or so from the signed trail fork.
For many people, Kadi (shown in the first photo of this page, not counting the hero image) is the turnaround point of a typical Polilimnio Waterfalls experience.
After all, its large and deep heart-shaped plunge pool is great for swimming, and Kadi’s 25m drop flanked by tall vertical cliffs makes for a nice photo spot.
If Kadi is the endpoint, then that makes a Kadi-only excursion about a 1.4km hike round-trip, or it’s about 2.1km of total distance if you included the downstream cascades.
However, it’s still possible to keep going further upstream beyond Kadi…
Trail Description – Going Beyond Kadi
To the right side of Lake Kadoula, you may notice that there are those metal footholds bolted onto the side of a pretty vertical-looking cliff.
Those footholds are the path to continue going above the 25m Kadi Waterfall and beyond.
Although I think the trail was very doable (otherwise, I wouldn’t have tried it), it will definitely test your fear of heights due to the dropoff exposure.
After getting up the series of metal footholds, you’ll reach a part where a steep path is accompanied by ropes to help get up further above the cliff face before getting into more tree cover with tree roots and rocks to cling onto.
From there, the path then continues to cling onto a ledge with ropes to help you hold onto something and not go into the dropoff immediately across from more attractive cascades.
By the way, the local dog that accompanied me throughout my hike to this point opted not to traverse this ledge as it was probably the limit of how far it was willing to go away from its home.
So beyond the ledges, the trail then picks up again and goes across a couple of more lakes (each with waterfalls spilling into them), where the upper one was labeled Lake Kadi according to my GPS map.
At Lake Kadi, there was yet another attractive watefall (maybe 7m or so tall) with a large swimming hole that even had a fun-looking rope swing.
At this point, you could opt to go back the way you came, which would involve going back down the dicey cliff-hugging part alongside the Kadi Waterfall.
However, I opted to continue above the waterfall spilling into Lake Kadi, where there was a sketchy-looking wet ledge with metal rungs to hold onto to prevent from falling into the plunge pool.
Just above the waterfall was another creek crossing that I had to get my feet wet again to reach a rusty- and rickety-looking metal ladder to rise above the stream responsible for the Polilimnio Waterfalls.
At roughly 250m beyond the metal ladder, the trail reaches a wider unpaved road, where I had the option of going 100m left towards the Mavrolimna Waterfall or going right to walk back towards the trailhead for the Polilimnio Waterfalls.
In hindsight, I regret not making the extra effort to get to the Mavrilimna Waterfall (note that this road can be drivable though it’s not for everyone), but maybe that’s an excuse for me to come back here one of these days.
Anyways, going uphill for the 200m along the road, I then reached another signed junction, where I kept to the right to finish the remaining 300m wildflower-lined road back to the large rut in the road where I had parked the rental car.
If I had parked by the trailhead (and not where this deep rut stopped me), then I’d have to hike another 450m on top of the 500m distance (or 950m in total) from when I first regained this road.
Authorities
The Polilimnio Waterfalls are near the town of Kazarma of the Messinia Prefecture in the Peloponnese Administrative Region of Greece. It is not clear if there’s an official governing body that presides over these waterfalls. However, it seems like local landowners and town officials from both Kazarma and the Charagvi Village have been responsible for signs and road/trail infrastructure. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Greece National Tourism Organization website.
The Polilimnio Waterfalls are situated near the town of Kazarma located between the towns of Kalamata and Pylos on the west side of the Peloponnese.
We actually drove here from a much longer drive leaving Nafplio and heading towards Pylos via Kalamata, but I’ll just limit the driving directions to the stretch between Pylos and Kalamata.
Driving from Kalamata Airport to Polilimnio Waterfalls Trailhead
From the Kalamata Airport (near the town of Messini as well as the off-ramp of the E55 Expressway), we drove west on the Route 82 (also labeled E082) for about 22km into the town of Kazarma.
Within the town, there was a sign giving the heads up to turn left onto an access road (the falls would be 3km from here).
Then, we followed this road towards the village of Charavgi (also spelled Kharavgi) for roughly 1.2km where signs pointed where to turn when there were decision points along the way.
Eventually, the signs would point the way westward as it left Charavgi, and this was where the road became unpaved.
Continuing for another 600m, the unpaved road was pretty tame as it reached another unpaved road junction, but there was a fairly deep rut right at this junction.
Although on our visit, we opted to stay conservative and stop the car so as to not chance bottoming out over this rut, we could have continued by turning left at this junction.
The unpaved trailhead car park by the Kadi Cafe was another 450m away from the aforementioned junction.
Overall, this drive took us about 60 minutes from the off-ramp near the Kalamata Airport just east of Messini.
Note that we could have turned right at this junction and drive another 800m towards the Mavrolimna Waterfall, which I didn’t get a chance to visit.
Driving from Pylos to Polilimnio Waterfalls Trailhead
Alternatively coming from Pylos, we’d drive east on the Route 9 for about 4km towards a roundabout where we’d take the first exit for Route 82 in the direction of Kalamata.
After about 16km on Route 82 going into Kazarma, we’d turn right onto an access road (a sign giving the heads up to turn indicated that the trailhead would be another 3km from here).
Then, we’d follow this road towards the village of Charavgi (also spelled Kharavgi) and eventually the Polilimnio Waterfalls trailhead in a similar manner as described above.
The drive from Pylos to the Polilimnio Waterfalls trailhead (we actually did this drive in reverse) would take about 30 minutes.
For context, Pylos is about 8km (about 15 minutes drive) south of Gialova, 52km (over an hour drive) southwest of Kalamata, 108km (under 2 hours drive) south of Ancient Olympia, about 118km (over 90 minutes drive) southwest of Tripoli, 182km (about 2.5 hours drive) southwest of Nafplio, and 274km (over 3 hours drive) southwest of Athens.
Find A Place To Stay
Pretty thorough checking out of the first waterfall that I saw near the fork in the trail
Short sweep starting with the local dog before panning over to a downstream cascade from the fork in the trail
Partial sweep of the top of a tall cascade going down to a 'lake' well downstream of the fork in the trail
Brief right to left sweep of the cascade that i think is Polilimnio starting with the local dog cameo
Back and forth sweep of a waterfall obstacle with the local dog showing the way to climb up it to continue
Getting wet feet climbing up the waterfall obstacle before Kadi with a distance glimpse of Kadi after climbing it
First look at Kadi and its plunge pool surrounded by cliffs
Checking out Kadi and its plunge pool with surrounding cliffs from a more elevated perspective
Profile look at Kadi with a top down look at its heart-shaped plunge pool
Checking out a sunny cascade at Kadis Lake with rope swings and a rusty ladder above the waterfall well upstream of Kadi
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
