Μake us preferred on Google “What I wouldn’t give to be able to take a walk, even just a few meters, through the forest.”
A young man with a mobility disability made the remark after overhearing a group casually discussing whether to go for a walk. Members of Access to Nature, an organization whose members have managed the Bafi mountain refuge on Mount Parnitha since 2004, held on to his words as the starting point for a project designed to make nature accessible to everyone.
For years, they had witnessed the absence of people who stayed away from the mountain because they knew they would struggle to get around. The trails were inaccessible, as were the refuge’s facilities, even though the parking lot was only a short distance away.
For visitors without disabilities, a tree root, a stone step or a steep slope may be an insignificant feature of the landscape. For someone with a mobility disability, any of these obstacles can bring a journey to an end. Even reaching the refuge could require an uncomfortable phone call to ask whether someone could help.
The new Parnitha Accessibility Trail aims to eliminate those barriers along part of the hiking network in Parnitha National Park, north of Athens. The project was funded by the Kaizen Foundation, which has also undertaken to maintain the trail for the next three years.
Designed with people with disabilities
From the outset, the project’s organizers made user participation a central requirement. Representatives of disability organizations helped assess gradients and surfaces, tested sections of the route during construction and suggested changes when solutions that appeared suitable on paper proved impractical in reality.
Choosing the trail’s surface was one of the most important decisions. Natural stone offered an attractive finish, but the joints between the stones caused strong vibrations for wheelchair users. Wood would have required continuous maintenance, while concrete is not permitted in a national park.
The solution was kourasanit, a traditional type of stabilized aggregate made from crushed stone that is bound through the application of water and compaction. The resulting surface resembles natural ground but is smooth and slip-resistant.
“We did not simply design a project for people with disabilities. We designed it together with them,” members of Access to Nature said.
Alexandros Taxildaris, a silver medalist at the Paralympic Games and president of the PERPATO association, described the project through the social model of disability.
“Disability is the barriers that exist in the environment, not the impairments in our bodies,” he said.
Two routes through the forest
The project consists of two routes that can be used independently.
The first is a 396-meter (1,299-foot) circular trail that begins at two designated accessible parking spaces. It includes three stopping points equipped with picnic tables and benches, along with informational signs. The route winds among the forest’s mature trees without removing any healthy trees. Stones excavated during construction were reused to stabilize the slopes.
The second route is a 107-meter (351-foot) gently ascending path connecting the parking lot to the Bafi refuge.
Making that connection accessible also exposed a problem at the destination: the refuge building itself was not accessible. It has since been upgraded with three ramps, a platform lift and an accessible restroom. Visitors can now complete their walk with coffee or a meal at the refuge, as other guests do.
The routes were designed with gradients of up to 5% where possible, with level resting areas along steeper sections. They are approximately 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) wide, expanding to as much as 2 meters (6.6 feet) in places. Double handrails are installed at heights of 0.95 meters (3.1 feet) and 0.75 meters (2.5 feet).
A trail for more than wheelchair users
The trail is intended not only for wheelchair users but also for older people, parents pushing strollers, people using rollators and visitors who walk with assistance.
Access to Nature says people have already visited who would otherwise never have ventured onto a forest trail. Families and groups of friends can now plan an outing on the mountain without leaving anyone behind.
Panos Konstantopoulos, president of the Kaizen Foundation, said the project’s significance lay in the shift “from the need for assistance to autonomy, and from exclusion to participation.”
Four years to secure approval
The idea for the trail emerged in 2019 through a partnership between Access to Nature and the Athens Mountaineering Club. The project study was submitted to the Forestry Service in November 2021, but the final document authorizing construction was not issued until the summer of 2025.
Strict oversight is understandable for a project inside a national park, but overlapping responsibilities among authorities caused significant delays. Attempts to secure funding from public and private organizations also proved unsuccessful until the organizers met Konstantopoulos.
“Accessibility in nature is not limited to building a suitable trail,” said Stefanos Sidiropoulos, a founding member of Access to Nature. “It requires proper planning, safety, the ability to move independently and continuous maintenance of the infrastructure.”
The project’s success, its organizers say, will not be measured in meters but in the phone calls people will no longer need to make to ask for help reaching the forest.
The trail is an encouraging beginning toward a future in which an accessible forest path in Greece will no longer need to be described as the “first” of its kind.
