Inland Nature Escapes: Seven Springs (Epta Piges Tunnel), Butterfly Valley and Profitis Ilias

Whenever the coastal sun hits 32°C in July and August, drive fifteen minutes inland from either coast into the cool, pine-and-sweetgum-shaded valleys of central Rhodes to explore three refreshing mountain sanctuaries.

1. Seven Springs (Epta Piges, 30 km south of Rhodes Town, 10 mins inland from Tsambika)

Tucked inside a dense ravine of giant plane and pine trees just 4 kilometres inland from Kolymbia and Tsambika Beach, Seven Springs (Epta Piges) is a natural oasis where seven ice-cold mountain springs bubble out of the roots of the plane trees year-round (accompanied by free-roaming peacocks and geese and a shaded forest taverna):

• Walking Through the 186-Metre Dark Water Tunnel (Built 1931): to channel the spring water to irrigate the orchards of Kolymbia, Italian engineers in 1931 bored a narrow, 186-metre-long, 1.7-metre-high stone tunnel straight through the hill. Visitors who aren't claustrophobic slip off their shoes (or wear water shoes) and wade barefoot in ankle-deep cold spring water right through the pitch-black tunnel (there is a vertical air shaft with daylight halfway through; or you can walk the shaded 5-minute forest path over the top of the hill instead) to emerge at a brilliant turquoise forest lake and a 15-metre stone dam waterfall.

2. The Valley of the Butterflies (Petaloudes, 25 km south-west) & Profitis Ilias

• The Valley of the Butterflies (Petaloudes): a lush 1.5-kilometre canyon watered by the Pelekanos stream and shaded by a rare natural forest of Oriental Sweetgum trees (Liquidambar orientalis), whose vanilla-scented resin attracts thousands of black-white-and-crimson Jersey Tiger Moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria) between mid-June and mid-September. Follow the wooden bridges and rustic steps up to the peaceful 17th-century Kalopetra Monastery at the top of the valley. (Important ecological rule: never clap, whistle or shake branches, the moths rest during the day to conserve energy).
• Mount Profitis Ilias (798m) & The 1929 Alpine Chalet Hotels (Elafos & Elafina): twenty minutes above Butterfly Valley, the road climbs into a cool cedar and cypress forest where the Italians built two remarkable Swiss-Tyrolean timber-framed alpine lodges (Elafos and Elafina) in 1929, alongside Mussolini's abandoned Villa de Vecchi and the 15th-century frescoed Byzantine church of Agios Nikolaos Foundoukli.