The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

Though Cyprus is famous for its beaches, there are not many areas in Cyprus where you would find the sea meeting the land at a beach. Most of the Cyprus coastline is rugged and in some places, there are massive cliffs (like the ones near Episkopi and beyond) and in others, there are small cliffs which are easily accessible for adventure seekers. There are two very popular “sea caves” in Cyprus, one at Ayia Napa and the other at Peyia.
The Ayia Napa sea caves is the more visited one because of its proximity to the party-town of Ayia Napa. These are located almost on the south-eastern end of Cyprus next to Cape Greko/Caveo Greko. They are easily accessible from Ayia Napa, Protaras or Paralimni. This is how you go to the sea caves:

• I assume that you know to reach Ayia Napa. Just look for Ayia Napa on the maps and drive over. Simple.
• Once in Ayia Napa, go towards the McD next to the Luna Park. You should be able to see the Mc D sign/Sling Shot towers in this Luna Park from quite a distance away. A reference to this McD would be a dead-end road by its side which is often used for parking and a mini-golf course right next to it (across this road).
• Proceed East on this road i.e. moving in the direction of McD from the luna Park.
• You will come to a T-Junction. You have to take a left here if you want to go the main clubbing area of Ayia Napa. But, we shall leave that for later and turn right at the T-Junction.
• This road will go towards the sea and end at a beach. Take a left at the roundabout and within 10/20 metres, the road will again turn left. take this left turn (taking the mini lane to the right would take you to the sea). This is like taking a very big U-Turn.
• Keep going on this road until the road curves right and comes to a round-about.
• On this round-about, go straight (third/last exit towards Cavo Greko).
• After some distance, you will come to a t-junction again. Follow the direction of Cavo Greko which in this case is towards the right , towards the sea.
• Keep going on this road, you should see a small sign saying “sea caves” pointing to the right. This is proper road which branches off to the right, but stays parallel to the main road for a distance. On this road, after some time, a small earthern road turns to the right. The road (not really a road) looks real bad, but is ok to drive on. Drive on straight towards the sea and you should see the sea caves on the right.

These caves are the result of millions of years of the sea pounding on the cliffs and making inroads into the walls of the cliff. You can climb down to sea level at the east end of the cliff and walk close to the walls and explore many of the caves which have formed. Some are them go in quite deep and you have to be sure-footed to explore them.

For those who are afraid of clambering over the rocks to climb down, there is an easier way, just jump off the cliffs into the water. This is a very popular activity here and is supposed to be pretty safe. The water is quite deep and crystal clear. So, as long as you have your orientations right, you can jump quite comfortably into the clear water avoiding the rocks.

This place is a great one for photography enthusiasts. You have numerous crevices with which you can explore your creative photography skills. Also, the sunset at this place is amazing. If you have the patience and the “foothold” to climb down and get into the caves, you can get some really nice pictures at sunset.

For the adventurous, once you climb down, you don’t have to climb up the same way again. You can walk along with cliffs and climb up at the other end, though it is bit of a struggle at some places.

A few minute drive away from the sea caves is official south-easternmost point of Cyprus. You cannot go to that exact spot, as there are some military antenna installations there. But, you can go to the top of the hill right next to it for amazing views of the Ayia Napa coast. There is even a short nature walk from the top of the hill which takes you to further cliffs by the sea.

If you have time left after visiting the Ayia Napa sea caves, you can drive over to Konnoi bay, only a short distance away and maybe even walk to the cyclops cave. Other places of interest nearby: Protaras Aquarium (Ocean Aquarium), the Dancing Waters musical fountain in the Protaras tourist area.

Enjoy!

Konnos bay is sometimes referred to as Konnoi bay on the maps. It is located to the east of Ayia Napa between Cape Greko (Cavo Greco) and Protaras. Konni Bay is a beautiful wind-swept bay which is almost like a secluded beach. You have to go down the slope from the main road through some hairpin bends to reach the beach. The setting of this beach is amazing.

Directions to Konnoi Bay/Cyclops cave:

• I assume that you know to reach Ayia Napa. Just look for Ayia Napa on the maps and drive over. Simple.
• Once in Ayia Napa, go towards the McD next to the Luna Park. You should be able to see the Mc D sign/Sling Shot towers in this Luna Park from quite a distance away. A reference to this McD would be a dead-end road by its side which is often used for parking and a mini-golf course right next to it (across this road).
• Proceed East on this road i.e. moving in the direction of McD from the luna Park.
• You will come to a T-Junction. You have to take a left here if you want to go the main clubbing area of Ayia Napa. But, we shall leave that for later and turn right at the T-Junction.
• This road will go towards the sea and end at a beach. Take a left at the roundabout and within 10/20 metres, the road will again turn left. take this left turn (taking the mini lane to the right would take you to the sea). This is like taking a very big U-Turn.
• Keep going on this road until the road curves right and comes to a round-about.
• On this round-about, go straight (third/last exit towards Cavo Greko).
• After some distance, you will come to a t-junction again. Follow the direction of Cavo Greko which in this case is towards the right , towards the sea.
• Keep going on this road, you should cross the Ayia Napa sea-caves sign (pointing to the right). Keep going and you should cross another exit towards cavo greko which is the one leading to the lookout point on top of the “obviously” visible hill on your right.
• The exit to Konnos Bay (on the right) is approximately 2kms from the exit to the Cave greko hill. Another landmark for Konnos Bay is the Grecian Park Hotel.
• Don’t drive all the way down to the beach if you plan to go to the cave. Around half-way down, you will come to parking lot with a clear sign saying “Cyclops Cave 1.5 km” or something like that. (it has been more than 2 yrs, so i forgot what is said on the sign).

Hope that this information was useful and you found it to be a nice walk. If you have time left after visiting the cyclops caves, you can drive over to the Ayia Napa sea caves, only a short distance away. Other places of interest nearby: Protaras Aquarium (Ocean Aquarium), the Dancing Waters musical fountain in the Protaras tourist area.
Enjoy!

There were many people who had considered the same spot as a good location and it was pretty crowded. But, most of them were high up on the slope behind the bushes. We were surprised as to why these people come to such a good spot, but then climb up the slope to move away from the place of action. We understood why as soon as the first car sped by. The wind was blowing towards us and the few million tons of dirt and rock released by the spinning wheels of the car came straight in our direction. It was too late. We were consumed by the dust and ended up well camouflaged on the dirt road!

But, the spot was too good to let go of. So, we adopted a new procedure. We would click photos right until the moment the cars passed us, then put the camera inside out t-shirts, turn to the opposite direction, bend down and pray to god that nothing big falls on us!
I then moved a little ahead, to the side of the road to get some closer shots. Some people were so close to the cars that a small mistake by the drivers could have proven fatal.

Well, i too decided to join those people as i concluded that the experience was worth the risk. But i doubt that i will do that again, as there were many close calls.

After i was satisfied with the amount of dirt i had consumed, i crossed over and found that, because of the wind direction, not even a speck of dust was falling on that side of the road. Here was an opportunity to try some artistic shots!

I used the burst mode on my nikon D70 to capture a sequence of a car passing by.

In 2006, for the first time, a special stage was introduced in the Cyprus rally. This was called the Downtown special and was to be held in the narrows streets of Limassol downtown area. While the usual visitor tickets for any stage cost around 2 pounds, tickets for this stage cost around 18 CYP and were sold out within a few days of being announced. Special stages were put along the roads where seating options were provided. There were separate tickets for the seating and the non-seating options.
I didn’t have any tickets, but i went to the downtown area nevertheless in the hope that i would get to see some action. To my surprise, there was no one to check any tickets. The whole area was open to anyone and one could go to any curve/street to watch the race. This was because, the race was actually changed to an exhibition race as many drivers complained of the high risk involved in racing through the very narrow streets. So, at the last minute, the organisers announced (only to the participants) that this was just an exhibition stage and the points didn;t count towards the overall cyprus rally.

Though it was an exhibition race, the drivers were turning on the heat by taking the curves as fast as they could and in some places, it was really too close for comfort. If you see the sequence below, the car skids a lot to the left, almost touching the barricades.

But, one Citroen driver tried too much and ended up banging his car on the side of the road. He turned out the star attraction of the evening, as soon as he started crying!

If you are looking for details on this year’s rally, go check out the official cyprus rally website here.

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