The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

There are many abandoned villages in Cyprus, some of which were abandoned during 1974 conflict and many abandoned due to natural reasons like landslides or earthquakes. You can find many such villages in the Pafos mountains. Mathikoloni is relatively closer to Limassol and is considered by many to one of the more beautiful ones to explore.

We had been to Mathikoloni many years ago. So, we decided to check out the place again 2 weeks back along with Harish and Anith. Actually the plan was to just stopover at Mathikoloni and drive through a mountain road to Akrounta near Yermasoyia dam.

To go to Mathikoloni, you have to take the Agios Athanasios exit on Jumbo/Linopetra roundabout. You cross the Agios Athanasios and climb towards Mathikoloni which is around 11kms away. Once you reach the village, take a right from the main road and go into the village. Keep going on this road and you will cross the new settlement and at the end of the road, you will see dirty signboard marked as “Akrounta – 5 km”. This road is pretty narrow and it is difficult to take a U-turn at any point. The road starts as being paved and it is paved for most of the distance. You drive down into the valley and there you have lot of photo opportunities with lot of greenery and mountains on both sides of the road.

Even Akshara (who has become a veteran of road trips now!) seemed to enjoy this drive down the narrow lanes. My mom, on the other hand, held on to the seat very tightly in the hope that the slope would lead to another road

written by Rajaram S

NOTE: If you are seeing this through e-mail or in a feed reader, you may not see all the photos. Due to the large number of photos in this post, i have put many of them in flash slideshows which don’t show up on feeds.

The snow trek is a yearly routine which happens every jan/feb whenever we have a sunny weekend following a week of good snowfall. We had decided to go to troodos last Monday (Monday was a day off for us) as there had been good snow the week before and the snow was visible on the mountains even from Limassol. I checked the weather forecast for the weekend and it showed…

I went WOW! A snow trek during a snow shower. All were ready for it and this is the first time (in my 7+ years in Cyprus) that i decided to go to troodos when the weather was supposed to be “bad”.
We were not disappointed. What started off as a slight snowfall turned into a heavy shower and we loved it!Click on the photos below to see bigger versions (No new windows opened!)

Driving the car on some stretches was a bit scary, but we managed to reach until the artemis trail and return safely (with only a little push needed at one point).

Our original plan was to do the Kalidonia waterfalls trek starting from the top. When we got out of the car at the start of the trail, it was freezing! We had to get as much as cover as possible before we could start. It was also snowing lightly which added to the fun. This year, Anith was the new person on the trek (we make sure that we introduce a new person to this trek every year). But, the depth of the snow wasn’t as much as the previous years. So, it was like walking on a thin layer of snow, not the usual buried-until-the-knee kind of snow. After some distance, there was ice/water layer on the trail which made it difficult for the people who weren’t wearing the waterproof boots. So, we turned back and decided to try another trail. Some photos from this trail. Click on the images to get a bigger version.

Our next stop was the Persephone trail. From the roundabout at the troodos square, take the exit towards the troodos police station. The first walking trail you will come across is the Pouzarides trail. A little further, you will see the start of the Persephone trail. We have walked this trail few years back in summer but that is for another post! This is a one-way trail around 2 kms long offering good views of the open mine. The snow was fresh and extremely soft. So, our attempts at sliding were futile. We didn’t go a long distance on this trail as it started snowing heavily. After a few customary photos, we headed on to our next stop, the artemis trail.

We weren’t sure whether we would make it upto the artemis trail. After the troodos square, the road wasn’t cleared much and it was white in many places with the final climb to the trail almost entirely on snow and ice. But, it was fun trying to park near the trail. We had to take u-turn and that is very challenging with ice all over the place. The snow was fresh as it could be with no signs of human activity on them.

Vidhya wanted me to take photographs of the snow which flies out when one walks across the fresh surface. The photos weren’t upto the mark, but there were ok.

Artemis trail is highest walking/trekking trail in Cyprus and is 7 kms long. It is a circular trail which runs around Mount Olympus. This trail offers impressive views of the surroundings of Troodos, including the Prodromos dam. I have been on this trail a couple of times, not more because it is difficult to convince people to walk for 7 kms. But, there was no sign of the trail now because of the snow. But, we knew where it started. There, we saw a sign pointing the direction of the trail.

written by Rajaram S

When i was in Seattle, i ordered a lot of photo-related products like photobooks, photocards, photomugs etc from snapfish, shutterfly and many such stores. During one such order, I was given a free 8*10 print. So, i chose to choose some of the pictures taken in Cyprus and ordered a print. The individual photos in the picture below are clickable and they will take you to the relevant post about that place.

The photos in the picture above: (Starting from top-left, going left-right and top-down)

• Taken at Stavravouni Monastery on a cloudy day.
• Aphrodite Trail near Baths of Aphrodite in Akamas
• Ski Slope on Mount Olympus in troodos. Photoshopped with a radial blur!
• Kalidonia Waterfall in winter
• Yellow Flowers near Kurion Beach on the limassol platres old road
• Kelefos Bridge
• Roudia Bridge (no, this is not the roudia bridge, but the approach road to it. The bridge is behind the camera!)
• Flamingo watching at Akrotiri Salt Lake
• River Walk near the kelefos bridge (A long-due post!)

written by Rajaram S

Cyprus is not known for extreme weather. During the winter season, we do get the occassional thunderstorm which have even lead to minor flooding in Larnaca and Nicosia. Though rare, these thunderstorms do put on a spectacular show with ample thunder and lightning to please the weather watchers and to scare the ones who have been brought up with a fear of the same. Yesterday night, the show was grand, with huge lightning strikes lasting for more than an hour. So, there was enough time for me to setup the camera and the tripod and take some lightning strike shots! If you want to know how to take photographs of lightning strikes, check out this post on my other blog.

Few years ago (in 2003), there was this big cloud buildup in Limassol. It looked like a big black flying saucer as the cloud had clear edges. it seems that such clouds give rise to Tornados and indeed, we had the best ever tornado strike (is this also called a strike) in recent history.

Almost all the tornados started off from the sea and moved inland. The one which moved over Omonia Avenue caused a lot of damage. It was so powerful that it even bent steel posts. Some shops, like the Karmi Fruit Market on the beach road were badly damaged. One passed just next to our building and it carried a garbage bin and crashed the bin onto the security cabin of our office. Vidhya was in our house at that time and i immediately called her and asked her to start taking photographs. She went out on the balcony and starting taking photos. As she was taking photos, she suddenly realised that it was getting very windy. Then she realised that a tornado from the right, which she didnt notice as she was taking photos towards the left was right on top of our house! She ran back inside the house Below are some of the photos taken with the Nikon coolpix 2500 , the one i had before i got the D70 SLR.

written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S

If you can call any trek dramatic, then it has to be this one. The views and the thrills offered by this trek are amazing and this has to be one of the best coastal treks in Cyprus. I found this trek from a book called “Walks in Cyprus”, but this is a very old book and the directions don’t hold good any longer as he refers to “a building under construction” in many places as references and they are obviously no longer in that state.
Highlights of this trek
- Excellent photo opportunities with the cliffs and the sea
- An isolated beach at the end of the trek, reachable only by boat or through this walk
- Pissouri Village is just a short drive away from Paphos/Limassol

Things to note if you are going on this trek
- You need good shoes with a strong grip as almost the entire route consists of just barren loose rocks and is very slippery. Some sections of this trek are extremely close to the edge of the cliff, so you wouldn’t want to risk “slipping” over the edge!
- Take lot of water. Even the downhill section gets tiring. It takes approximately an hour and a half (with lot of photo breaks) to go downhill and an equal amount of time uphill. Uphill is much easier.
- The best time to do this walk is in early winter or in spring. You are totally exposed to the elements on this walk and it can get very hot/cold if you are walking in the peak seasons.

How to get to the starting point of the trek: The treks starts from the top of the hill on which Pissouri village is located. Pissouri village is a short drive from Limassol/Paphos. Once you drive up to the centre of Pissouri, keep on going straight (there is only one narrow road) until you come to a fork in the centre of the road. Take the left and keep going. You should always be on the “main” road and not venture into the small exits which lead to apartment complexes. After a while you should see a tall tower somewhere at the end of the road. This is supposed to be a military complex. Park anywhere near the apartments before the tower complex and walk around the tower to go behind it. You should hit a trail clearly visible at the edge of the cliff. Start walking towards the right (west) towards the beach. That’s it, you are on your way.

I have been on this trek three times. The first time, we didn’t know the correct starting point, tried to find a way ourselves ( we knew we had to reach the beach, it should be easy to find a way!), got lost and ended up on a cliff which had no way out! The second time, we took a better approach, followed a stream’s course (They all have to flow into the sea, right) and ended up at the top of the 20 foot waterfall which we obviously couldn’t climb down. But, we managed to climb up the sides and find the correct path and we reached the beach. The third time ( very experienced now!), we went on the correct path. I am writing about all the three attempts below. So, if you are just interested in the correct way, scroll down to the third story. But, you might miss some good photographs if you do so

First (unsuccessful) attempt:

We didn’t quite understand the map drawn in the book for this particular trek. There was a mention of a goat enclosure. We found one, assumed that this was the one mentioned and started walking in the direction of the beach. After 10 minutes, we realised that there was no way that this could have been the correct way, but we decided to press on anyway. We also saw a herd of mountain goats on the way and felt happy that we were not the only living beings around. We finally reached a cliff beyond which, we concluded, there was no safe path towards the sea.(the place where Gopal is standing in the first pic above) So, we started climbing the cliffs and rocks on this cliff for lot of photo ops. Looking back, this attempt was lot of fun as it was totally investigative in nature and at some places, it was a real struggle to keep going.

Second attempt (Took lot of time, but finally made it):

This time Puneeth gave the suggestion of following the path of what would have been a stream in the rainy season(The path in the first photo above). It was an interesting suggestion and we enjoyed the initial part of the walk. Since we were following the stream, we had to walk through narrow gorges, over rocks and some pretty slippery terrain. The most fun was to climb down the places where there would have been a waterfall in the rainy season. We did climb down quite a few of them, some even around 6-7 feet tall. Puneeth and i decided to follow the exact path of the stream which meant scrambling through thorny bushes into steep gorges while others preferred the safer longer route.

The path became more and more meandering (we were enjoying it). Then as i was walking around a blind corner, i came to a waterfall. Good that i had been walking slowly, otherwise, i cannot imagine the situation i could have been in. The fall was more than 10-12 feet high and there was no way we could climb down the wall. We had no option but to look for other routes. But, we were stuck in a gorge with steep walls on either side. We didn’t want to retrace our route, so we took the decision to climb the walls. It was tough, but we managed it and continued on “top of the stream” towards the sea. Luckily, we saw two other trekkers in the distance, the kind who come out with a backpack and walking sticks (the so-called pros) and they seemed to know where they were going. So, we went in their direction and found something resembling a track. We realised that this was the elusive path we had been looking for and finally managed to reach the beach. Btw, this was the first and only trek in which Parthipan was short of breath and needed rest!

Third Attempt (Now, we are pros on this trek!):
So, to continue from the initial paragraphs, once you park near the tower complex, go around it (from the left) and keep going towards the edge of the cliff. There you will see a clear goat-path going towards the right. This is the track you should take. All along the track you will see markers put by trekkers (even we have contributed to quite a few of them) consisting of few rocks on top of each other. So, if you see them, you know for sure that you are on the right track. There are even markers on the beach to tell you that you have reached the correct beach !!

The path can get slippery at places and it was interesting to see the approaches taken by my friends in overcoming those obstacles!

i was the first to reach the beach and has some good opportunities to take photos of the rest of the gang climb down.

Don’t forget to take lot of breaks during the trek for taking photographs. If the weather turns out to be fine, you can get some real nice pictures. Enjoy the trek and drop in a comment about your experience! If you are looking for cheap flights to India, you should consider makemytrip.com.

written by Rajaram S

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!

written by Rajaram S

Cyclops cave is a small cave which can be reached after a comfortable 1.5 km walk from Konnos bay. The cave has 3 to 4 “rooms” and you can find many stalactite formations in this cave. The walk to this cave is a steady walk without much ascent and even kids can be taken along for this walk.

There are numerous spots on this walk overlooking the sea which are ideal for a small picnic. You can also climb down to the sea at many sections of the walk. Also, the route to the cave follows the cliff walls closely and you will be able to see the effect of the wind on the cliff walls. There are interesting rock formations on the cliff walls which provide for a good photo opportunity.

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!

written by Rajaram S

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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written by Rajaram S

written by Rajaram S