The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

Yermasoyia Dam (or Germasoyia or Yermasogia) is one of the few reasons one could use to justify living in this beautiful island of Cyprus (and particularly Limassol). It is around 10 mins (lesser now because of the flyovers) from anywhere in Limassol and yet, it is so different. The moment you take the yermasoyia exit (the first one from Larnaca/Nicosia side), you leave the hustle-bustle of the city behind and enter the narrows streets of Yermasoyia village. Small streets running up the sides of the hills, orange farms in the valley below – you wouldn’t realise that the city is just a minute behind you.

There is a road on top of the dam which you can drive across. This will take you behind the dam.

Many people just visit the dam, stop on the road on top of it, click a few photos and then drive back. But, the best part is hidden behind the hills on the other side. The road across the dam climbs over the hill and goes down towards the village of Phinikara (Finikara). In Spring and particularly after a drizzle, this place comes alive with greenery and lots of yellow flowers.

Yermasoyia also looks great in rain, if you manage to cover yourself and still enjoy the view. Under the cover of mist, the far-away mountains and the valley present a pristine sight

There are also small walking trails near the parking place on the other side of the hill(dam). You cross over a small valley and then there is a hillock with a small hut on the top. It is a short climb to the top. Also, there is a small 15 minute trail circumnavigating this hillock.

Yermasoyia dam has overflown in the past and it becomes a major attraction when it does so. The overflowing water form a nice set of waterfalls on the side of the village and for the adventurous, it presents some interesting rock-hopping.

i went there last week and the water level is pretty compared to the emptiness of last year. Also, with the hint of rain in the air, it is a great place to visit now!

written by Rajaram S

Forget the beaches, forget the half-naked Britishers, leave the shores and head out to the countryside. It is spring in Cyprus and this is when Cyprus is at its best. A cool breeze, a bright-but-not-hot sun, green grass, wild flowers, a light drizzle – it is paradise out there.
Over the next few weeks, I shall be writing posts which concentrate on seeing the best of Spring in Cyprus. Road-trips, picnic spots, small treks and the like. The past few weekends, I have been doing just that and there is no reason why you also should out there doing the same

You could go on a trek…

or visit the rose gardens in Agros village…

or go in search of fields of yellow flowers…



or catch the dawn/dusk sun for some wonderful photo ops….

or go in search of white flowered almond trees…

or go into one of the hundreds of orange farms …

or hope that Yermasoyia dam gets lot of water and it overflows (with water and greenery!)…

To catch all the posts on the best of springtime in Cyprus, visit Spring in Cyprus

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.

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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.

It was ironical that the signs were pointing in a direction where the only thing that the eye could see was snow.

We had already been 2-3 hours in the snow and we were not in a mood to walk 7 kms in knee-deep fresh snow. So, we decided to save the artemis trail snow trek for later and attempted out usual stunts on the snow. We tried to slide and the only thing that slid down the mountain side was the plastic thing that we had. It turned out to be a big effort for harish to go and retrieve it! Since the snow was soft, we had a downhill race and you can see the results in the flash slideshow below. On the whole, it was a super-fun day and it was the heaviest snowfall that i had ever seen


[slideshow id=3 w=270 h=400]

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