The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

If you are reading this post anytime in Jan/Feb/Mar, then go for this trek! I assure you that this will be one of the best treks you have done in Cyprus. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do this trek other times of the year, just that you have the snow to wade through. If you are trekking in the US or other parts of the world, many of the trails would be closed because of the presence of ice/snow on the trails. I have experienced this in South Carolina where the best trails were closed because of slippery conditions. Probably, they don’t to get sued if someone slips and hurts himself. But, this adds to the adventure, right?
No such rule in Cyprus! The Kalidonia trail is open throughout the year, be it sun/rain/snow. This trail is at its best in late winter when the track is covered with more than a foot of snow and you have to predict the path and proceed on it. We have done this trail in peak summer, when it was raining, just after it had snowed and each time, the experience is different. I particularly like the snow trek and have been it doing this walk for the last 4 years now, each time introducing a new group of friends to this wonderful trail. Btw, this waterfall is also referred to sometimes as Calidonia

You can walk this trail in either direction or even half way. The bottom of the trail is at Platres, right next to the Psilo Dendron Trout farm (you have take a right where the exit to platres goes to the left). From this point, you can walk to the fall in under 30 minutes (one-way). This distance is about a km or so. You have many stream crossings, but this part doesn’t have much snow unless the snow has been very heavy so as to even bury Platres.

If you are planning to go the full stretch, some of the points to take note of:

• The trek can be done either from top to bottom or the other way. It is not a circular trek.
• So, if you are really in the mood, you can retrace your path along the trek to reach your starting point or if you have really nothing else to do, walk the 7 km stretch on the road instead of retracing the trail.
• What i do: We always go in n cars such that our entire grp can fit into n-1 cars. We leave one car at the bottom point of the trail (near Platres) and then all of us go (in n-1 cars) to the top of the trail. After we finish the walk, the drivers get into that one car and then go and fetch the remaining cars.
• The snow can be upto a foot deep and it can get very slippery at places, so it is a must to wear good shoes, not the kind which wet your feet after few minutes in snow or sneakers with plastic soles. I have knee-high rubber boots, so i just don’t care where i put my feet! Get one of these, they are great and pretty cheap too. I got mine in Festival Shoes for just 4 CYP 3 years back and I have been putting them to real bad use on the snow and also on the salt lakes.
• Even if it sunny, it can get quite cold towards the early part of the trek (you are warmed up later!) because you trek under the cover of the trees.
• Be prepared to fall often. So, gloves are a must, as even a few seconds of the snow/ice on your bare hands can be terrible. Of course, this means that you have the painful task and removing the gloves often to take photos of the beautiful sceneries you get to see.
• There are lot of stream crossing and some of them are a bit tricky. So, be prepared to put your feet into the water.

There is one steep downhill section. There are steps here, but they are covered with snow during winter. It is not a problem if the snow is heavy. You don’t see any of the steps, you just slide down the entire way. But, if there is not much snow and there is ice, these steps get really slippery and difficult to navigate.

After you climb down this section, the trail goes to the left, but if you go to the right, you can see a mini-waterfall. If you look hard, you can also the wrecked remains of car caught in the trees above.

There is also another area which stands out from the rest. This particular area has lot of boulders, all covered by moss and the green colour of the moss stands out from the white snow surroundings.

After this trail, depending on the mood of the fellow travellers, we go over to Mount Olympus. We don’t go to the skiing side, it is very crowded and there is nothing much non-skiiers can do there. So, we go to the ridge opposite to the ski station, where there is also a viewing telescope (though i don’t know whether it ever worked). Here, the crowd is less as it is open and much more colder than the other areas. If the snow is fresh, this slope provides a great opportunity for some crazy sliding.

If you want to see more beautiful photos from the trek (65 of them with comments about each photo), click here to go to the Kalidonia Trek Photo page for a flash photo presentation. Warning: The flash is 3.5 MB is size, but rest assured that the wait will be worth it.
Enjoy the beauty that Cyprus has to offer!

written by Rajaram S

Technorati Tags: kelefos bridge elia bridge roudia bridge medieval venetian bridge pafos cyprus

written by Rajaram S

• It is 7 kms long. 7 kms is not a big deal for the regular rambler, but half of this trail is uphill and the other half downhill. The uphill section is through dozens of switchbacks thus easing out the strain of climbing.
• Do not attempt this trail in summer. You may not make it to the top! We did this trail in early winter and were lucky enough to have a cool breeze throughout the day. The climb to the top is out in the open without any shade and it can be excruciating in summer. Winter or Spring is the best time for this trail.
• Do not forget your camera. The views are awesome. If you have never been to Akamas before, then you will enjoy the views even more.
• The whole trek could take anywhere between 3-5 hours depending on the number of stops you make.

The starting point of this trail is right next to Baths of Aphrodite. From the parking lot, there are a series of steps to Baths of Aphrodite. An earthern road to the right goes to Fontona Amarosa. Once you climb the steps to Baths of Aphrodite, you will see a board (to the right) marked as “walking trail” or something like that. Once you go on that path, you will join a wide road (which would have come from the fontona amarosa exit). This road is the trail. After a while, the road branches off to the right towards fontona amarosa, while you start to climb up towards the top of the trail.

The mid-point of the trek is a well signposted place. There is a huge tree with a bench below it, for resting i presume. This is the intersection point of the Aphrodite and the Adonis trails. We spent a while at this place fooling around and also conveying some words of appreciation for the people who we felt would not have lasted this far!

The second half of the trek is downhill through a rugged path which is supposed to resemble a trail. This path looks more like the mess caused by water running downhill, but it is fun clambering over the rocks. This path finishes close to the parking lot. Actually, the moment you see something which you recognise from the start of the trek, take a deroute and cut across the bushes.

It was cloudy and it started drizzling. Vidhya commented that the only thing that was missing to make it perfect was a rainbow and lo! we turned ahead and saw a rainbow. One end of a rainbow seemed to finished right on a big rock close to the coast.

After the trek, if you have time, you can go to the restaurant opposite the parking lot and climb down the stairs to the sea. The waves are pretty good here and it is a nice place for a cool down after the trek!

Technorati Tags: aphrodite cyprus baths of aphrodite trekking walking trail cyprus adonis baths trail aphrodite trail

written by Rajaram S

The road to the right looks bad, but is accessible to ordinary cars, though a bit tricky at times with one side being a steep drop to the canyon floor. That is me, guiding a friend through the rocky terrain. But, things have improved over the past few years maybe because of the running of E4, the European long distance trail close to Avakas. The road condition is still the same, but there is a parking lot near the start of the walk with picnic benches and running water. But, it is good that the roads have not been paved because it is this remoteness which adds to the beauty of this place. From the parking lot, it is around a 30 minute walk to the gorge.

The first time we went to Avakas, we walked for around 20-25 minutes and didn’t see anything resembling a gorge. We saw a couple coming back and asked them about it. They said that they had been another 100 metres, but didn’t see anything and hgence were walking back. But, we decided to press on. We didn’t drive over a 100 kilometres from limassol for nothing. At probably the 110th metre, the gorge started!

If you are going in winter/spring, be ready to walk in flowing water, as the gorge is actually a river and when we went there few weeks back, it was quite slushy in places and we had to do quite a bit of jumping around in order to save our shoes from the water.

The evening sunlight and the spring colours gave some very good photo ops.

The brave have lot of opportunities to get adventurous and try their rock climbing skills on the steep slopes of the gorge.

Once you enter the gorge, the light reduces drastically and it can get a bit cold too. The highlight of the gorge is a huge stone stuck between the walls of the gorge. This is the place which is often photographed and shown whenever Avakas gorge is referred to. The photos below are of the same place during various trips (different seasons, different times of the day with no manipulations of the photo) and you can see the effect of the light in these photos.

Though the walk is actually only about a 30 minutes, we spent almost 2 hours as we stopped at every possible photo opportunity.

From avakas gorge, only a short drive away is the famous lara beach. Lara Bay is famous for its nestling turtles (though I haven’t seen any of them). It is a big sandy beach, in contrast to the beaches in limassol and paphos.

Technorati Tags: cyprus avakas gorge avagas gorge paphos pafos cyprus adventure cyprus trek walk trail

written by Rajaram S

We also came across a gentleman who insisted that we visit his traditional house. We were wary at first, but it was good that we agreed. It was an amazing experience. He took us around the house. The “traditional” look was retained and he showed us around all the rooms and also the antiquities that he had preserved. The best part was a photograph with family members from 5 generations. The house even had a basement with a window looking out just a few inches above the street outside. Like most of the present day Cypriots, his children and grand children had settled in Nicosia and he was here with his wife looking after their ancestral home. If you go to Omodos, don’t miss this.

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written by Rajaram S

• From the highway, take the troodos exit and go towards troodos.
• After around 20 kms, you will come to the village of trimlikini.
• Immediately after Trimlikini, you will come across a junction where there are roads going to various other villages to the right and left. You have to take left where the signs point towards Mandria and Omodos Monastery.
• Proceed towards Mandria on the same road. Just after Mandria, you will see many exits. Don’t go towards Omodos/Platres. Take the turn towards Ayios Nikolas/Pafos.
• After this turn, the road is pretty narrow and single-laned. You have to drive for at least 15-20 minutes to reach Ayios Nikolas.
• Just when you enter Ayios Nikolas, you will see a brown board pointing the turn towards the right for Kelefos Bridge.
• You have to travel for around 6 kms on this earthen road to reach the bridge.

I had always wanted to take decent photographs of the crabs in this river. This time, i took my 70-300 lens and got some pretty ok shots. This place is also good for a picnic with few seats available at the banks of the river. We also did a river-walk, i.e. we walked on the river (as it is just over a feet deep) upstream for more than 1.5 hours. This was a very interesting trip. More about that in a later post. Enjoy the photos.

The photo below was very challenging to take as the insect was skipping around very fast on the water and it was difficult to get a proper focus on the insect. The one below is the best from almost a dozen attempts.

I am very happy with the photos of the crab below, considering the fact that the water was pretty murky and the crab was at least 10-15 cms inside the water. Had to use manual focus with a flash for these shots.

I tried to take a “different” shot of the bridge and as can be seen below, i failed

You can also visit Elia Bridge which is just 2-3 kms from Kelefos Bridge.

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written by Rajaram S