Getting the Hang of Cyprus…

My first few days on the Island were a little hectic to say the least…!!

Confirmation that I had entered a whole new country...!! I was getting "two for the price of one" by coming to Cyprus...!!

The flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus...

Once out of the harbour and into the city streets, I tried to get my bearings as quickly as possible, as my GPS would be of little use to me here…

Traffic in Girne was light, as I made my way up and over the range of mountains which run from east to west across Northern Cyprus. From up on the ridge I was crossing, I looked down on the only city in the world that serves as the capital of two countries…

Nicosia, as it is known to the Turkish Cypriots, or Lefkosia, as it is known by Greek Cypriots, lay sprawled in the valley below me…

After the occupation by Turkish forces in 1974, the city was split in two by what is known as “The Green Line”… A solid wall was built to separate the two halves, and control between north and south Nicosia, is tightly controlled… For the most part, I found the Turkish side of the city mostly scruffy and run down, while the southern side to be more vibrant and modern…

Clearly Cypriots are taught speed reading from an early age...!! How the hell are you supposed to read all this at 80 kmh...??

The island is in fact two separate countries…!! The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, sees itself as a separate entity from Turkey itself, but is closely aligned with the mainland… Cyprus, (the southern part of the island) is an independent state, and a full member of the European Union…

Their culture mirrors that of Greece, but Cypriots are fiercely proud of their identity, and do not like to be referred to as Greek…!!

It’s all a bit confusing until you read about the turbulent history of this island, which has over the past 3500 years, been dominated by a host of civilizations, all keen to imprint their own cultures here…

My Garmin had absolutely no idea of how to get me over to the southern side, and with road-signs being a little sparse to say the least, I got hopelessly lost…!!

On two occasions, I was given accurate directions to the border posts, only to find that they were for pedestrians only…!! I felt like riding back in search of my “would-be helpers” to ask them if they thought this large metal thing under me, was in fact a pair of legs…!!

And just like their cousins on the mainland of Turkey, the locals here have successfully resisted the urge to master even a smidgen of English…!! In southern Cyprus however, English is widely spoken and people are ever willing to assist those in need of directions…

"Your lips to God's ears, my brothers...!!" The road leading up to the border post between North and South Cyprus...

While my papers were being scrutinized, I was offered coffee by the other policemen... The pruning shears were presumably there to get answers out of me in the event my documentation was found to be suspect...!!

I finally found the border post, where my passport was carefully scrutinized, and my insurance papers frowned at… I was told to take a seat out in a little garden and offered a cup of strong Turkish coffee, while the officer went into an office nearby and made a telephone call to discuss my documentation…

I watched with concern as he shook my passport in the air while yelling down the line to whoever he had called… A pair of pruning shears lay on the table between us, and my overactive imagination began going through the reasons why pruning shears would be in the hands of a stern-looking policeman…

After ten minutes, the first officer came back out of the office with a smile on his face, and informed me that everything was in order and that I “could proceed over the border”…

On the Cyprus side, the border guard did not even open my passport…!! I held it up to ask him where I needed to go, and he just waved me through without even opening his mouth to ask where I was from…!!

Very strange, but I was in, and within a few minutes was on the highway heading south to Limassol, or Lemesos as it is known here… Every town has English and Greek names, and when riding around, you better have a map with you which has both names…!! Some road-signs only show the Greek version, but most show both…

Finally, after a hard ride from the North Cyprus border, we arrived at Panayiotis Motor Works...

Willi had told me how pleasant the weather had been since his arrival here three weeks previously and thankfully it had not changed much…

In fact, I have hardly seen a cloud about in the four days I have been here… The sun shines brightly all day, and the temperatures are in the mid to high twenties throughout the day… And this is the beginning of winter…!!

I am told that winters here are usually very mild, and brochures proclaim that the island can be enjoyed “all year round”…!!

The well maintained two lane motorway that links the four major cities on the island meant that I could give the throttle a good twist in an effort to get to Panni’s Motors as quickly as possible…

I had wasted almost an hour riding through the narrow and twisting streets and alleyways on the Turkish side of the border, and as a result, only reached Limassol at around 2.00pm…

I was warmly greeted when I arrived, and despite the late hour, Panni got to work on the Big Fella almost immediately…

“Almost”, because he first made me a huge mug of cold coffee, called “Frape”, and then explained what the service would entail, before he began dismantling the Big Fella…

The Big Fella goes to pieces again...!! This time in Limassol, Cyprus...

Over the next few hours, he was constantly interrupted by a string of visitors to his showroom and workshop, and because he worked alone, the service of the bike took much longer than we both expected…

Willi arrived later that afternoon, and while we waited for Panni, we exchanged our news...

We took a ride down the main drag of Limassol, to find some coffee...

Willi arrived on his bike, and after catching up on our news, we hoped on his bike and went down to the main road running along the shoreline, to look for a place to have a drink…

As usual, a wave of peckishness overtook Willi when he spied a menu lying on the table next to ours…

He ordered a plate of Potato Skins and while we ate,  we watched people strolling up and down the boardwalk… Out in the bay directly across from us, a number of ships lay at anchor, waiting to be called into port…

We ended up sharing a plate of potato skins, while we chatted to the Romanian waitress... I told her about my ride on the Transfagarasan, and Willi discussed his previous visits to the shores of the Balck Sea... She was delighted to meet people who had been to her country...

Back at the workshop, Panni was still busy, but the sun had gone down, and we still had 75 km to ride...!!!

We made a mental note to visit the Choco Lounge Bar...!! Only because I enjoy the stuff so much...!!

We returned to the workshop to find the service no nearer to completion… At 6.30pm, which is well after dark in this part of the world, we decided to leave the bike there and head for our hotel in Larnaca, which lies 70 km to the east of Limassol…

With just a small bag of clothes tied to the back of Willi’s bike, we motored down the highway, heading for the “Lucky Hotel”…

The owners were keen to meet me according to Willi, as they had lived in South Africa for 25 years before moving to Cyprus… Turns out they had lived in Nelspruit and White River, which for the past 14 years had been my home town…!!

The hotel is situated just a few minute’s walk from the beach and my room includes a comfortable living area and kitchenette… And best of all, a kettle…!! It had been a long time since I was last able to make myself as many cups of coffee as I wanted…!!

This interesting energy drink got us ready for the long day ahead...!!

I had been awake since 6.00am on Sunday morning, and after nearly 40 hours without sleep, I was “well knackered”… After a quick shower, I fell onto my bed and took the express train to dreamland…

Early the next morning, Willi and I took a short walk to find breakfast, and then rode into Larnaca to see the waterfront area, and to get myself acquainted with the layout of the city…

Not having my own wheels was a bit of a bummer, but I enjoyed the freedom of being able to look all around me, and not having to watch where we were actually going…

We arrived back in Limassol after lunch, to find the Big Fella spick and span, and waiting patiently for me…

Panni had changed the oil and the filter, cleaned the injectors and the throttle body, adjusted the valve clearances, checked the wheel bearings and brakes, cleaned the air filter, changed the globes on both front and rear lights and pronounced both bike and tyres “good for another 10 000 kms”…

We hung around shooting the breeze with Panni, and I later convinced him to exchange my rear light cover (which I had super-glued together in Tanzania) with one off a scrapped 1200 GS that lay in the back of his workshop…

All the ficus trees in Limassol have been pruned to look like hat boxes...

Back at the Lucky Hotel... The Big Fella was "spick and span", and "Going like a Boeing"...!!

It was late afternoon before I began reloading the Big Fella, and once this was done, we got back on the highway and headed for “home” in Larnaca…

The bike handled like a dream, and I could feel some new-found power as I accelerated through the gears, and was soon bombing down the coastal road, avoiding the highway which we had now ridden twice in the last 24 hours…

After just 20 km, Willi pulled over “for something to drink”…!!

Some things never change…!! Like Willi’s propensity to turn a 70 km ride into a two hour “mission”…!!

We sat drinking iced tea in a small roadside restaurant, while we planned the next few days ahead of us… We could have done this in the comfort of our hotel rooms, but I could see that Willi had comfortably settled into a “slowly but surely” way of life here in Cyprus…!!

And I could understand why this was… There seemed to be a relaxed attitude to everything here, and if there was a place to kick back and let the world slide by, then this was it…

Perhaps this feeling was also due to there being very few tourists about… Almost all the sunbathers down on the beaches seemed to be locals, who were taking every opportunity to enjoy the peace and quiet of their late afternoons…

I decided that I would not rush back to the mainland and head for Syria on Friday as I had planned, but would rather hang about until Monday, when the ferries resumed their weekly schedules…

I felt the need to explore as much of Cyprus as I could, and with Iran now out of the question I had a few days to spare in the overall scheme of things…

Willi had collected a fistful of maps for me, as well as any other relevant brochures that I was able to use to plan the days ahead… There was Mt. Olympus, and many Greco-Roman ruins to see, mountain villages and their monasteries to visit, and of course, roads to ride…!!

Early morning view fom my balcony...

©GBWT 2010