Within half an hour of leaving Pafos, we were climbing up into the mountains…
We climbed high up into the mountains, and stopped to enjoy the views presented to us...
We passed through the villages of Varvara and Axylou, and stopped at a monastery where Romos asked the priest for directions to a town I didn’t get the name of… I had no idea where we were going, and was actually enjoying riding behind Romos without worrying about a destination…
One of a string of mountain dams that supply water to the coastal towns...
While they were engrossed in their conversation, I wandered around in the grounds of the monastery, admiring the view down into the valley below, where the water of a fairly large dam sparkled in the sunlight… In the grounds of the church, stood a massive old pine tree, said to be 130 years old… Its trunk measured 140 cm in diameter, and was the biggest pine tree I had ever seen…!! (And I’ve seen a few, having been involved in the timber industry for almost 25 years…!!)
After a long and seemingly detailed explanation by the priest, we were ready to ride again…
I was surprised by the good quality of the roads that linked even the most remote of villages… Back where I come from, villages and towns as small as these would have gravel and sand roads joining them, but not here in Cyprus… The infrastructure is superb when you consider that the population of the island is significantly less than a million people…
"Looks like a bit of off-road ahead of us Big Fella...!!" Looking down into the valley of Xeros...
We made our way deeper into the mountains, passing Pentalia, and Fotios, until we reached Pano Panagia
We stopped high above a deep valley, while Romos made a phone call to confirm a route he had in mind…
“I think it is down here somewhere…!!” he said, not bothering to tell me what the “it” was…
Things went a bit pear-shaped from there…!!
We descended a steep and narrow tarred road until we came to a little village, where nobody there seemed to know exactly where it was that Romos wanted to go…!!
The smile on my face belied the tension I felt... My aching elbow began sending messages of concern to my brain...!!
“Are we lost..?” I asked…
“Of course we are lost…!!” came the reply, “But that is half the fun of riding out here in the mountains…!! The other half is finding your way back to a place you know…!!”
“I see…!!” I said, not yet concerned, as I thought we could always turn around and go back the way we had come…
An old woman on the edge of the village directed us further along the road, where a farmer was harvesting Olives… The branches of the Olive tree were being beaten with a long stick, and the ripe fruit fell onto the plastic sheet he had laid under a large tree…
After much gesticulating by the farmer, who seemed to have a vague idea of where Romos wanted to go, we turned onto a very narrow strip of concrete, and made out way further down into the valley below us…
"You follow this little track down into the valley, and then, if you survive the road down to the river, you will find what you are looking for...!!"
This “road” had been made by farmers in the area, and was clearly “off the grid”…
This narrow concrete strip took us down into the valley...
It was steep in many places, and bent and twisted back on itself… Loose gravel had gathered on the sharp bends, and on one, I felt the back tyre lose grip and the bike begin to slide out from under me… The jerk it took to stay up-right, wrenched my lower back and sent needles of pain into my recuperating right elbow…
I do not think that this is what the doctor had in mind when she told me to take it easy for a few days…
"You having fun yet, my friend...!!"
After what seemed an age on this concrete track, it came to a sudden end on the floor of the valley… There were no signs of habitation, although the area was clearly farmed in the summer months…
We followed a testing little gravel road, littered with loose stones, until we came to a dry river bed about 20 metres wide… This was the Xeros River, and with his lighter bike, Romos tore through it without hesitation… I on the other hand stopped to take a long hard look at the large rocks and smooth stones that made up the river bed…
Standing up on the pegs to get a better view of the line I had chosen I bumped and battled my way over the obstacle course laid out in front of us and made it to the other side without incident… Cresting a low rise, I came to a fork in the track, and wasn’t sure which way Romos had gone… A cloud of dust out to my left finally hinted at the direction he had taken, and minutes later, I saw him turning into the parking area of a large stone building…
This was the famous and abandoned monastery of Panagia Tou Sinti…!!
The deserted courtyard of this magnificent complex...
Romos had been here before, but never along the route we had just completed…
“I have been riding bikes in Cyprus for more than 30 years, and had no idea there was a road down here from that side of the valley…!!” he explained… “How’s your elbow feeling…?” he added…
“Not too good, I’m afraid…!! If you had showed me a photo this morning of the road we have just come down, I would not be standing here right now, that’s for sure…!!”
“Ah, but then you would not be seeing this magnificent old building…!!” he laughed…
The domed ceiling of the Monastery of Panagia Tou Sinti...
And he was right…!!
The monastery had been built in the 16th century by Venetian monks and stands in this deserted valley, far from the nearest village…
It is rarely visited, but an enormous amount of work has gone into the rebuilding and restoration of the buildings that form part of the complex… Not a soul was about as we tried the front door and found it unlocked…
We stepped into the central area of the chapel, and stared up at the high domed ceiling… The place was dust free and clean, and I wondered who was maintaining this abandoned and remote monastery…
In the courtyard there stood a large stone-made oven, and in one of the outbuildings the remains of an olive press with its large circular grinding wheel still in place…
Restoration is still taking place here, which, considering its extremely remote location came as a surprise… I could not see too many visitors bothering to take a trip to see this amazing church, built exclusively from the rocks in the area…
I later discovered that it has been listed as a World Heritage Site, and hopefully, the roads leading to this site will be improved in time, encouraging more people to visit The Monastery of Panagia Tou Sinti…
The monastery is made entirely of stone...
I could have spent the remainder of the afternoon there, exploring the grounds and perhaps finding the person who took care of the site, but we still had a long way to go, and after just 15 minutes here, we were back in the saddle… It was also at this point that my second camera battery gave up the ghost, and I had to use my video camera to take photos after than…
We stopped near the top of the dry and dusty pass leading out of the valley...
Pointing back the way we had come...
This believe it or not, is the post bag...!! People in this remote village come to check the bag for post when it is hung out on the door of this building...
The road leading out of the valley was wider, dustier and just as steep… With my tyres still pumped too hard for the conditions, getting back to the top and out onto the tar, was a “slip-sliding” affair…
The road back to Limassol took us through the villages of Arminou, Praitori, Arsos and Malia, all places that I could have stopped to walk around in, but the lengthening shadows sent us down to the lower altitudes of the coast where we arrived at Panni’s workshop just as darkness was falling…
It had been a day filled with spectacular scenery, wonderful twisting roads, and of course, visits to so many ancient sites that I had trouble remembering the order in which I saw them…
After having the compulsory “Panni’s Frappe”, I thanked Romos for the time he had taken to guide me to the seldom visited parts of the island, and showing me the “real Cyprus”, as he put it…
Despite having to cover the final 80 km back to my hotel in complete darkness, I had a large smile plastered across my face, which was still there when I dismounted…
Lakis the owner was standing outside the front door when I arrived…
“Another long day…??” he asked…
“Yeah, but one that I will remember for a long, long time…!!” I replied, trudging wearily towards the lifts that would take me to a hot shower and an evening of quiet reflection…
Great day… Thanks Romos…!!
The Big Fella and the White Knight conquer Cyprus...
©GBWT 2010
Turning back? … it took us over half an hour to get lost LOL.
After that is when we met the old lady that didn’t have a clue where the village we were looking for was or the guy under the olive tree that sent us down that concrete snake twisty road which i never done before but will do it again very soon! or the old ladies coming back from the fields in the village of Salamiou or Panagia tou Sinti etc
You have to come back some time and do that when the rivers are flowing …. thats a challenge!!!!
BTW: Remember the UPS i carried on the bike on that route to be repaired? …. well its beyond repair now and i have no regrets … i can even take back on the same route if it wants me to ha ha ha
Nice ! I think that you have been really blessed by the people that you have met here. Most locals have probably never seen what you have.
Mark hi, this is actually true and one of the things i dislike. People dont know their own country but always go abroad to see other places.
I agree Romos, we have not spent enough time exploring our own country, but are quick to hop on a plane and visit overseas. Atleast Ronnie has travelled South Africa extensively and therefore taken the time off to explore the world.
I agree with you all !!!