** 1999 CYPRUS STORY (continued) **

Cyprus & Israel.(visited during Jan & Feb '99)

Roman mosaics

The Mosaics are housed in several 'houses', starting form the "House of Dionyssios" to the Houses of Aion and Thesius. My transport took me from the hotel into Kato Paphos
where I explored each in turn, taking several 35mm and digital photos. One is already shown on the page which lead you here and more will follow later. After the walks around these mosaics, I wandered via the Agora Asklepieion, then the Odeion Amphitheatre the ancient lighthouse to the Agia Solomoni Catacombs. This area of the island is crammed with antiquities.

Catacombs etc

These mysterious and eerie places were found on the way out of Kato Paphos on the way to Upper Paphos. They were called the "Agia Solomoni Christian Catacombs" and was easily detectable by the vast numbers of handkerchieves and other "rubbish" attached to the tree outside!! Making one's way down the steps, the interiors were partly lit (mostly, if at all, by solitary candles) - some being quite 'dank' and others less so.
Some had religious icons, pictures and other paraphernalia around. As I said " Very eerie!!"

Akamas wilderness

I took my experience to the wilderness in the NorthWest Corner of the island by means of a Jeep Safari through this rugged terrain.It was of a long duration and very jarring on one's joints (and other more tender parts) as we really got 'into the wild'. Our hairy transport
was by means of a long-wheel-based 4 X 4 LandRover. Some of the less jarring parts of this exploration was when the drivers went sub-sonic and kept to the surface of the planet!!
The trip was partly by one of these vehicles - and partly on foot. Many photos were taken and more will appear in later editions of this Web.


Coral Bay Area

I visited this several times during my stay on the island. It was one of the best areas for walks, relaxation and access to other interesting areas. There were relatively cheap buses which served the area from Paphos.

Israel
Being in Cyprus was a marvellous opportunity to visit places too far from the UK to visit economically directly. From Limassol, I could visit Egypt and/or Israel by overnight boats. I chose NOT to revisit Egypt for reasons given in my Egypt story - but, as I had yet to visit Israel, I took the opportunity.
A detailed writeup is given in my israel story link.

Cyprus Folklore evening

An interesting visit was made to CRAZY CHRIS'S, Chris being the owner, cook, entertainer, singer, musician, comedian etc.. On our night, Chris wasn't as crazy and inconsiderate as a drunken Scotsman, aided and abetted by a few lesser-drunken Irishmen. Not my scene!
However, Chris did serve up, almost single-handedly, many courses of various 'alien' dishes - most of which were acceptable to a British palette!! His jokes were mostly old, - some pathetic - rarely new! Nevertheless, an acceptable evening, despite being 'not my scene'.

Kart Racing

Having indulged in some Go-karts several decades ago, I have got used to their being called KARTS nowadays. Being here, own my own in Cyprus, and with signposts to a KART Circuit, I thought "Why not??". The circuit has apparently grown in size by 100 metres (at least) on each 'improvement'. I'd seen adverts calling it a 300m, 600m and 800m track. The latest extension has taken it up to a full 1000m!

Being out-of-practice, I went for a small duration revision-run. Since I went in the 'old-days', not only have engines improved, circuits improved, safety improved etc - it now includes full-face crash-helmets (first time that I've worn them!). With each return to the track, I 'upped' my times and speeds for more advanced practice.

I was getting faster and faster on each revisit, except on one occasion when the partially-damp track prevented my doing so. Taking the hairpin bends in such conditions had to be experimented with! (i.e should I go WIDE or 'hug the inside-armco'?) I spoke quite a bit to the brothers who owned and ran the track, - they were Demetris and Petros Kaiser. Petros won the area championships (run like the GP World Championships!) for several past seasons and took me with the all-Greek-gang to R.A.F Akrotiri (near Limassol) to see the first event of the season. Petros is certainly very quick, even when he's got inferior tyres to his competitors. [He bases his style and attitudes on those of Michael Schumacher - whose portraits and Ferraris adorn the refreshment room at the circuit!]. I also got them very interested in the WLSR - with the help of my ThrustSSC tee-shirts.


Reinitialising Satellite Navigation device

Having taken my Magellan Satellite navigator to Cyprus for walking and exploring aids, I took the choice of re-initialising the beast - since my position had changed substantially since my previous use of it! It went moderately well, for use on the island - and of course the reverse procedure was carried out on my return to the UK!

Relaxing under a palm-tree


On the evening of 2nd of February, the sun had almost gone down and I was almost alone in this very pleasurable scenery with an acceptable temperature. "Great!!" I thought, " - this is the best part of the day and nobody is here to enjoy it!"

Lounging luxuriously on one of the empty beach-reclining-chairs I positioned it so that the very low sun was partially obliterated by a convenient Palm Tree. In this early February day - I can admit to feeling my impression of the perfect location, - this is closer to heaven than any traditional concepts!! [The sun squeezed past in an unfortunate position!]


Speaking with two elderly ladies in this marvellous 'beach and palms' scenery we all agreed that this is the best part of the day- and everyone else was missing it!




Return to Year99 index for more details and visits or
return to Roy's home page for full list of books either finished or under preparation.
EMail (?) to: Roy's Location.