North Cyprus – Part Three

For a few seconds there our coach compatriot had us fooled at the breakfast table.

‘I’m celebrating you know,’ he said.
‘Are you?’, we chorused.
‘Firstly, because Trump sacked Vance.’
‘Has he?’ High pitched shock. 
‘Secondly, because he’s resigned.’
‘Has he?’ The pitch is almost at dog-calling level.
‘You do know what day it is, don’t you?!’

The penny had taken a while to drop but that’s what happens on holidays sometimes. You’re not reading the news, and you’re not quite sure what day it is. This is our final full day in North Cyprus, before leaving at ungodly o’clock for our flight back via Turkey. And for some reason the two of us had got up for breakfast before the people that were actually doing today’s trip. 

The last week has seen us all trudge into the hotel restaurants at seven, sometimes at six-thirty, as each morning, the coach would be setting off handy. As we hadn’t booked this last optional trip, there had really been no need. It was no wonder we were taken advantage of.

Anne is on the lookout now, for an orange tree for me. I have loved walking past the blossom in this garden hotel. There are many other gorgeous trees and bushes that we have encountered too here: olives, mimosas, mulberrys, bougainvilleas, lemons, hibiscus, wild geraniums, etc. The blossom of the orange tree, however, has to be my most favourite scent of all. 

We have seen several groves along the way, especially near Güzelyurt (Morphou). Supposedly the birthplace of Aphrodite, this has been a Greek town, and then a Roman one, as we saw by the remains of some more Roman buildings. On a much smaller scale to Salamis, but then, only five percent of the place has been excavated. The mosaics are faded but still stunning in their intricacy, especially the swan.

Osman showed us a huge artificial lake on the way back to Kyrenia. It holds the water that now gets pumped from mainland Turkey. The project, completed in 2014, includes the underwater pipes crossing the sixty miles of sea between southern Turkey and Cyprus, the two pumping stations and this lake. Half of it is used as drinking water, and half for irrigation, so the rows of trees in the orange groves that we saw can thrive in this land which naturally has few water reserves of its own.

I had thought, that for a dry country, the land on the Mesaoria Plains straddled by the two mountain ranges looked remarkably green. Hard to say what it looked like before the extra water, but the engineering feat sounded very impressive, and you could tell that Osman was quite proud.

I have, on the whole, enjoyed this trip. And, North Cyprus has been a joy to explore. Would I go on a big touring group again? If the place is not easily accessible in other ways, then maybe. It has been really interesting (requisite carpet/leather/jewellery pressure-shopping aside). 

But, it doesn’t always suit our usual leisurely paced holidays. And I have only managed to run once – today – in the entire week. As runs go, it was more of a sedate pootle, after a week and a bit of zero exercise. And I was the only runner I have seen throughout the trip, but my ‘Günayadin (good morning) was reciprocated by everyone with a genial smile. 

It was nice to get a leg stretch and was a slightly convoluted route to the coast as I realised when I looked at the map later, but the sea front looked rather idyllic, given the out-of-season calm of it. The final stretch to the beach was past sections of barbed wire edged pine forests as I was cutting in between military areas.

There are several military bases in Cyprus, including two British ones, on the south side. As it has always been a strategic island for the silk route and the crusades, so it is still, being a hop and skip to Middle East, a base of international importance. And obviously, while the island is divided, I guess military bases are inevitable. It has been just over fifty years since the Turkish army landed and the United Nations had to cut the island in two. Places like Morphou, which was almost entirely Greek before, emptied of its occupants, to be filled by the Turkish refugees from the south. It reminds me, on a smaller scale, of the dividing of India when the British relinquished their occupation. The animosity there has only increased as the years have passed. I only hope that it doesn’t get that bad here.