Days 495-498, 20-23 Oct '15, Maroni on to North Cyprus and Farewell. Almost a month in Cyprus flew by and on Friday 23rd we went to Larnaca to collect our returning owner then on to Nicosia where we farewelled both owner and car. It's not often we cross "international" borders on foot, so always interesting. Trundly bags in tow, we passed through the Republic of Cyprus border point and then walked through the UN buffer zone before handing our passports to the ...

Day 494, 19 Oct '15, Limassol & Kolossi Castle. In the words of Frank Sinatra... The time has come, the end is near... but we're not quite finished with Cyprus just yet. Last on our list in the Republic was a trip to Kolossi Castle and a free walking tour of Limassol with the tourist office. Even we get tired of tripping about eventually (who'da thunk it), so today was just a half day outing. We pointed The Beast towards Kolossi at 7.30 am and were offici...

Days 492-493, 17-18 Oct '15, Troodos (Troodos, Pedoulas, Kykkos Monastery, Omodos) and the Kourion Ruins just outside Limassol. Does that sound like a huge day out? That's because it was! The Troodos Mountains are billed as "The Green Heart of Cyprus" and we were itching to see some green. We loaded up the car and took off at 7.30 am to enjoy the cool of the morning for the winding (really winding - switchbacks on hairpins on curves!) road up to the mountain vi...

Days 488-491, 13-16 Oct '15, Paphos Mosaics, Tombs, Noffee & Nuts Finally recovered from Nicosia, we made Thursday 15th Oct "Paphos Day". We hadn't intended to explore that far afield - but they had a free walking tour at 10 am! As it turned out - that was a complete bust. The guide was the second most boring woman we've ever come across and it became only the 2nd time we skived off a tour (in almost 30 odd walking tours worldwide). Freed from the chain...

Days 484-487, 9-12 Oct '15, Recovery day from Larnaca day trip... immediately followed by massive, huge, crazy day trip to Nicosia/Lefkosia. Saturday 10 October was (apparently) World Tourism Day. So well publicised that we only knew about it because of a leaflet we found at the Larnaca info centre. We'd planned a trip to Nicosia anyway (about 45 minutes from home), so with the addition of free walking tours/minibuses/red train - Saturday became the day for it...