A day of variety, first I walked through scrub, sharing the track with tourists driving motorised buggies, then I visited the town of Peyeia, followed by a pine forest and banana plantations, and finally a walk along the coast to Lara Bay.
After a breakfast of many different things at the Perrgell B&B, including fresh figs grown in the very garden in which I was sitting, I left Killi and followed dusty, white roads down to Adonis' bath and waterfall. I did not visit the place as there were suggestions on the internet that it was an expensive tourist trap. Instead I continued up the hill, out of the valley meeting convoys of tourists on motorised buggies or All Terrain Vehicles, leaving a trail of white dust in their wake. To avoid breathing it in I pulled up my bright yellow "Buff", which I had been wearing to protect my neck from sun burn, so that it covered my mouth and nose. In conjunction with my sun hat and dark glasses I must have looked like a demented, latter day cowboy.
Fly tipped rubbish beside the dirt track indicated I was getting close to another major urban centre. After climbing over another ridge, crossing the top of a narrow ravine in the process, I arrived at Peyeia. The E4 does not go through the centre of town, taking a circuitous route through the suburbs, in part to avoid a deep valley, but needing provisions I diverted to where a shop, some bars and cafes clustered around a church, all on a steep slope. Stopping at a bar for a Fanta, banging into the narrow doors with my rucksack, I sat down surrounded by British tourists enjoying tall, cold lagers in the midday heat.
It was a steep climb out of town, with the reward of a view down the coast back towards Pafos. Coming down the other side of the hill I walked through a pine forest, this year's pine needles were a vivid green, a sharp contrast with the dusty, grey green of most of the trees I had passed. Seeing a stork wandering around in a fenced area I was somewhat perplexed, until I realised it was a Zoo. Soon after I reached the coastal plain and banana plantations lined the road. Most of the banana bunches were encased in blue plastic, no doubt for some good reason. Leaving the E4 in search of food, I had a late, and very tasty lunch at the Sunset Cafe, distracted slightly by the cafes family members shouting at each other.
The Akamas peninsula is supposedly a remote and undeveloped area, while it is indeed undeveloped the frequent passage of cars and motorised buggies made it feel far from remote, although I guess it was just people like myself enjoying a holiday, although without wanting to walk. The cars all seemed to have red number plates, which I took to mean they were hire cars, certainly they were driving slowly, no doubt to avoid the cost implications of a scratch or a cracked windscreen on these gravel roads. I walked through scrubby vegetation with the occasional field of stubble or herd of goats. Just as I was thinking that unlike Crete (my previous excursion on the E4) Cyprus did not seem to have many gorges, I reached the entrance to the Avakas gorge. The number of cars parked suggested it was a popular walk up the gorge, however the E4 does not go in that direction, so I headed on up the Akamas peninsula as the shadows were beginning to lengthen.
Camping is prohibited on the peninsula, but there is no accommodation, the nearest hotel was full and it is a 14 hour walk, difficult to achieve in one day. Despite the prohibition I was planning to camp due to the lack of an alternative, and as I was walking up the road with a big rucksack my intentions were pretty clear. As the afternoon drew to a close a police car slowly drove passed me and there was a fire engine on the roadside, its crew sitting around a table speaking among themselves. Fortunately at about that time I saw a sign to a snack bar on Lara beach, the second sign for a cafe but the first to offer free camping. Consequently, I am now camped outside the snack bar. It was closing as I arrived but I thought the least I could do was buy a beer given that the owner had allowed me to camp there.
Turtles nest on the beach and before the light completely faded I had a look. Nests were marked with little frameworks and signs, put there so they were not accidentally dug up by children making sandcastles...
32 kilometres walked today including diversions for shops and lunch, and a 700 metre total ascent. A gps file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, and on myViewRanger under short code johnpon0044.
After a breakfast of many different things at the Perrgell B&B, including fresh figs grown in the very garden in which I was sitting, I left Killi and followed dusty, white roads down to Adonis' bath and waterfall. I did not visit the place as there were suggestions on the internet that it was an expensive tourist trap. Instead I continued up the hill, out of the valley meeting convoys of tourists on motorised buggies or All Terrain Vehicles, leaving a trail of white dust in their wake. To avoid breathing it in I pulled up my bright yellow "Buff", which I had been wearing to protect my neck from sun burn, so that it covered my mouth and nose. In conjunction with my sun hat and dark glasses I must have looked like a demented, latter day cowboy.
Fly tipped rubbish beside the dirt track indicated I was getting close to another major urban centre. After climbing over another ridge, crossing the top of a narrow ravine in the process, I arrived at Peyeia. The E4 does not go through the centre of town, taking a circuitous route through the suburbs, in part to avoid a deep valley, but needing provisions I diverted to where a shop, some bars and cafes clustered around a church, all on a steep slope. Stopping at a bar for a Fanta, banging into the narrow doors with my rucksack, I sat down surrounded by British tourists enjoying tall, cold lagers in the midday heat.
It was a steep climb out of town, with the reward of a view down the coast back towards Pafos. Coming down the other side of the hill I walked through a pine forest, this year's pine needles were a vivid green, a sharp contrast with the dusty, grey green of most of the trees I had passed. Seeing a stork wandering around in a fenced area I was somewhat perplexed, until I realised it was a Zoo. Soon after I reached the coastal plain and banana plantations lined the road. Most of the banana bunches were encased in blue plastic, no doubt for some good reason. Leaving the E4 in search of food, I had a late, and very tasty lunch at the Sunset Cafe, distracted slightly by the cafes family members shouting at each other.
The Akamas peninsula is supposedly a remote and undeveloped area, while it is indeed undeveloped the frequent passage of cars and motorised buggies made it feel far from remote, although I guess it was just people like myself enjoying a holiday, although without wanting to walk. The cars all seemed to have red number plates, which I took to mean they were hire cars, certainly they were driving slowly, no doubt to avoid the cost implications of a scratch or a cracked windscreen on these gravel roads. I walked through scrubby vegetation with the occasional field of stubble or herd of goats. Just as I was thinking that unlike Crete (my previous excursion on the E4) Cyprus did not seem to have many gorges, I reached the entrance to the Avakas gorge. The number of cars parked suggested it was a popular walk up the gorge, however the E4 does not go in that direction, so I headed on up the Akamas peninsula as the shadows were beginning to lengthen.
Camping is prohibited on the peninsula, but there is no accommodation, the nearest hotel was full and it is a 14 hour walk, difficult to achieve in one day. Despite the prohibition I was planning to camp due to the lack of an alternative, and as I was walking up the road with a big rucksack my intentions were pretty clear. As the afternoon drew to a close a police car slowly drove passed me and there was a fire engine on the roadside, its crew sitting around a table speaking among themselves. Fortunately at about that time I saw a sign to a snack bar on Lara beach, the second sign for a cafe but the first to offer free camping. Consequently, I am now camped outside the snack bar. It was closing as I arrived but I thought the least I could do was buy a beer given that the owner had allowed me to camp there.
Turtles nest on the beach and before the light completely faded I had a look. Nests were marked with little frameworks and signs, put there so they were not accidentally dug up by children making sandcastles...
32 kilometres walked today including diversions for shops and lunch, and a 700 metre total ascent. A gps file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, and on myViewRanger under short code johnpon0044.
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| The town on Peyeia |
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| View back down the coast from the track the E4 was following |
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