cyprus, been there?

Watch out for troop emplacements or patrols if hiking near the "Turkish Sector". They don't like photographers.

Wow, that sounds wonderful. Have only been to those places in books. Will enjoy this thread.

We're pretty much sticking to the greek side. You can't take hire cars over the border and the insurance rules are completely creepy on the turkish side. We will go to Nicosia and walk through the border though.

Bizarrely our housesitters come from Hawaii, but one is an expat Australian of Cypriot heritage, who's already taught me how to ask for two beers.

goddamn the Galaxy note 3 makes my spelling atrocious.

So we're in cyprus. Two days in Larnaca and now at Pedoulas. First day of 11 day hike starts tomorrow. My greek is appalling, and is a poor imitation of a version Cypriots don't speak.

Have fun, post when you can get around to it.

waiting for reports

We're starting off our time in Cyprus with an 11 day inn to inn hike in the troodos mountains.

Day 1 was a 21 k hike around the marathas valley. In the rain. Locals are gobsmacked by the amount at this time of year and are putting it down to climate change.
We got soaked even with the occasional break in front of a fire in a cafe or restaurant. Mrs hinge turned our room into a chinese laundry to get stuff dry. We cancelled the day 2 walk because the weather got worse.

Tomorrow we get a transfer to the Kykkos monastery before a 26 k hike to a rangers cabin in a national forest.

My greek slowly getting better.

Walking??? Don't they have transport there?

Greek greek, greek greek.. I recognize letters, and that's it.

50,000 stepz today. At least 26 k from Stavros tis Psokkas in the national forest to Kato arkourdelia. Beautiful walk but the last 6 km was up hill, but we survived. Mrs hinge' panics about my map reading all baseless. Finished up with a beautiful meze cooked by a bulgarian woman and served by a pakistani man. Just finishing a glass of the local red before joining mrs hinge in the land of nod.

Only disappointment was not seeing a wild moufflon, just their droppings.

No moufflons, eh? Too bad!

But you can read about them - there's a Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia. Or perhaps that's a bookshop only for moufflons. Could you tell from their droppings if they were educated? Erudite?

No moufflon today just goats. Some spectacular walking from Drouseia to agios georgios. Seafood tonight finally. Had a potential wolf creek moment that I'll report on later when I get time. Mrs hinge nipped by a farm dog too but we are still having great time. 20 k today. 128 since we left Oz. Jawbonesent email saying we should buy spangled spandex.

A rest day based at the Aphrodite beach hotel. New dog, Olmer, knows he looks dramatic on a stone wall over looking the sea. Tomorrow transferred to Drouseia to walk 18 k back to the sea a different way.

Really loving Cyprus. Planning TripAdvisor review of Porto Latchi restaurant, great food, great location, great cats.

Let us know when (you know me and food).

Must be good - far too few restaurants have cats these days!

Enjoying vicariously your trip.

Every restaurant has cats it seems. Ownership of said cats is vague. Hotels seem to have dogs with clearer lines of ownership.

Today in a beer stop in Neo Chorio Effie told us of her tale of woe: how she was given a riny kitten that gave her ten more kittens, one of which lives in the taverna. She managed to jump from a gas heater on to an exposed beam and devour a nest of swallows in the middle of everyone else's dinner. We christened her the birderer. Cats are very small here but mrs hinge says they're normal I'm just used to ragdolls and Maine coons.

The walk is over so we got a cab to Polis, which was a little underwhelming, with a plan to walk back to Latchi along the Paved beach path. Got lost several times before getting directions that worked getting us to the campsite where the path starts.

The taverna at the beach is all tall gum trees which the locals have come to understand given the warning signs about falling branches. A quick thirst quenching Keo and we wandered back the couple of kilometers back to latchi and our new fave restaurant Porto Latchi. (Search for it on TripAdvisor and you'll see our reviews)

The owner showed us how to eat the little sardines and red mullet in the meze: pull out the top fin, apply the perfume (lemon), the lipstick (salt) and kiss. Calamari done beautifully as were mussells prawns and crab. Fantastic dips. Best octopus since Galicia.

Even got a pat of the cat and complimentary traditional vege from the mountains, lovely, and the owner gave us a free carafe of rose. Probably because he guessed we'd given him the thumbs up on TripAdvisor two days ago.

I saw the review last evening - and now I'm a Trip Advisor member again. I thought I still was, but maybe the last time I was there I had a different internet provider. Makes sense, because it's not on my great dreaded paper password list (now scrawled all over with change notations). Gotta retype that one of these days.