BOTANY BAY

I have just returned from two weeks walking in Northern Cyprus.  We stayed in a little hotel called The Ship Inn in the bay area of Girne (Kyrenia).  The first week was largely flower hunting.  This is a spectacular season to visit the island and innumerable species of orchid are endemic, yet hard to find.

We combined some city walks in Lefkosa (Nicosia), Gazimagusa (Famagusta) and Girne with days in the completely unspoilt parts of the island and in the mountains.

The island remains divided.  It is a little easier now to cross the border, but there is some way to go before the island can be unified and entirely a member of the EU (though that ambition may not look such a bright prospect at the moment).  There are everywhere though signs of the division.  Turkey is a very patriotic country and flies its flag everywhere.  They do so even more in northern Cyprus, along with the unacknowledged N Cyprus flag.  Lefkosa is a city divided by the 'green line', reinforced with a fence; Gazimagusa is a fascinating city, still with its ancient city walls, yet displaying all its ancient churches in their dismantled state, except the one or two that have been converted to mosques, and still with its original Greek quarter fenced off and abandoned.  The coast around Girne shows all the signs of an economy growing through tourism, but can't hide the abandoned and half-finished blocks of some failed or misappropriating entrepreneur.

And yet this is a wonderful place to holiday.  People are friendly and sincere; the weather is Mediterranean; hotels have good resort facilities; restaurants are wholesome and inexpensive; there is plenty of open country to enjoy.  Oh, and there are flowers.

Sorry I don't have time to post more, but my selection of pics is at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7547548@N04/sets/72157633271980276/.

GIRNE FOR A WALK

Yesterday, Jeffers, Countrybhoy and I walked another leg of the Sussex Border Path.  I have no time to tell you more now, but it was a glorious day, if at times gloriously cold.  Here we are admiring the view.  And why not?  Yesterday, the sun shone and the views were extensive (if still a little autumnal).

Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, I am off to N Cyprus (a long way from the banks and their problems) to take a walking party through the lovely Kyrenian Mountains.  I'll see you again in 2 weeks.

Now I have to go and clean yesterday's mud off my boots and plan my routes.  Oh, and pack . . .