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a bit about why and how

Meeting Daniel

This is the why: A year prior, my son Daniel (born 1988) started a new life in Cyprus. We sent Mark to visit him during the summer of 2023, but now it was our turn to see Daniel in situ. This is Lysithea Hotel some 10 clicks north-east of Larnaca 21 April 2024. That day, we visited Daniel's place in town and ended up at our resort where we had dinner nearby. I took this evening selfie on our hotel balcony.

Check out the avian biodiversity

That was the second 'why': I like to hike in remote spots; Bee Choo likes to be in nature and see new birds and animals. So during the week, while Daniel was working hard at his job in town, Bee Choo and I did a Cyprus nature road trip to look for nice scenery and good birds. Such as this endemic Cyprus Wheatear from the Troodos Forest, more about that later. Our main references were Birds of Cyprus (2020) and Birdwatching in Cyprus: Where to go and what to look for (2022).

The area

Do you know where Cyprus is located? I like this map w/o a lot of distracting country names and other information. It just shows the island squeezed between three continents. I will not bore you with the country's 3,000 years of history, fascinating as it might be. Just summarize that after Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and finally British rule, today the Republic of Cyprus is an independant country and a member of the E.U., including the EURO currency zone.

The island, and a bit of politics

My own little piece of artwork, with the names of places that will turn up in the following. See that border and the area 'North Cyprus'? That border was established in 1974, when a Fascist dictatorship in Greece decided to expel the ethnic Turkish minority, about 20% of the population at the time. In a classic case of ethnic cleansing, the Greek-speaking majority attacked and started to drive out the Turkish-speaking minority. Only they forgot that the minority had powerful friends: Turkey invaded and after a brief but brutal war, a stalemate developed. Shortly afterwards, the Fascist regime in Greece collapsed. We can only hope that the current civil war in Ukraine will end the same way, and the sooner the better.

A border crossing

To this day, only one country, guess who, recognises the 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus'; in the Greek area this is still referred to as 'Occupied Cyprus'! But the people living there don't care, they live in peace, just like the Russians in 'occupied' (or 'liberated'?) Crimea and Donbass (formerly Ukraine) surely will one day. 28 April: Daniel, Bee Choo and I visited Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, and stumbled upon this checkpoint in the northern part of the city. Only Bee Choo had her passport with her, she walked thru and spent an hour in the occupied/liberated part of the island outside of EU control. Daniel and I had an ice cream and chatted a bit while waiting for Bee Choo to come back.

On the road

Monday to Saturday 22 to 27 April, Bee Choo and I toured the Republic of Cyprus looking for nice habitats and good birds. April is a good time to go, the avian passage migrants are still there on their way North, the resident birds are active singing and breeding, the weather is pleasant with clear skies, greenery after the winter rains and daily temperatures between 15 and 28 C degrees. This is the interior Troodos Forest at around 1,800 m.a.s.l.

The schedule

Our itinerary for the trip. Everything went smoothly with no delays or issues. Immigration was OK, although it for some reason took a lot longer to get out of the country than it did to get in!??

And most importantly: The money!

A pleasant surprise was the budget! In Alaska it is hard to find a room to stay for less than US$200. In Cyprus, we paid on average S$73 (about US$55) per night for excellent 4-Star resorts with pool and such. Car rental? Bordering on the ridiculous! Excellent service from ACE Rent A Car and S$35 per day!?? We drove 983 km and paid S$85 for the gas: 28.2 km per litre!???

larnaca and cape greco

If you recall that crazy ticket I had to Alaska in 2023, (which took me across Chicago, Illinois to get to Fairbanks!?) our Singapore-Cyprus ticket was not much better. But cheaper than the airlines stopping over in the Middle East, we flew Lufthansa via Frankfurt. This is a screenshot from the plane just before landing. Then we flew four hours back south-east to get to our destination.

Larnaca from the air. The town is up north at the back, in front is the airport and the ponds and salt lakes surrounding it.

This is the major Larnaca Salt Lake seen a bit closer up. Four days after landing, 23 April 2024. The extreme northern corner where most of the shorebirds turned out to be. The lake shores were muddy so the telescope came in handy to study the birds from a distance. During the summer months (June-Sep), the lake dries out almost completely.

Some of the birds in the reeds around Larnaca Salt Lake: Look at the (uncommon migrant) Red-necked Phalarope on the left being dwarfed by the (abundant resident) Black-winged Stilt.

On arrival, Bee Choo and I checked into the Lysithea Hotel north-east of Larnaca town. We liked it there. Very quiet, just off the beach. The water in the pool was refreshingly cool in the morning. While the German and the British tourists flock to Cyprus for the nice warm spring weather, we enjoyed the 'cold'.

And it wasn't crowded, was it? Low season. Breakfast at the terrace, we were the only ones there! Don't go in July, it is busy and hot, so says 'local' Daniel!

Troodos Forest

With some 123 people per every sq km, Cyprus is pretty densely populated. But most live along the coast, and the interior still has some nice rural areas and spacious forested hills remaining. Seen well here from the jet flying over.

The core of the interior is the Troodos Forest and the highest point is Mount Olympus (not to be confused with Mount Olympus in Greece!). The summit is 1,952 m.a.s.l. Easy for me to remember: My birth year! The Brits, who still occupy large parts of E.U. Cyprus, has a radar station at the top.

This is the view down from the summit. No, you are not supposed to take photos here, according to the paranoid NATO warmongers and their signs, but Bee Choo and I managed to do so anyway and not get arrested.

We drove up into the Troodos Forest 23 April 2024. This little waterfall was a paid attraction (EUR 5 per head) along Highway B8, just below the Peacock Restaurant. Tripadvisor reviewers tear the place apart, but we found it quite quaint and cute!

Best of all, it was a location for a new additon to our reptilian list: The Troodos Lizard Phoenicolacerta troodica, a local Cyprus endemic, was common here.

And at the open-air restaurant above the stream, where we had lunch, this Barn Swallow had built its nest under the ceiling. A good thing the young are about the fledge, the nest seems to be coming apart!

Paphos and ENVIRONS

As you can see from my map above, Paphos is a coastal town some two hours drive west of Larnaca. It is the hub for tourism and beach resorts in the area, but Bee Choo and I came for the nature spots. On the way, we stopped at Limassol Salt Lake; the Environmental Education Centre was very impressive, but I would be lying if I said that we saw a lot of birds from there. You are simply too far from