Day 8 & Rest Day
Day 8: Tuesday November 20th Deftera Community Park to Ledra Crossing, Nicosia
Today will be the gentlest day of the whole walk – a leisurely, flat stroll much of which is along the Strovolos/ Lakatamia river trail. This is a shared use path between cyclists and pedestrians that runs along the Pedieos River through the two suburbs of Nicosia. It will keep us off the busy arteries into Nicosia and deliver us into the heart of the city near the UN Green Line that divides the capital.
Teresa decides to join us. She picks the easiest day but it certainly was not the most interesting. My wife Sou uses the day to visit relatives who live in the city.
We start at 9:11 from the kiosk. The first 2.7 miles are road walking that takes us through the village of Kato Deftera – traffic and shops and restaurants and cafes are becoming almost a constant, telling us the city is near. There is little to distract us other than a man on a ladder seemingly combing his olive trees.
At one of the roadside cafes we take a rest and enjoy bubble tea at BubbleDelicious. Opposite there is a side road which we take as this heads to where we will pick up the river trail on Ayiou Georgiou street next to Ayios Georgios church – the saints are never far away in Cyprus.
The Pedieos river has its source near Machairas Monastery in the Troodos mountains. It flows through Nicosia before heading east through the Mesaoria plain that separates Cyprus’ two mountain ranges and comes out just north of Famagusta. Today it is little more than a stream, at times a trickle, by the time it reaches the river trail. For us it is a chance to get off pavements onto paths and avoid the noise and dust of the road. The odd cyclist and walker are all there are to break our routine and conversation, and urban noises only break through at points where the trail crosses a major road.
The trail criss-crosses the river and at times is broken by a park or a piece of ‘art’ work that inexplicably is deposited seemingly at random on the trail. Curiosities rather than highlights mark the river trail walk – curious signs over toilets (which become a theme of our walk); flea ridden feral cats; a cat sanctuary, probably the inspiration of an English resident. The walk is easy along good flat surfaces made easier by shade from the sun provided by the trees that line much of the route.
Eventually, above we can see the American Academy school which marks where we will leave the trail and make for the Ledra crossing. In doing so we walk along parts of the Green Line which envelope remnants of buildings frozen in time from when the city and the island were first partitioned. There is plenty of barbed wire but little evidence of Green Berets or conscripts from either sides of this divide. The tensions of the early years of partition are largely a memory on these streets although Nicosia still remains the only divided capital in the world.
We turn into Ledra street, once the heart of the city with its shops and bars and cafes. Now it has a seedier feel, its main attraction being that it is the route to the Ledra pedestrian crossing between north and south, Greek and Turk. This is where, at 13:20 pm, we end our walk for the day.
Our lazy walk is only 11.1 miles but we can’t go any further today even if we wanted to. It also marks the end of the first half of the walk. We break into high-fives and indulge in masticha ice cream – this should be on everyone’s bucket list.
We have walked 100 miles in 8 days over high mountains – I fear to calculate how many feet we have climbed. From sea level the highest altitude we reached was 5600 ft. However, with the undulating terrain we have probably climbed in total double that.
Things will be very different in many ways from here, some we can anticipate, others will surprise us.
Day 8 stats: Distance 11.1 miles (22.4 Km), total miles 99.9 (160.8 Km)
Rest Day Wednesday 21st November A Rest Day, Nicosia
We had built a rest day into our walking programme not so much because we might need a rest but as a contingency in case getting over the Troodos range proved harder than we thought or a mishap occurred on the way. We cannot put at risk arriving on the Apostle’s name day at the Apostolos Andreas monastery on 30th November.
We do some light sightseeing and decide to cross over at the Ledra crossing point to get a taste of the life we will experience over the next week. While there we visit the Han where a party of school children seem to be on a field trip.
We also take stock of our condition.
Len has struggled with a long standing back problem which at times means he is in great pain – he will grit his teeth, do his exercises and walk through it, often alone lost in pain-soothing contemplation.
Nick has the constitution of a horse. No complaints, always the freshest at the end of the day’s walk and always the first to volunteer if we ask whether we should do a few more miles today.
I am generally in good shape with one exception. Crossing the Troodos range with its constant ups and downs has, despite proper gear, brought on blisters. They are on both of my feet - the toes and the heel. I wrap them in blister plasters every morning but otherwise use conversation and the occasional paracetamol to soothe the pain. No point worrying about them. They aren’t going away and they aren’t going to stop me from completing the walk – unless we run out of things to talk about or blister plasters.
The conversations on the trail themselves are dominated by one subject. We have chosen to be away from the UK while it goes through its greatest constitutional challenge since the War – Brexit. It is a daily and endless source of debate – I am sure we owe much of our success on this first half of the challenge to Brexit and its political intriguing.
Nick, being a doctor, takes an analytical, utilitarian approach to the subject. He is an important source of fresh ingredients for debate even in the most remotest of places as he reports faithfully each day the news in the Daily Telegraph to which he subscribes and which he downloads each morning. This paper clearly has its own angle on the subject which we try and take into account. Despite our differing views on the subject, we all agree that the country would be better served if William Hague were still in government rather than writing for the Telegraph.
Len takes a more optimistic view of Prime Minister May’s strategy for getting her negotiated agreement through Parliament. He is at core a businessman and takes a business approach to this which is based around the art of deal making and believes that in this context and under the complicated circumstances, May is playing her cards well.
I am a student of politics and therefore take a more cynically realistic approach. I heavily criticise May’s performance and strategy and declare that there is no way to get any agreement through this Parliament as constructed. It took another year and a General Election to prove that my education was not wasted.
That evening we repack ready for the second half of the walk. We discard everything other than essentials. The girls and the 8 seater car in which they have been ferrying us and our things will not be crossing over to the north with us. They will be off enjoying a few days holidaying in the mountains and on the coast. We have made separate arrangements for support over the northern segment.
Rest Day stats: Distance 0 miles (0 Km), total miles 99.9 (160.8 Km)