The Plan
Five years earlier to mark my 60th birthday I cycled the full perimeter of the island of Cyprus – approx. 800km along the coast including mountain biking through the Akamas wilderness area. This was truly an extraordinary experience and it left a mark on all of us who took the challenge. I did it to commemorate not just my birthday but to enjoy and celebrate the island for its beauty and its history. On the way we saw wonderful things but, being limited to the perimeter - we missed countless outstanding sights and history and stories inland. It felt like an unfinished adventure.
So when deciding how to commemorate my 65th birthday I felt this was an opportunity to complete the experience. To do so, and as an experienced walker, I thought the best way was to walk tip to tip across the island inland, over the Troodos mountains and along the Karpass penninsula. Setting out from Paphos Castle on the 13th November and aiming to reach the orthodox monastery of Apostolos Andreas at the very tip of the island 210 miles away on the morning of 30th November in order to join in the services to the Apostle on his name day.
With one Apostle celebrated at the end of the road, we felt that the appropriate starting point would be in Paphos where another Apostle is commemorated in a very different way.
We have named the walk the The Apostles’ Way as it links the legend of St Paul and his flogging in Paphos to that of St Andrew and the founding of his eponymous monastery at the tip of the panhandle. Unofficially we have called the walk Moufflon Madness as we will at times feel like the national animal of the island scrambling over the mountains and through the forests; and because, at our age, this kind of challenge can be seen as confirmation of senility and dementia. We are all over 60 years of age.
The First
I am not aware of this walk being done in one go by anyone before. We claim that we are the first until someone proves otherwise. I do know that two young Australian men walked from Apostolos Andreas to Aphrodite’s Rock earlier in 2018. But they did not go all the way to Paphos.
I am also claiming that I am the first person of Cypriot origin who cycled the full perimeter of Cyprus again until proven otherwise http://www.ilovecyprustour.com/. I know cyclists have come close but have not done the complete journey, typically missing out the Karpass peninsula or avoiding the Akamas.
I like being the first !
Why this challenge?
I am doing this both as a physical challenge in order to keep healthy as I age, but also to finish off something I started 5 years ago. I have no political message – just a wish that we can step back and remind ourselves how wonderful this island is – its people, its extraordinary history, its landmarks liberally dispersed in such quantities across the island, and its geographical diversity and beauty. I do get upset when I think that probably more than 90% of people who visit Cyprus come for the sand, sea and sun and rarely stray more than a few miles from their coastal hotel. Their image of the island is so different and so miss-representative of the real spirit of the island which can be found inland or further along the coast, on both sides of the island, if only they went looking.
I have learnt over the years that the best way to really get to know a place is to walk it or cycle it. In this way you get up close and personal. To celebrate my 55th birthday I walked 1000 miles around the UK with my fellow moufflon Len (http://www.1000miles4hopeblog.blogspot.com/ ) . It took nearly 70 days and although I have lived most of my life in the UK it was as if I was experiencing the island with fresh eyes. The colours and sounds; the landscape; the smell; the wildlife; the people and their culture and their differences; the conjunction of weather and geography and how this coloured the experience; and the education as you learnt about local sites and their history. You really feel, having walked it, that you can claim it for your own, that you know it. And that’s before I talk about the sunsets and sunrises, the marvel of the storms, the colours in the sky – breath-taking at times.
Later cycling around the perimeter of Cyprus gave me a similar opportunity to soak up Cyprus and its history and culture. Whether it was camping in the Akamas and mountain biking over its spine down to the Blue Lagoon; or climbing the seriously steep 5 mile hill to avoid the Kokkina military enclave; or cycling along the Karpass coast trailing off into the far distance ahead of us, increasingly on our own the further along the Karpass range, squeezed between the sea and the mountain; or admiring the empty deep blue sea that escorted us all the way round; or pedalling through the donkey sanctuary entirely alone to be met by the sorry state (back then) of one of the most important religious sites at the very tip of the island. Every day presented new experiences and a greater understanding of, and respect for, the island.
Finally, I am a photographer. My hope is that in my cycle ride and now my walk I can get close to capturing the true Spirit of Cyprus with my camera. This is a lifelong project which you can follow at www.spiritofcyprus.com . I am searching for it, at times I get close, maybe I will find it somewhere on The Apostles’ Way.
