Troodos and the Solea Valley – Cyprus
Troodos and the Solea Valley – Cyprus
Saittas is a settlement constructed around a government-run empiric fruit nursery. Its setting among full-length pines on the gone forth bank of the Kouris River attracts many visitors and there is agrarian acommadition at a little hotel. The houses in little Filagra are now mainly summer homes. You can take a detour off this road to Mesa Potamos, where there is a pleasing monastery and waterfalls. Back on the main road, on your left at Kato Amiantos are some antic older dwellings with overhanging balconies. Near the top of the bluff gradient, mavrahero, savage lentils colour the hillsides chromatic is spring. Stay on the B9 at the crossroads and postdate the signs for Kakopetria. Karvounas is the saddle between Troodos and the Madari range and the watershed between the Kouris and Kargotis rivers. The terrain now changes to big pines. As you go down, a hundred metres after the turning to Platania picnic site, there is a moufflon reserve on the proper.
Further down the road are several trout farms, some with their personal restaurants. Go left at the sign for Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis and continuie to the church. St. Nicholas of the Roof, built and coated in the aboriginal 11th century, is one of the ten mountain churches on the UNESCO World Heritage List. A steeply flipped out roof protects the avant-garde dome from rain and snow. Go back and go left at the sign for Kakopetria. Clinging go both banks of the Kargoris to your left as you come in, is the old village of stone and mudbrick houses with pitched roofs, many of them reconstructed. Kakopetria is a holiday resort with banks, petrol station, hotels and restaurants, including a Vahkis scheme tavern. It was a silk bringing forth centre and there around. As you go forth on the road to Galata, there is a restored 18th century watermill to your left. Huge trees shade the square at Galata and near are close-grained examples of its characteristic terrasse buildings with woody balconies and staircases. Some of them have been restored and one is a Folk Art Museum.
Across the river is the UNESCO World Heritage leaned church of Panagia tis Poditou, an early 16th century building with its outer roof widening almost to the ground to spread over the portico. The Solea villages run into each other and next up is Kaliana with its upheld hani, inn, with arches, mudbrick walls and angling roof the 18th century buildings is a Folk Art Architectural site and you can see examples of pitharia wine jars and a conventional bread oven in the yard. Driving to Temvria, you go on through a nonliteral fruit salad. After apples, pears, plums and cherries, you now come to mespila, loquats, citrus and pomegranates among gardens full with colour. Fresh herbs are an intrinsical part of Cypriot cuisine, and many herbs sych as thyme and sage mature wild in the countryside.
Because of the island’s climate the herbs incorporate a higher than average quantity of biological oils, which makes them very tasty. Follow the signs for Korakou, where figs and prickly pears are appended to the fruit bowl. Go left at the fork and pear-shaped the church; then go right at the street sign Eleftheria Avenue. Follow this road until you came to an old watermill and bankrupted bridge other the signpost for Evrychou, then go left after first buildings, a contemporary chromatic mill, onto a cobbled road, which was part of the old camel road from Nicosia to Troodos. It ends at a railway station-the terminus of the old Cyprus Government Railway, finished in 1915 and which traveled from Famagusta, via Nicosia to Evrychou. Go back to the main road, go left and left again at the t-juncion. Evrychou is an ample village where cotton utilized to grow. Today it is a territorial centre and the seat of the Bishopric of Morfou, Fork right at the church, drive up to the B9 and go left at the signpost for Nicosia. As you drive north, the pines give way to olives and cereals and you can see Morfou Bay on your left. Go right onto the road to Koutrafas and follow the signs for Asinou Church.
Kato Koutrafas, with its stone and mudbrick houses, is on the edge of the Mesaoria, amidship bare and the cornfields are dry and infertile in summer. At one time, you had to engage a donkey at Nikitari to take you to Asinou, but now it is just a shorth drive. Panagia asinou, one of the most well cognized of the UNESCO listed churches, sits in a tiny insulated meadow among impenetrable forests. It was built and painted in 1105 and contains interesting frescos. Go back and go left at the small chromatic sign to Agios Theodoros. This all-weather forest road is bumpy at the get down but smoothes out at the top of the hill, from where there is a wide view of Morfou Bay, the central plain and the Kyrenia Montains. Go left at Agios Theodoros, a village of almond trees and traditional houses, and follow the road signposted to Spilia. The aesthetic Atsas River valley winds up through well-irrigated terraces of almonds, olives and vines.
At Kourdali, stands the mediaeval church of the Panagia. The belfry of the village church dominates the skyline at Spilia, a village democratic with hikers and which has rural accommodation. Leave on the F929 signposted to Kannaviou and go right at the sign for Kyperounta. Then take the left fork and on your right is the Rural Life and Natural History Museum in a restored building. The village also has a winery and a hospital. As you drive to the apple maturing village of Dymes, there is a thick arboraceous valley to your left. In Potamissa, many people grow their vines on frames across the road as there is no room on the steep hillsides. Take the F806 to Pelendri and go into the village to the UNESCO World Heritage listed 13th century church of Timos Stavros. Also, do not pretermit the Panagia Catholiki church with its Byzantine/Italian frescoes. As you head for Trimiklini, you will go through a winery on your right. Go left onto the B8 and go left again onto the F812, signposted to Agios Mamas. Drive through the centre of this village of glossed stone houses, then go right and head for Kapileio. This village, which is known for early peaches, stands on a hillock and has comprehensive views all around. Continuing, on the hillside to your left are the ruins of old Korfi, which was given up after landslides, and after fresh Korfi, there is a vista of the Kouris Dam, Limassol and the Akrotiri Salt Lake. Go right into Apesia, and behind the church and restored olive press is a small area where time seems to have stood up still. Old houses and villagers being them just as their forefathers did.
