North Cyprus is soooo picturesque!  Especially with the motorbike I think we’ll enjoy or time here.  And it’s a great place to walk which I love.  http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ seems a pretty good website about the area.

Ru

Karpaz Peninsular

It gets really hot here! So yesterday morning I made myself leave the boat by 8 am for a morning walk. I needed to be back in an hour about 9 am, a reasonable time to ask our neighbors for help lowering the motorbike from the flybridge. Doramac is sitting at sea level. The road that passes east and west of the marina is not at sea level; it’s up a hill. I walked all the way up Wednesday but yesterday found two short cuts that eliminate two of the switchbacks. Wednesday I had walked towards Sipahi but had forgotten to put the memory card into the camera. I made sure I had it before I left the boat again.

I left Randal plugged into his computer tracking world news, our stock portfolio and keeping up with his Facebook friends I check up on the Sox, a bit of world new and my email; I don’t do Facebook, just email and our website. I can be done pretty quickly; Randal can sit all morning. Of course part of his time is spent researching future ports and boat parts which is a good thing. But I have to get off the boat and get exercise or I would go crazy so while Randal computes, I walk.

Looking back towards the marina, the bit of white in the water between the jutting pieces of land.

Across the road is farmland and an occasional group of houses, most newly built.

I set out to photograph stone walls, my new subject for watercolor projects.

I love the flat roofs that are turned into outdoor rooms. There is an outside stairway on the right side of the houses. Their view looks down on the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean side.

I walked along the path through these dry farm fields. You see these square stone buildings everywhere. Tobacco is a major crop.

I followed the path down towards the water.

More stone and more fields down to the edges of the cliff.

Further down the coast looking back towards the marina in the distance.

The Greek Alphabet is still visible here and geographic names can be either Turkish or Greek. And I’m not sure if Turkish is pronounced the same way. Sipahi according to my Berlitz book should be Seepahee. One marina staff told me it is Spah and another told me it was Seepah.

We biked to a town I’ve no idea how to pronounce, Yeni Erenkoy (Yialousa, the Greek version in the 1999 Cyprus guide) for lunch and to do a bit of shopping for essentials: Coke Zero, Raki, chips, white vinegar to clean toilets, and that’s about it. We did buy some cable to hook our TV to the marina TV service on the dock, but it wouldn’t work! We’ll check with the marina office tomorrow. We also stopped at the Turkcell office in Yeni Erenkoy and the upshot was, they called someone and we were told our phones are working. I pointed out that we had no signal thus indicating the phones were not working. The woman who really was trying to be helpful (and there were several people waiting) gave me the number she had called and told me to try it myself. I told her my phone wouldn’t work so I couldn’t. She also told me that I could buy a sim card that would work in Cyprus and also in Turkey. I thought, yah, you bet; just like the folks in Marmaris told me my Turkish sim card would work in Cyprus. I think you had to tell the phone to ROAM, but we needed to do it while we were still in Turkish waters. For the short time we are here we’re not desperate for phones and will deal with it when we return in November.

After lunch we biked back past the marina continuing out along the peninsula which is a national park similar to the National Seashore on Cape Cod. It’s a refuge for turtles, wild donkeys, tons of birds and flowers and I can’t wait until we return in November when it’s cool enough to hike here.

We did go down to the water’s edge.

Like being on the moon!

Not sure what these structures are but I will find out! I thought maybe an oven but there was no one about to ask.

We’re going out exploring again today. There are dozens of old churches on North Cyprus. Today we’re aiming for Apostolos Andreas Monastery (St. Andrew; patron saint of travelers!) It’s at the eastern tip of the peninsular. Wish he was the patron saint of baseball…Sox usually need help in August.