A second Covid wave is upon us, Limassol is in lockdown and social distancing is as crucial as ever. Getting outside, away from the News, the fear, the four walls, has been critical for our mental and physical health – but we want to do it safely. So we’ve sought out isolated places to exercise where we’re unlikely to run into many people.
We’ve been visiting the Akrotiri peninsula for years. The southernmost tip of Cyprus was once the stomping ground of pygmy hippos and pygmy elephants and has the earliest archaeological site on the island. Today it is home to hundreds of species of birds who live on its marshland and salt lake. It was even, briefly, visited by the world’s only black flamingo.
And yet, hidden out of sight behind Akrotiri village is a totally unique coastal area. Unique because it’s completely undeveloped, unique for its Martian landscapes and unique for its magnificent sand dunes.
Drive southwest through Akrotiri village and after a kilometre you’ll reach the chapel of Agios Georgios that sits like a gatekeeper to the wilderness beyond. It’s thought the chapel dates back to the 17th century – fairly modern by Cyprus standards!
Next to it is a little cistern that fascinated me because I couldn’t find a door. I uncovered a little window hidden behind a pallet and looked in. It was filled with filthy water.
The tarmacked road ends at the chapel of Agios Georgios and becomes a bumpy track. You can either park at the church and commence your walk from here or you can drive closer to the sea and sand dunes. 4x4s or cars with high clearance are fine on these tracks, though I’ve seen people drive smaller cars along them. I can imagine they can get quite muddy after extended rainfall which could pose a problem to cars without 4×4.
We scouted out the area and drove south along the top of a dusty cliff. This road is particularly bumpy and became too much for our ‘neutered’ Land Rover (the 4×4 bit fell off years ago) so we had to turn back.
Below, the landscape stretches out beneath you. A sandy valley with tracks criss-crossing it. We drove down into it and headed south. There were pockets of water here and there filled with tall reeds. On the northern end of this wilderness is a huge lake.
The landscape looks Martian with its rocky escarpments on either side. It looks barren but it is filled with birds. Overhead a kestrel shrieked.
We followed a track that led to a little headland overlooking a cove. This cove is imaginatively called Cove 4 (come on!). It is a beautiful spot. Completely unspoiled and frequented mainly by surfers. A word of caution though – there are dangerous currents in this cove so take care if you go in the sea.
Cove 4 is a significant turtle nesting site and so beach umbrellas, tents and dogs aren’t allowed (see my earlier blog which explains why). If you visit, please take your rubbish home to keep the area pristine.
Goobie and Herc were content to run across the wet sand, stopping to write in the sand with sticks.
Enclosing the cove are loads of beautiful mini sand dunes. A photographer’s dream in the right light!
A track runs along the back of Cove 4. On the other side of this track the massive Akrotiri sand dunes fall away to the valley beneath in a series of wave-like slopes. And they are big! I can’t think of anywhere else in Cyprus with sand dunes like that.
Goobie and Herc ran, jumped and leapt over the slopes.
And then it was time to get down to business.
Sandboarding.
Matt and I have done some awesome sandboarding in the past, down the colossal dunes of Namibia. We wanted to recreate that for Goobie and Herc on the Akrotiri sand dunes.
Ha!
What we created was a new sport: crap-boarding.
We tried going down on a sledge. And moved nowhere.
Then a bodyboard. Disaster.
Goobie tried to snowboard-bodyboard down.
We tried a sheet of MDF. This is what we’d used in Namibia, though the MDF was shaped like a sledge and curled up at the end. Our MDF sandboard was … crap.
Matt resorted to a more obvious method – throwing yourself off the dune.
Then true arse-boarding. On bums.
We tried pushing each other down the dunes. And got a mouthful of sand.
In the end we achieved Movement by pulling each other down the slope with the string attached to the bodyboard. It was still crap but it was fun.
So we need to work on our sandboarding technique and apparatus. And perhaps damp sand didn’t help either. But the Akrotiri sand dunes are beautiful and wild and open. And they provided us with what we most need at the moment. A tonic for Crap-Covid – laughter, fresh air, big skies, beauty, fun.
* We visited the dunes before the requirement to wear masks outside. At the time of publishing this blog you need to wear masks outside. Please check the latest information on restrictions.
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