Karpas Peninsula, Northern Cyprus

In our hired car with Guen and Mark from Canada on board, we headed north to explore the north east coast and the panhandle spit of the Karpas/Karpasia (G)/ Kirpasha (T) Peninsula. All we read, said it was an isolated part of the country and would be a glimpse of how the country used to be. So of course that is what we expected. However, there was a lot of development and the road was even sealed all the way even though it had been suggested that we take a 4x4 vehicle. The coast had clusters of apartment buildings in various stages of construction waiting for owners.

A lot of the beaches are sandy and are where the endangered green turtles, and the 'vulnerable' loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay eggs

The electricity lines, we were told, stopped at the village of Dipkarpaz, but we followed power lines all the way to the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas. The monastery is being renovated and the elderly nun at the monastery cleared away litter and fed her meowing family of about 30 cats. The wind was very cold and the sea was rough. There was a small bus of tourists but only one souvenir seller had his stall open, the other 20 remained covered with plastic sheeting.

Twice a year Greek Cypriot pilgrims come to the monastery as many miracles have happened to the monastery visitors.

Nearby the monastery is an area that is now a nature reserve and we saw several wild donkeys. When people fled Cyprus in 1974 many donkeys were abandoned. We didn't continue to the top of the peninsula as we had many things to see on out return trip.