Cycling East Cyprus’s UN 🇺🇳 Buffer Zone

Day 35. 31 km (75565kms 6yrs)

Again there was a fair bit of overnight activity in my makeshift campsite but nothing that interfered with me. In the morning a couple carrying pillows returned to their car from the rise behind the picnic tables.

Today my grand plans of completing a loop up the remainder of the Cypriot east coast to the UN buffer zone and back down to the south coast, came unstuck pretty quickly. I followed the coastal boardwalk which probably wasn’t really allowed for bicycles, but I took it easy along the busy sections near the beaches, then had the route almost to myself outside these areas. A couple of cute little Santorini blue and white churches punctuated the gorgeous ride.

After a lunchtime swim I left the coast for the demilitarised zone or buffer zone or no man’s land or whatever it’s called between southern and northern Cyprus. Just as when I’d newly arrived in Israel and Palestine I don’t yet know the accurate/culturally sensitive wording for whatever this border/ demarcation zone represents.. please bear with me while I figure it out.

In any case I was surprised to find – on the southern side at least – no barrier or barbed wire; just residential roads that ended abruptly in a heap of dirt. The width of the buffer zone is not uniform but here it’s about 1km deep. I’d planned to visit a church within its bounds but quickly bottled it after just a few hundred metres. Instead I visited a couple of lookouts with views across to Turkish occupied Cyprus. It’s only since spring this year that Cypriots have been allowed to cross this frontier as tourists since the formal division. After a nosey at the ‘border crossing’ not recognised by Cyprus I turned back south. I believe I could cross here, but for simplicity and cultural continuity I’ve decided to fully tour the south before moving to the north.

Having fallen short of my initial target I was now aiming at an inland salt lake for my camp, but found the whole area closed off with construction fencing. In searching for another way to the lake I turned into a development of new, but almost entirely abandoned little villas. With only around 10% seemingly occupied, the place was a little eerie. As soon as I spotted a villa with open patio doors I abandoned my search for a route to the lake and moved in for the night.

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#cyprus #cycling #travel