Or maybe this should have been renamed the Cyprus
International sightseeing and eating and drinking challenge…
November in Cyprus
seemed like a very good plan to escape the onset of winter in Aberdeen and so when John offered the use of
his apartment in Paphos for the week I jumped at the chance. Neither John nor I
had done this race before but it was a return visit for Bert. Unfortunately Simon was injured and unable to
compete.
The pool at John's apartment in Paphos. Due to the water temperature it remained this empty all week.....
Simon was very much looking forward to the sunshine of
Cyprus so just imagine his disappointment when, on the first day there with the
temperature in Paphos hovering around a pleasant 20 deg C, Bert and I decided
that a trip into the mountains around Trodos to do a bit of trail running was
in order. As we drove higher and higher into the mountains the temperature
dropped and Simons face was a picture when we spotted a thermometer in the
village reading 1 deg C – about the same temperature we had left in Aberdeen. It was very dry
and didn’t actually feel particularly cold once you were running though.
Trail running in Trodos
The highest peak in the mountains around Trodos is MountOlympos
at 1951m and it was on the trails crossing these hills that we set off for our
run after a quick tour of the visitors centre and its display on the natural
history and geology of the area. Simon headed off for a walk on these same
trails around the village of Platres, a summer resort where people come to get
away from the stifling heat of a Cyprus summer as it can reach
40deg C on the coast at the height of summer.
Mount Olympos
The trails were well made, not very steep and took us
through pine forests up to the ski tows. Apparently Cyprus is one of the only places
where it is possible to ski in the morning and sunbathe on the beach in the
afternoon but there was no snow so we weren’t able to put it to the test.
The Ski tow seems a bit out of place on a Mediterranean Island
None of the three of us had a map of the trails and so
somewhat inevitably the planned 6 mile route turned into a 10 mile run
punctuated with rather a lot of backtracking and a quick stop to flag down some
passing Italian tourists to see if they could give us directions. Fortunately
they could.
and finally we found our way back to Trodos!
The map theme continued as I managed to take us a very
indirect route back to Paphos still, driving along the narrow unmade up roads
in the dark was quite exciting although whether the car hire company would have
taken the same view if they had known is a moot point.
The next day a trip back into the countryside to visit a
winery was the activity of choice and at the Kalamos winery we were served a
taster of a variety of wines with some
cheese to accompany them before heading back to the apartment laden down with
bottles. Keo is the most prevalent wine that you can buy in Paphos and that was
served everywhere. Having little knowledge of Greek wine previously I was
pleasantly surprised. Predictably enough the Kalamos winery also produced its
own brand of firewater and predictably enough we couldn’t resist buying a
bottle of that too. Dionysos, the Greek God of wine would have been proud of
us.
Wine Tasting
I'll have that one, and that one....and that one
The first race was four days into our stay and it was a 4
mile time trial. Starting from the event centre we were set off in pairs at 10
second intervals to run along some small back roads passing fields containing
large villas and banana plantations before finishing on the beach where Simon
had driven out to meet us. John had set off before me and Bert afterwards. Its
amazing what the fear of being overtaken can do to your race motivation…..
Waiting for the start
Warm down jog past banana plantations
Bananas!
The temperature was quite pleasant for running and the number of
race entrants meant that I passed, and was passed, by people throughout the race so
that kept it interesting. After crossing the finishing line on the beach we
decided that we would run back to the event centre although transport back is
provided. Due to the large number of entries to the race this year it did take
quite a while to get started but the event centre is the CoralBay
hotel right on the sea front and so hanging around in its lovely grounds was no
real hardship.
The Coral Bay Hotel
I had become aware of the size of the race field the
previous night at the registration and introduction talk. The field had been
vastly increased by the appearance of 140 Dutchmen and women all employees or
customers of Price Waterhouse Cooper who apparently get to go on an annual
athletics event somewhere in Europe, this year the venue being Cyprus. PWC also
sponsor professional athletes and so it was quickly established who the race
winners were going to be from amongst the sea of orange T-Shirt clad runners.
The results were pinned up at the reception of the hotel
every afternoon after the race and Bert soon became obsessed with checking them…
Agios Georgious Beach
The next day it was the turn of the hill race, an 11k route climbing
from the beach at Agios Georgious to the village of Pano Arodes situated on a hill some 600m
higher than sea level. The route followed a wide gravelly track near to the
Avakas Gorge and at no point was the gradient so steep that walking was
necessary but it was only during this run that I really got a feeling for the
Arkamas peninsular to the north of Paphos. This beautiful area, named Akamas
after Arkamantas, the son of Thesus who in Greek mythology arrived here after
the Trojan war, is due to be designated a national park very soon and it is
obvious why. If you could muster up the energy to look behind you during the
race then the views back to the beach were spectacular. The run took us up
through the Mediterranean hills with their sparse covering of plants and tiny
farmsteads with little herds of goats.
The one thing that stuck in my memory of the running through
this landscape was the silence, I couldn’t even hear birdsong.
The hill race
The view from the mountains back to the coast
On approaching the village the silence was broken by the
cheers from supporters and its one last push up one last vicious little slope
before finishing in the village square outside the ancient church. Even the
priest was sat in the square watching and he was only too glad to show us
around his church.
Nearly at the finish
The finish
You can keep your energy bars and lucozade!
Simon had driven up to the village to meet us and so it was
back to the hotel to soak our legs in cold water before going in search of food and so Bert could check the all important results.
Stretching, warming down and cold water therapy became and important part of
the routine during the race week allowing recovery before the next days effort.
After the final race I didn’t bother and I paid the price… for about 3 days
afterwards!
Get in, you big Jessies!
The following days' half marathon again was up in the
mountains, this time starting in the shady pine forests of Smigies nature reserve. Getting there
involved two bus trips as the roads couldn’t cope with the coaches and so we
were all decanted on to minibuses for the last part of the journey.
The first part of this race followed tracks and roads for a
gradual climb before starting a very long descent to the finish. The trails
weren’t too rough and so it was easy to really stretch out and over take other
more cautious runners on the descent. I knew I was fairly battering my quad
muscles by doing this but I also knew a dip in the sea at the end would help me
recover and besides, I was really enjoying myself.
The last mile to the finish is flat and you can see the
finish line for the duration of that last mile. Those running with garmins said
that it was actually more than a mile but the last mile of any half marathon
always seems long doesn’t it?
Simon hitched a ride to watch the half marathon in the lead vehicle
The final mile to the finish
The finish on the beach
My much looked forward to dip nearly didn’t materialise as I
didn’t feel too great for a little while after crossing the finish line – with
hindsight it was probably a bit of a sugar low - but I sat in the sea and tried
to jog a bit to loosen off, still with the last race the following day in the
back of my mind.
When we got back to the hotel disaster had struck – they
hadn’t managed to get the results up and boy, was Bert stressed. A couple of
visits to the hotel reception later and we had to give up but dark mutterings
were heard from Bert throughout the afternoon and evening about “driving past
the coral bay hotel”
Just chillin'
The start and finish of the 10k
Finally it was the Paphos 10k. This race had an early start,
8am, so it was a rude awakening for us to give us time to jog to the startline
at the harbour of
Paphos. The race was over
a pleasant enough flat, fast course finishing back at the harbour. It didn’t
have the scenery and wow factor of the previous days races but the impressive
medieval fort at the harbour more than made up for that as did the free post
race beer – I started the race at 8am, crossed the line at 8.44am and was
drinking my first beer at 8.45am. Not bad.
A good thing about this race week is that the races are all
relatively short and “do-able” and there is lots of time during the week to
take in the sights of the island. There is, however, one problem with this –
Cyprus has a history stretching back to 8000BC embracing the Neolithic,
Classical, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman periods not to
mention the times of British rule and the modern history of independence and
separation. Each of these periods has left its mark on the culture and
architecture of the island and many areas are listed as UNESCO world heritage
sites. The entire island has been likened to one large open air museum and there
is quite simply too much to see!
Paphos Mosaics
We took in a little Greek mythology by visiting the baths of
Aphrodite, goddess of love, where legend has it the goddess herself used to
bathe. Whether you have an interest in Greek mythology or not it is worth a
visit for the flora that is found around these gorges and pools. From there we
headed to Polis, a popular sea side resort and to a nice fish restaurant by the
sea.
The baths of Aphrodite
Our dabble with the Roman period was a visit to KatoPaphosArchaeologicalPark.
This was included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 1980 and its
most famed attraction is its mosaics in the ruined houses of Dionysos, Theseus,
Aion and Orpheus. These houses or villas belonged to noblemen and the mosaics
dating between 2nd to 5th Century AD depict scenes from
Greek Mythology.
Paphos Mosaics - The House of Theseus - Mosaic depicts the baby Achilles getting his first bath
Mosaic depicting Theseus fighting the Minotaur
Detail of a Mosaic depicting Achilles
Even the Romans had central heating which is more than can be said for my flat in Edinburgh!
The Paphos Odeon dates form 2nd century AD and is
still used for plays today
Paphos Odeon
The medieval fort of Paphos at the harbour is an impressive
monolithic structure built in Byzantine times around 200AD to protect the
harbour. It was destroyed by the Venetians sometime in the 15th Century
and then rebuilt under Ottoman rule in the 16th Century. By crossing
the moat by a wooden bridge visitors are now able to wander through its vaults
and on to its ramparts
November is a good time to go to Cyprus, it is well out of tourist
season, the temperature is pleasant although a little chilly at night and the
only complaints I heard were about the sea and swimming pool temperature. In
fact I was the only one to brave a dip in the pool outside John’s apartment. John
also seemed to find the mornings a little chilly and developed a very novel way of
warming his kit up!
Cyprus is a very easy place to go on holiday, its period of
English rule coupled with a yearly influx of English speaking holiday makers
and resident ex pats mean that everyone in and around Paphos seemed to speak
English and menus etc. were in English. Paphos is in the Greek Cypriot “half”
of Cyprus and we didn’t have
time to venture as far as the capital of the island, Lefkosia (Nicosia) or into the Turkish “half” of the
island which I was disappointed about (an excuse for a return visit?). Cyprus remains
divided since the Turkish invasion of 1974 and there are still hostilities
between the two opposing parties. Although Cyprus is part of the EU there is
an exception to this regarding the areas not controlled by the Cypriot
government, pending a successful resolution of the dispute.
Eating out in Cyprus is great, all tastes seemed
to be catered for and we did our best to try a few different restaurants ranging
from sea food, to traditional Mediterranean foods such as moussaka, to an
English tea room serving gigantic scones and to a thai restaurant that served
John its flaming Phucket duck.
Thats a brave man about to steal some of my chocolate ice cream!
John ordered the flaming Phucket Duck
It’s a good place for 4 hungry runners to be on holiday.
Beer in the sunshine
The final event of the week is the gala dinner at the CoralBay
hotel and it was great fun, a large buffet followed by dancing to some of the
cheesiest music ever – Boney M mega mix anyone? During the meal photos of the
event were played on a large projector screen and Simon, whilst not racing,
seemed to appear in a very large number of them, rather like a Runners World
version of the “Where’s Wally”cartoons.
The prize giving also
takes place at the gala dinner. Bert, who had studied the results obsessively
during the week until I’m sure he could have told you to the second how far
ahead he was of the opposition, picked up first in his age group. I hadn’t paid
much attention to the results so it was a complete surprise to me when I picked
up a prize. John was unlucky as his birthday was the day after we flew home,
had his birthday been a few days earlier he would have been first in his new
age category.
As expected the prizes in the mens race pretty much all went
to the Dutch runners (even including Bert!) except for one Austrian runner,
Stephan who finished 4th overall and so the Dutch runners presented
Stephan with a special prize of their own creation, an orange t-shirt that they
had all signed. Bert was very disappointed not to get an orange t-shirt though.
Bert receiving his prize
Me receiving my prize
And then it was all over and back home to an Aberdeen winter. A great
fun event and holiday, much recommended.
Im not sure that we could have chosen a much wetter weekend
for a long overdue trip to Glencoe, it rained and rained….and rained and so the
latest editions to the cottage, the shower and drying machines, were a very
welcome find. Less so was the new smoke alarm which I only discovered whilst
cremating the dinner.
However, we were not going to let a bit of rain spoil the
weekend but a smaller expedition than the original munro bagging plan was
hurriedly put together on saturday morning after it dawned on us that visibility
wasn’t too great and the rain had no plans to stop. We decided on a walk from
the cottage to the nearby Pap of Glencoe. The walking was actually quite
pleasant despite the rain, if fairly squelchy underfoot however we took a wrong
turn in the woods (my fault, I suspect!) and once we had worked out where we were
supposed to be Nigel’s boot decided to disintegrate making it impossible to
continue. Amidst much hilarity we admitted defeat and our some what less than
intrepid expedition was abandoned in favour of tea and cakes at the Glencoe tea
room. It wasn’t an entirely disappointing end to the walk….
Setting off......in the rain
So which way is it, Kenny? asks Lucy
A slight problem with Nigel's boot...
Nigel's Boot!
On returning to the cottage it was decided that we hadn’t
done enough exercise and so a little run taking in a couple of laps of the
woods around the hospital lochan was the entertainment for the afternoon before
returning to the cottage to add yet more wet clothes to the drying racks
already containing lots of wet clothes from the morning. Definitely time to put
the fire on and start on the whisky before heading to the Clachaig for dinner.
Drying off!
Whisky tasting
By the following morning it appeared to be a bit drier
outside and it looked as though Lucy would have a good day for her race in
Aviemore which she had left very early for so we drove to Mamore
lodge and started a walk from there having found some alternative footwear for Nigel. It was a steady trudge to up to Loch Eilde
Mor, along the side of the loch then up to Coire an Lochan then up to our
target of Sgor Eilde Beag at 956m (no idea if it’s a munro or not?) At the
higher level the wind was very strong and hailstones were blowing through but
the weather cleared long enough for us to take that all important summit photo
before closing in again.
From there it was steady descent back down the hill and
along the wide landrover track back to Mamore Lodge and to finish a lovely
relaxing weekend with tea and cake back at the cottage.
