Jul
4
2006
Walking the Cyprus E4 (Part III)
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Part I of this essay is the May 4 posting. Part II is the June 4 posting
I set an alarm and awoke before the birds. The trail around the remote peninsula was about 30 kilometers so I wanted to ensure an early start. The beach was still and the three dogs were nowhere in sight when I crawled out of my tent into the crepuscular light. I packed up in the dawn silence and set off along the beach with the sea to my left as the world came into relief, the winding coastline and its mountainous interior extending a formidable distance before me in bays and ranges that receded without end in a layered haze.
The lack of trees and a tiered rocky coastline impart to the Akamas a sense of desolation but at closer look the scrubby landscape reveals its life. I had forgotten to bring a plant and wildlife identification book on the trip and so I cannot say if what I saw were cyclamens or daisies, chamomile or asters. But whatever flowers they were, there were plenty of them, defying the stony earth in victorious uproars of turquoise and violet, magnolia and crimson. I have heard that if you happen to be in the Akamas during a certain period after a hard rain, you can witness entire barren fields bloom into color within hours.
Jun
4
2006
Walking the Cyprus E4 (Part II)
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The first part of this essay is the May 4 posting
ONE OF THE REASONS travelers endure hardship is because they expect to reap something for the trouble – perhaps an insight, a sense of accomplishment, a tougher hide, or even just a good story to self-depreciatingly boast over later. But sometimes the hardship you fetch upon yourself brings nothing except head-shaking bemusement when you look back on how senseless it was.
