By Sue Masterman
N I C O S I A, Cyprus, June 2 — The majority of tourists who come on packaged tours to Cyprus descend over an azure sea into Larnaca or Paphos airports, are herded into coaches, discharged into one of the army of luxury hotels that have turned much of the coast into a concrete jungle.
They’re missing the real Cyprus — the part that moves.
For Cyprus is unspoilt beaches, great mountains covered in unending forests, unexplored ruins, fields of avocados, bananas (and the occasional tarantula), sleepy villages, monasteries and churches, and more history than you or the island can use.
And, perhaps most spectacularly, Cyprus is a bird watcher’s paradise.
Lanky Flamingos
Cyprus is on one of the main migratory routes for birds passing between Africa and Europe. Many stop off for a breather. Some of them decide to stay.
I am by no means a fanatical or knowledgeable birder — I can’t tell a warbler from a wagtail if they don’t sit still — but that doesn’t stop me from watching them.
So it was on a recent holiday near Cyprus’ southern coast that I found myself at the salt lakes at Larnaca, which are home to many migrating birds. With planes thundering in the background and a Cypriot film team making a Harley Davidson commercial off to the side, my scope was pinned on the last 15 pink flamingos of the season.
They stood, unruffled by flying machines or the wind, with necks curved in a perfect S, one lanky leg curled up under them, taking an occasional dredge through the shallows for shrimp to refuel their batteries. Better relaxation for a veteran reporter of hot and cold wars I have yet to find.
On a Road to Nowhere
Heading east from Larnaca on a road to nowhere, I finally found the Akhna reservoir, a favorite haunt of fishermen. There a kingfisher perched a yard from me, watching with hungry intent an amazing selection of huge dragonflies flit over the water in all the colors of the rainbow.
Further west, the Akrotiri salt lake was almost dry and plagued by heat haze, even in early spring. But suddenly, at the side of a puddle near Ladies Mile Beach, with the sea pounding within earshot, was the Glossy Ibis, radiant with subtle colors, and a little later a rare Great White Egret, familiar from the Lange Lacke bird sanctuary in Austria, near where I live.
I trekked my four-wheel-drive up to Cedar Valley in the Trodos mountains to spot the Blue Jay building its nest in the magnificent, unique trees there. A twittering army of other birds swooped overhead or hopped cheekily as I ate my sandwich.
Then I returned to my favorite site, the back end of the Evretou dam, where I found a couple of Danish enthusiasts who had made it over the stony track before me. They were anxious to share their finds of waders nesting in the reeds, camouflaged into near-invisibility.
Back at the hotel, I heard a familiar early morning screech. And indeed, there on the TV antenna perched a Kestrel, eagle eye focused on a field mouse a very long way away. I watched him glide, swoop and grab.
A Great Off-Season Bargain
If I were planning a birding holiday I would choose to stay in Polis, the town furthest west, almost at the end of the road. This tiny hamlet is relatively unspoilt, next to the Akemas peninsula with its cliffs and turtle bay and to most of the reservoirs. The little fishing harbors up and down that coast are pure charm. The sea is clean and clear, perfect for snorkeling. Off season (late fall to spring), you can find a bed or a self-catering apartment anywhere.
Breakfast can be found in the nearest tavern, never far. Food in Cyprus is good and simple. Islanders import little, and eat what they grow. Try “kleftiko” — lamb slow-roasted in a clay oven (The name means “stolen” for poached meat tastes the best!). Or go into the kitchen and pick your own fish, fresh from the harbor, for the grill, and squeeze a bitter lemon from the back garden tree all over it. Salads are fresh and utterly delicious, and local potatoes make the best fries in the world.
A birding holiday in Cyprus can be a great bargain because off-season is the time to be here — that’s when birds are taking their vacation. All you need for birdwatching here is a book or two, a pair of binoculars and possibly a scope, and a car, preferably a four-wheel drive — good roads in Cyprus are rare.
The Akamas Peninsula on the island’s western shore is an area of approximately 250 square kilometers noted for its scenic beauty and near-virgin habitats, home to rare and endangered wildlife. (Cyprus Tourism Organization) | |
It’s a small island. A car can get you anywhere in less than four hours. A word about driving in Cyprus: It’s a cinch, so long as you don’t mind driving on the “wrong” side of the road (part of the British heritage), have eyes in the back of your head, and one foot on the brake.
Waiting for Waders
The towns of Larnaca, Akrotiri and Paphos are the places to be for spotting waders. But there is far more to be found in the Trodos mountain range. The back ends of reservoirs, currently sadly half-empty in this fifth year of droughts, are a quiet haven, and the forests themselves are teaming with bird-life.
Or venture onto the Akemas peninsula, which is a nature reserve — except when the British army, which still has three bases on the island, uses part of it for big-gun target practice.
The bases were the price of shedding the colonial yoke in 1960. The Cypriots may still celebrate the day the British left, but since then they have been tempting them back. Hundreds of British families who served in the military on the island have bought retirement homes here. Shops and supermarkets are a throw-back to Britain of the ’50s. You can get things there — like HP sauce, Quaker Oats in tins and environmentally unfriendly camphor mothballs — that have long disappeared from British shelves.
Cypriot Background
Cyprus is a divided island. The Turks swept into the North in 1972 after a failed attempt by Greek extremists to annex it to Greece. Now Nicosia, the central capital, is the last divided city. Greek and Turkish politics has kept them apart.
Now and again the conflict flares up along the Green Line, guarded by bored UN peacekeepers, but it has never impinged on visitors in the time I’ve known it. You’re not aware of it until the road ends in a barrier of UN blue-and-white-striped oil barrels. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots cannot, with a few exceptions, cross the line. The occasional smuggler or rash demonstrator gets shot.
The Greek Cypriots are the recognized legitimate rulers; the self-proclaimed Turkish Cypriot state in the north is recognized only by Turkey. But visitors can cross the line, during daylight hours, for a day trip, at the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia. What you will find upon crossing is a simpler, poorer version of the Greek Cypriot side, less scarred by new building, more into renovation.
And, of course, for bird-watchers there are the Kyrenia Mountains, the backbone of the island, where eagles soar.
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Not Quite Paradise
I’ve yet to find a guide book to Cyprus that promotes birdwatching, which would be good for the island. It would be especially good for the birds, since Cypriots are not unduly kind to animals, to put it mildly.
There are 35,000 licensed hunters on the island, armed to the teeth, who go rampaging through the hills, fields and forests during the short hunting season in late October and November, to return with a poor little hare splayed across the front of their vehicle.
Then there is “liming” — farmers placing sticks coated with glue into their fields, ostensibly to protect their seedlings. Thousands of birds trapped by the glue are killed this way.
If the government thought that birdwatching was attracting tourists, they might actually enforce some of the laws protecting birds. Until then, it will be left to the blue-rinse brigade of British ex-pat matrons who lobby and run the animal sanctuaries.
How to Go
Getting There:
Package tours or return fares offered by all major travel agencies, including fly-and-drive. It may pay, even if you don’t stay every night in a hotel. The best airline and tour bargains are from or through London.
Aim For:
The western side of the island (Polis, Paphos, Pissouri) is better for birding than the East.
Accommodations:
Off-season (October to May), inexpensive boarding house and apartment accommodations are readily available throughout the island — you don’t
have to book.
Tip: Chris Neophytou, a Web site designer who runs a shop in Paphos providing aids for the disabled, uses a wheelchair, so his parents built their complex of basic apartments in Polis around a beautiful pool and garden to accommodate him — and other disabled people, too. It’s a family atmosphere, the real Cyprus, close to town center and the beach with a vast choice of local restaurants. They have hosted ornithology groups and organised their tours.
C & A Apartments: http://www.ca-tourist-apts.com.cy/
E-mail: chrisneo@cytanet.com.cy
Phone and fax: 3576 321881
Disability Service: http://www.paraquip.com.cy
Cars:
All major car rentals at Larnaca and Paphos airports. Cypriot rentals are cheaper, available in all larger towns, large choice. No RVs — most roads are unfit for them.
Restaurants:
Get out of town and look for the spot with the most pick-ups
parked outside. The best is where the locals go for good fresh food, like fish fresh from the sea, on display to choose, or fresh trout in mountain restaurants. And it is good manners to go into the kitchen and see what’s on
offer
Guide Books:
Insight Guides — Cyprus, written by a German team, very thorough (ISBN 0-395-65768-7).
A Birdwatchers Guide to the Birds of Cyprus by Bill Oddie & Derek Moore, a slender volume with invaluable information on where to find them and how to get there, with a check-list (ISBN 0-901588-03-2).
These and other books may be purchased at the Soloneion Book Centre, Nicosia.
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