The Karpas peninsula

If anyone thinks of a map of Cyprus I'm sure they will immediately think of the the finger of land pointing east at the top of the island. This is where we have been today.

The weather was lovely again but it was a bit breezy on the beach.
We first went to the end of the peninsula to the church of St Andrew. This is where the disciple Andrew reputedly landed on his voyage to spread the word of Christ and stopped at the island to find fresh water. An Orthodox Church has been built on the site. For this and other reasons the Karpas peninsula is very important to the Greek Cypriots of the othodox religion.
The peninsula is a government owned National Park and unusually today it is inhabited by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots who rent land from the government.
The church was surrounded by the usual souvenir stalls and more unusually, donkeys. You are encouraged to buy fruit and vegetables to feed them!

On the way back we stopped at Golden or Turtle beach which you can see in the picture. Some people were swimming and Chris had a paddle but I didn't get wet. It is lovely soft fine sand and in June each year Loggerhead turtles come up the beach to lay their eggs. It is a very successful conservation area.

We stopped for lunch at a Greek restaurant. Soup, vegetable mezze, barbecued Seabream and fruit or yoghurt with honey and pomegranate seeds. It was delicious.

Every where is very lush after the winter rains. The north of the island has very productive agriculture and at this time of the year there are many wild meadow flowers in bloom. Our last stop was at a small village renowned for making olive oil and other local produce. There was a pretty Orthodox Church surrounded by flowers and stalls selling olive oil and other local produce. I bought some marmalade and olive oil hand cream and ate lots of free samples of peanut brittle!

Great day!