PISSOURI WALKS

Keep walk leader's telephone numbers with you.  

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Why do we live in Pissouri?   Ah, yes...   We remembered why on Wednesday’s poddle around the Kyrenia Beach area this Wednesday morning.     The local scenery is stunning.   As we followed the track from Kyrenia Beach restaurant with its romantic ruined carob storehouse on the beach up towards Camp Bloodhound, we paused and looked back at the early morning light over an ancient landscape and the totally calm bay.   Quite beautiful.   (And we were grateful for the British Bases which have thus far preserved this beautiful landscape from the greedy hands of the developers, who seem to specialise in despoiling the most beautiful parts of the Island in this country with no national planning policy).    We walked a circular route around this coastal valley, past harvested vineyards and fields, past ancient burials and olive trees, back to the perfect and undeveloped beach.     Like all the Pissouri walks, the area is fabulously beautiful.

There are two Pissouri walking groups:  one for the fit and fearless, the other for those building up strength and fitness after years of idleness.   And, as the saying goes, like the best things in life, it’s free.    Unfortunately, the poddlers (the second group) have, after two years, become much fitter than they were when we started and coped with the 1 ½ hour  Kyrenia walk effortlessly.   Maybe we need a new, second poddlers group for those setting out to improve their fitness!   Certainly the benefits are clear.   People who walk are happy sociable sorts, and it is easy to drop in or out of the groups, even if you are just on holiday in the area.   We like meeting new people.   The improvement in people’s physical health can be seen – weight loss, increased mobility, generally an all round healthy glow and look of well-being.   It is certainly worth the early morning starts – necessary because of the heat later in the day.  

Poddles normally start at 8 am, treks at 7.30 am in the summer, 8 am in the winter.     The trekkies will yomp through remote, wild areas for about 2 hours, and the poddles should take about an hour, pretty much all on flat ground – or as flat as we can manage in this naturally rolling and hilly landscape.

The weather at the moment is just gorgeous:  we are enjoying an Indian summer – warm, but not too hot (around 30) the sea is warm and there are not so many tourists around.   You cannot imagine a sea more perfect for swimming in than Pissouri Bay at this time of the year, a surreal pleasure when the water is still and crystal clear.    Nearly every day we go to the traditional Agamemnon cafe on the beach with its views over Pissouri Bay and Androulla’s “specials” – in addition to the standard menu, Androulla cooks a family menu as well which she is kind enough to let her customers have if there is enough.   Our favourites are the vegetarian dishes – lentils, pulses, their own vegetables (particularly the marrow).   All the family help and most of the customers are simply an extension of the family.   Most of us have been Androulla’s customers for many, many years.    If you are reading this and are heading to Pissouri you will have to be quick:  the cafe will close when the weather turns, whenever that will be.

We seem to have digressed from walks, but we are still on “Why do we live in Pissouri?”    Apart from the beach and the spectacular countryside, there are some very good restaurants ... we don’t like to be discriminatory, but Trip Advisor is a pretty accurate source of reviews.   Apart from summers with Androulla, our own favourites are the Limanaki down at the Bay (certainly with an international reputation) and O’Vrakas in Pissouri Square, up in the Village.   Haris at O’Vrakas has dedicated himself to providing his customers with a service and menu they want, and it seems to have paid off.   He is usually busy and very popular.    It seems unfair, when he has such a good menu, to mention that his fish and chips are good and beautifully presented, but our great pleasure is to go for one of his light and elegant lunches with a glass of wine in the Village Square, watching the world go by.    (Let’s hope the Village Square restaurants will get together to ensure that over the winter they do not all close at the same time for their out-of-season break!)    It depends on what you want.    Most of the take-aways are excellent (see the list in the “Where to Eat” tab) but our own favourite is Antonis next to the barber shop in the Square, where we love to have a beer from George at the Iron Horse while waiting for the kebab from Antonis immediately opposite (father and son).   People are talking about how good the newly re-opened Patis Corner is, as you leave the Square towards the Amphitheatre, but we have not yet had that pleasure.   And we have mentioned the newly re-opened Two Friends before ... the problem is, there is only so much time you can spend eating out.    But it is an endless source of conversation!

Sorry, were we talking about walks?!

1 October 2011.