Friday, February 17/2023

 Our exploration of the North continues. It’s a highly varied country - mountains, green fields with grazing sheep, Mediterranean beaches, limestone cliffs. Continuous change from one kind of beauty to another. Steuart takes us to a Maronite village, a unique little enclave. Koruçam is one of four Maronite (Eastern Catholic Rite, originally Lebanese) villages to remain in North Cyprus after the division in 1974, the others being in the northeast Karpaz peninsula. 

It’s charming and well maintained, despite my predilection for photographing semi ruins. The odds are that the house pictured will be restored to its original beauty. Note the sign of orderliness in the form of a house number attached to a house which is roofless and clearly derelict. But it may well be restored and when it is will have its number. There are, somewhat surprisingly considering the population would be under four hundred, two Maronite churches, and we take a peek inside the smaller of the two. Behind this one is a convent, obviously inhabited but no sign of the nuns - well, other than a sign requesting respect for their privacy.

We’ve now been as far west as the island goes. And no, the distances as the crow flies are not enormous, but then most Cypriot roads don’t take much account of flying crows. Especially in the hills they’re winding with plenty of blind corners for excitement, should local driving and overtaking habits prove insufficient. And, especially in the villages, there are quite a number of places where two vehicles meeting involves one reversing, not that this slows anyone down.

Stop for a meal at a seaside restaurant. And they have şeftali sausages, one of my favourites. So Steuart and I order that and J has a lamb casserole baked with cheese. All very good, and a window table overlooking the sea. 

Last stop is to get some honey. It’s local, in a supermarket, but the date it was bottled handwritten on the jar - last week. Thick and dark and beautiful. And outside the store a milk dispenser, the first we’ve seen, for purchasing local milk. One way to fight the proliferation of used containers in an age when it’s no longer possible in any but the greenest of specialty shops to go with your jug and ask to have it filled.