Diary of life in Neo Chorio

Chrysochou

The Chrysochou river runs down through the Chrysochou valley into Chrysochou bay by Polis Chrysochou (Polis).

The Chrysochou bay sweeps round from the Baths of Aphrodite in the West to Pomos in the North.

There is a coastal plain about five miles wide at its widest running from the Baths of Aphrodite to Pomos. Polis is slightly inland on a small hill, above what used to be swampy ground, where the Chrysochou river flows into the sea.

A coastal road runs, mainly by the sea, from Polis through several villages to Pomos. In the other direction, the road crosses the river, going through Prodromi, a suburb of Polis, to the marina at Latsi. It continues on to a junction beyond the marina. At the junction the main road continues up to Neo Chorio, the other road goes to the Baths of Aphrodite.

Notes from Neo Chorio

Hello from Neo Chorio, I hope you have all having a good New Year. By the way Neo Chorio means new village in Greek, it is only 300 years old. Polis means town in Greek, the Greeks are nothing if not literal.

At the end of my last missive I tantalised you with my next expedition, the crossing of the St John.

The St John is a stream that runs through a gorge to the East of Neo Chorio. One of my ambitions while I am living at Neo Chorio is to traverse each of the spurs and gorges that come off the escarpment above Neo Chorio. To date I have traversed most of the spurs and gorges to the West and East of Neo Chorio, some are relatively easy to traverse, some not so easy and with one or two you take your life in your hands.

The gorge that the St John runs through and the adjacent spurs are the last ones on this side of the ridge that I haven't been down. Examination of the Google Earth Satellite image indicated that there should be a route along one spur, down the gorge, across the St John, up the other side of the gorge and down the far spur.

I set off  in good spirits with water, bananas and a first aid kit, along the road to Androlikou, the next village.

Androlikou is  a village abandoned by Turkish Cypriots after the invasion in 1974. I have studied the history of the area and apparently they had good relations with the Greek Cypriots in Neo Chorio, even attending each other's weddings.

Since it has been abandoned it has become derelict, although some houses are now being reoccupied by Greek Cypriots.

I call Androlikou goat town, as it is surrounded by goat farms and goats even live in some of the ruined buildings. It absolutely stinks of goats!

I turned left off the road just before Androlikou following a track down the spur past several goat farms. This track became less and less well defined as I headed down it. Eventually the track veered to the right into the gorge and petered out in a rocky field. I skirted round this field before I found a way down some ruined terraces that sloped down to the bottom of the gorge. I ventured down the lowest terrace but the stream was too deep and there was mud of unknown depth. I made my way back up to the highest terrace and followed it down to the bottom of the gorge.

With a single bound I leapt across the stream and scrambled my way up the rocks on the other side. I found a path which I followed up the spur on the other side of the gorge. The path turned into a rough track which I followed until I came to a track that went back down the spur towards civilisation, in the shape of the marina at Latsi. After many twists and turns down tracks and through farmers fields I eventually ended up there.

At the marina I had a hard earned latte and a chocolate muffin. I was planning to walk back up to Neo Chorio from the marina, however as luck would have it my friend Alison was walking her dog, Ligo at the marina at that very moment, so I hitched a ride with her back to the village.

So that's my story of the crossing of the St John. The walk was only 14 km but it was very hard work.

I spent the rest of the week resting and preparing food for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve the occupants of the complex apartments met at Pierette's apartment for food and drinks. I cooked some sausage, cheese and spinach rolls and these with red wine and Leon lager, were my contribution to the party.

On Christmas day, I went with Alison to Letitia's, one of her friends, villa for Christmas Lunch.

Dave, Letitia's husband, who held the party was an officer in the Royal Marines, although his mother was Malaysian. I had lived in Malaya when I was was very young, so we had something in common.

Also there were Angeline and Mel. They are maids, originally from the Philippines who work for Cypriot people. Normally we would all have Christmas lunch together in a church hall but this wasn't possible this year due to the Covid pandemic. Two other guests, Rex from Kathikas and another Dave from Prodromi ,were also present.

For the lunch I had cooked two curries, a hot chicken curry and a mild peanut curry. Dave had cooked a traditional Christmas lunch, so we had a choice of what food to eat. As usual I had both.

After Christmas lunch we had a Karaoke session, where we managed to scare the dogs, Ligo and Lucy, so much that they ran upstairs and wouldn't come down until the singing stopped.

Between Christmas and New Year I went for another fairly long walk around Neo Chorio. This time I stuck to the tracks I knew well, I walked just over 17 km.

New Year's Eve and day were very uneventful as new restrictions were in place. On the Sunday after New Year's day I walked down to Latsi Marina for a latte and a chocolate muffin. Then I walked along the beach to the campsite. On the way back it was so hot I even had an ice cream! I walked just over 13 km from Neo Chorio to the campsite and back.

Well that brings me up to the beginning of 2021. In the next edition of my notes I will tell you what has happened in Neo Chorio since the New Year, including tales about the police and poison. I hope you can wait till then.

Regards Robert