Shorty Ore Car
Shorty Ore Car
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 BLUE MOUNTAIN HOBBIES O INDUSTRIAL RAIL O 20 SHORTY ORE CAR LOADS X 3 PACKS  US $6.00
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 BLUE MOUNTAIN HOBBIES O INDUSTRIAL RAIL O 20 SHORTY ORE CAR LOADS X 2 PACKS US $6.00
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Towards KoruÇam Burnu(cape Kormakiti)
The area around the cape itself near the lighthouse used to be military and prohibited, but was demilitarized a few years ago and is now approachable.The description given here starts with a brief account of the route westwards to Vouni, then gives the site details starting from Vouni and working eastwards back towards Girne. As throughout North Cyprus, the roads are in good condition, and there is blissfully little traffic. The towns are clearly signposted, as are the sights.The road first follows the thin coastal strip for 20 km (12miles) or so, before it then begins to climb as it winds inland through wooded hillsides.
Leaving the valleys behind, you have a fine view below to a new dam, one of many which the north Cypriots are now building to harness the water that is lost in a flash after a heavy downpour: no river in Cyprus flows all year round and water is a scarce resource. For most of the year it comes from the mains for only two hours a day, and in July and August sometimes not at all. Residents and hotels get round this by having extremely large tanks on the roof.
At the top of the climb you arrive at Çaml?bel, a heavily garrisoned town, where there is a major fork in the road: straight on to Lefko?a, and right to Güzelyurt and Lefke. The road straight on is the one you need to take to visit Pighades, just 2km(1mile or so) away, on the return journey, but for now, you fork right.
Leaving Çaml?bel on its hilltop, the road drops down into the adjacent valley. Güzelyurt is set in the heart of this vast and fertile river plain, the centre for the island’s citrus plantations and a fine pink Steam Engine just to the left of the road heralds your arrival at Güzelyut. This curiosity is a leftover of the line built by the British that used to run from Gazima?usa via Lefko?a to Morphou.
The last train ran in 1951. Continuing straight along the main road, you reach the centre of town with the unmistakable Byzantine dome of the Ayias Mamas church and the m?nicipal museum beside it, both set in the centre of a huge roundabout. The forks to the left from the roundabout lead back towards Lefko?a, but you continue straight on, following signs for Lefke.
From Güzelyurt the drive on, through lush plantations, takes a further half hour to reach the sweep of Güzelyurt Körfezi(Marphou Bay) with its distinctive iron jetties, relics of the copper-mining operations. Ships would tie up alongside these jetties and be loaded with copper for export, mainly to West Germany. Copper was Cyprus’s most important natural resource, and the Greek name for it, kupros, is even thought to be taken from the name of the island.
Cyprus was known throughout ancient times for its copper, supplying the Egyptian pharaohs and producting more than any other Mediterranean country. The rich mines here of Skouriotissa and Mavrovouni were first worked by the ancient Greeks and then the Romans, but after that lay disused for centuries until they were reopened in 1923. The Cyprus Mines Corporation, an American outfit, worked the mines until partition, when the ore was nearly exhausted anyway. Their supervisors marveled at the extent of the Roman diggings, and the depth of their galleries and shafts, especially in view of the lack of ventilation. Slaves were used, of course, to work the mines, so safety standard were hardly a consideration. In Roman times Christians from Palestine who refused to renounce their faith were also sent down the mines.
Careful observation of the landscape will reveal it to be largely composed of Roman slagheaps, for they are said to have left more than a million tons of slag behind. ‘Our Lady of the Slag Heaps’ is one rough translation of Skouriotissa.
Shorty after the mining sites, but before the village of Yedidalga, the Roman theatre and basilica of Soli lie on a hillside just 200 m inland from the road, signposted as usual with one of the tourist service’s clear yellow signs. Vouni, too, about 8km(5 miles) further west along the coast road, is clearly signposted.
First the road passes a cl?ster of beach restaurants west of Soli, where you can eat and swim, before a steep winding ascent begins of a colossal hilly outcrop on the sea edge. Vouni Palace lies on the summit of this outcrop. The last three minutes are along a narrow track. If you don’t have a strong nerve but do have reasonably strong legs, it’s only a 15-minute walk to the ruins from the turn-off, where you can leave your car.
Near the foot of the hill, incidentally, about halfway between Soli and Vouni, is the shell of a modern Greek church built in a sheltered nook too the right of the road, but badly destroyed inside. It appears never to have been completed and is covered inside and out with the vain exhortation ‘Please keep tidy’. Most mosque in Greek Cyprus are, by contract, kept locked and clean, but the record for tolerance is poor on both sides: 117 mosques were destroyed between 1955 and 1974 by zealous Greek Cypriots.
At the foot of the Vouni hill, the main road continues westwards to the village of Ye?il?rmak, just beyond which is another simple beach restaurant. This is the westernmost point you can reach before the edge of North Cypriot territory, though some 8 km(5miles) further west, inaccessible and surrounded by Greek Cypriot territory, is the curios Turkish cypriot pocket of Erenköy. Today only troops live in this fiercely Turkish Cypriot enclave, all the original villagers having been evacuated to Yem Erenköy on the Karpas Peninsula. These villagers had bravely resisted an attack by General Grivas and 3,000 Greek soldiers in 1964 and were supported in their struggle by student volunteers who included a young Rauf Denktash, the current TRNC president.
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