Saturday 14 May: Vouni and Soli

We decide to visit the archaeological sites of Vouni and Soli, which are several kilometres into Northern Cyprus, and which will mean crossing the border and then coming back to the Greek South. We hope that this is possible as we have had conflicting information about crossing the border. We cycle the length of Kato Pyrgos which is a pleasant unprepossessing sort of place and after a while come across the Greek Police controlled border into the buffer zone. I make the mistake of asking whether we are now passing into the Turkish section...."Northern Cyprus" is the reply. Up we then go through the buffer zone with warnings that any area away from the road is forbidden territory. We pass some UN outposts and then the Turkish controlled crossing point. We show our passports again. We cycle into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, with its twin flags: white crescent on red background which is the flag of Turkey, and then the converse: red crescent on white background which is the flag of the TRNC. At Yesilmak the road is busy with stalls selling strawberries, which we buy and then cycle up and up through the hills to get to the hilltop remains of Vouni. This is a lovely atmospheric place with impressive remains. We eat our strawberries at a shady bench. We can see the bay of Morfu stretching away in the milky haze, which is where we'll be tomorrow, and the road snaking down to Soli, where we see the famous swan mosaic and the remains of a Byzantine basilica. Lunch at a bizarre place nearby then back up and down the hills in the heat of the day. We pause to take some photos of a ruined and abandoned village near the border and the Turkish military shout at us from their hilltop station. Down we then go to the border controls and back to Kato Pyrgos.