CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
235 km from Kyperoúnta to Kyperoúnta, about 5 h 01 of riding. On the way it passes Ayios Ionannis, Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village and back through Ayios Ionannis. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This point lies in the northern foothills of the Troodos range, in a landscape of dry stone terraces, carob and olive trees, and villages that tilt down towards the Nicosia plain. What I can say is that the villages around it, Peléndri and Kyperoúnta among them, belong to one of the richest church regions in the eastern Mediterranean. The Troodos painted churches, ten of them on the UNESCO list, are small, steep-roofed stone buildings that hide Byzantine frescoes inside, and one of them, the Timios Stavros, stands at Peléndri.
Read the complete Church of Ayia Sotira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Ayia Sotira is where the day begins. Next is Ayios Ionannis.
Ayios Ionannis here means the monastery of Saint John Lambadistis, at Kalopanagiotis, a village in the Marathasa valley on the northern side of the Troodos mountains. It is a strange and lovely building, three churches joined together under one big wooden roof, each added in a different century, so that stepping from one to the next is like walking through the history of Cypriot painting. Frescoes cover nearly every wall, from the Byzantine saints of the twelfth century to the more elaborate cycles of the fifteenth, in colours that glow in the dim light. It is one of the painted churches of the Troodos, listed by UNESCO in 1985.
Read the complete Ayios Ionannis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ayios Ionannis comes up about 55 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village.
According to the Greeks, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam off the coast of Cyprus, and the place where she came ashore was near Paphos. The rock of Petra tou Romiou, a sea stack a few kilometres east of Kouklia, is the traditional spot, and the sanctuary on the hill above, at Palaepaphos, was one of the most important shrines of the ancient world. People came on pilgrimage from across the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and the cult went back to a Near Eastern fertility goddess long before the Greeks arrived, with the goddess worshipped in the form of a cone-shaped black stone.
Read the complete Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. Next is back through Ayios Ionannis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ayios Ionannis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ayios Ionannis, late in the day. Next is Church of Ayia Sotira.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Ayia Sotira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Ayia Sotira. That is the ride.
Church of Ayia Sotira → Ayios Ionannis is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ayios Ionannis → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → back through Ayios Ionannis is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ayios Ionannis → Church of Ayia Sotira is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.