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.
A 224 km round trip from Kyperoúnta - roughly 4 h 19 in the saddle. The stops in between: Church of Ayios Nikolaos, Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village and back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos. 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 Church of Ayios Nikolaos.
Above the village of Kakopetria, on the slopes of the Troodos mountains in the middle of Cyprus, the Church of Ayios Nikolaos stands under a roof of its own. The name Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis means Saint Nicholas of the Roof, and the explanation is simple: the little Byzantine church was so precious, and the Troodos winters so wet, that a second, steeply pitched timber roof with tiles was built over the original to protect it. The church dates from around the eleventh century, and inside its walls are covered in frescoes from several different periods, from the Byzantine to the later Middle Ages.
Read the complete Church of Ayios Nikolaos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Ayios Nikolaos comes up about 36 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 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. Next is back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Ayios Nikolaos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos, 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 → Church of Ayios Nikolaos is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Ayios Nikolaos → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos → Church of Ayia Sotira is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.