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.
From Peléndri it runs 312 km to Peléndri; allow about 4 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Choirokoitia, Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village and back through Choirokoitia. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The painted churches of the Troodos mountains look plain from outside. Squat stone boxes with steep timber roofs, built that way to shed the snow, they hide inside some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in the Mediterranean, and nine of them were listed by UNESCO in 1985, with a tenth added later. The Church of Timios Stavros, the Holy Cross, at Pelendri, is one of the group, with frescoes from the fourteenth century that show scenes of the life of Christ, in the dark blues and ochres of the period, and an interior lit by only a little daylight so that the figures seem to glow.
Read the complete Church of Timios Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Timios Stavros is where the day begins. Next is Choirokoitia.
Long before the Greeks, the Phoenicians or the Romans arrived in Cyprus, people lived on a hillside above the Maroni river in the southern part of the island, in round stone houses with flat roofs, packed close together inside a defensive wall. Choirokoitia is a Neolithic settlement dating back to around the seventh millennium BC, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The inhabitants farmed, herded animals and buried their dead under the floors of their houses. Several of the round houses have been reconstructed near the entrance, giving a vivid sense of how they lived. The site received UNESCO recognition in 1998.
Read the complete Choirokoitia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Choirokoitia comes up about 72 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 157 km into the recorded legs you reach Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. Next is back through Choirokoitia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Choirokoitia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Choirokoitia, late in the day. Next is Church of Timios Stavros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Timios Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Timios Stavros. That is the ride.
Church of Timios Stavros → Choirokoitia is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Choirokoitia → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → back through Choirokoitia is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Choirokoitia → Church of Timios Stavros is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.