St Hilarion Castle

Definitely one of the highlights of our holiday and look what the weather did for us too!

A bit of early cloud soon dispersed on the mountains and we headed to the NW end of the the island before lunch. Everywhere we have been the land has been green and lush with lots of wild flowers. Stopping at Soli in the far west we saw a 2nd century AD theatre surrounded by wild flowers and the remains of 1st century AD Baslica which has been excavated to reveal mosaics.
In the bay is a railway track and port created by the British to transport copper from the island, which was also excavated here in the past. We also stopped near a lake made from a reservoir which has been filled over the last 18months with water piped from Turkey to provide drinking water and irrigation in N Cyprus.

In the blip you can see the view from the very top of the crusader castle of St Hilarion in the mountains above Kyrenia. You can see the shape of the walls and towers from the town of Kyrenia below. It is 732 meters to the top and Chris of course had to go so we both did and it was worth it.
You can almost see the whole of the north coast of North Cyprus. To the left is a military exercise base and this added great atmosphere to our climb and the boom of guns from the UN troops echoed around the walls and rocks.
A view from the road below is in the second extra. Fabulous day.