Letters from Cyprus: A climb into the clouds

Part of the castle before the cloud came in

A few weeks ago we finally made the steep trek up to Buffavento castle in the north. Buffavento is one of three main castles that sit atop the main mountain range that crosses the northern part of the island. The three castles, St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara, date back to the 11th century, and have been used as defence and observation posts by the Byzantines, Venetians, Ottomans and various other ruling powers throughout the island's history. All three lie approx 1km above sea level, with a precipitous drop on one side down to the northern coastline. On a clear day the views are spectacular, with a vista all the way Turkey and some of the higher peaks of Syria and Lebanon. Alas we were amid the clouds on our recent climb, so just had to imagine the view.

The ever present flag. It even flashes at night!

Spring is a beautiful time of year here, especially after a wet winter as the island is green with plenty of wildflowers. Over the coming months we're planning to again visit some of our favourite parts of the island, including a break over Easter in the west near the Akamas Peninsula. All this before the hotter summer weather hits!

A few other events in our lives over recent weeks:

- A lovely dinner with friends and colleagues from Ross' work. One of the couples, Zaza and Tikka, are Georgian and we enjoyed sampling the 'katchapouri' (cheese bread) that Tikka had made
- A shopping trip for Jessie in the north with some of her Turkish Cypriot girlfriends from school. Negotiating checkpoints and passport control adds a new dimension to the post shopping parental pickup arrangements!
- A combined schools concert where Jessie sang in the choir

School holidays starts at the end of this week, and kids are looking forward to a break.

A few more pics of our Buffavento castle climb and other recent activities below: