Cyprus Still a Divided Island

Some 38 years after hostilities between armies in the north and the south  of Cyprus, the island remains politically and physically divided.

Now we refuse to take sides and writing about politics is not something we want to venture into but seems to me a shame that the two halves cannot live together without sniping at each other metaphorically

Fly into Larnaca with Cyprus Airlines and check out the map at the back of their inflight magazine.   It shows the area in the north of the island emblazoned with the caption Area Under The Military Occupation of Turkey.

The same map shows roads in the south of the island and none in the north the inference being that there aren’t any.

Since many who visit the north arrive there flying with the airline, this is a little silly because as we found out the roads are really rather good and we never saw a single Army tank let alone a regiment!

The north on the other hand prefers not to call itself Cyprus instead it refers to its self as The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or TRNC for short again rather silly simply because you can never find that name in an atlas unless it was printed and published in either Turkey or the TRNC

The border crossing between the two divided entities has been open to all since 2003 and despite what the maps say the road passes up to and straight across the border no matter which direction you are headed.

We have just made the trip landing at Larnaca and making the one and a half hour drive into the north arriving at Noah’s Ark, our hotel some ten hours after leaving home in the south of England.

We were in the North of Cyprus to visit and review the newly opened Karpaz Gate Marina and we hope to check out the coastline as a super yacht cruising destination.

Once back in the UK we will set off again to visit the island again this time exploring the south and visiting the new Camper & Nicholson Marina in Limasol