We researched places to visit within a one hour drive from Paphos. The Akama National forest was one place that jumped out at us. Situated on a rugged section of the coast that juts out into the sea, this park is undeveloped and very remote. When we mapped the route there was a route all along the coast and a few that went further inland. Of course the costal route was the easy choice but when we got into the car my maps function did not show that route. No matter, Leslie gave me her phone and we followed these directions instead. We passed the sea caves, had a minor detour to the orthodox church and then reached the Avakas Gorge. Here the road turned to a rutted dirt track. At this point we did not dare take the rental car further. We stopped and marveled at the vast array of stacked rocks down in the bottom of the gorge before we turned around and back-tracked to where a road went inland. The following set of switchbacks, steep inclines and large trucks made this section quite hairy.
There were many banana plantations with the bananas protected within the blue plastic bags
The Greek Orthodox church
A spare boat
The coast line was rugged
Looking into the gorge
Carved out by a seasonal river
The road down
An array of stacked stones
the scale is hard to understand until you see a person in the midst of the stacks
Cars were parked across the gorge
Lovely blue water
Farewell
White stork
Very large and graceful
Our turnoff
A exclusive villa for sale. Perched on the top of a mountain with a tortuous commute
A huge flock of some sort of raptors
We saw several folks biking on the steepest parts
An old stone wall
It is this kind of road, were it seems to drop off into the abyss, that makes driving a work out
We have reached the top
Back downhill and more trucks
A multitude of buggys are available to rent to drive in the park
