Welcome to Cyprus! And more specifically Carob Cottage. This first page is just a few photos of around the cottage we rented. The other pages feature trips to the orange growing areas of the far North West, a daytrip to old Nicosia, Lofty Castles in the Kyrenia Range, Famagusta and the far East, a trip to the charming old port of Kyrenia and a page of various walks we did in the countryside. We finish off with a few videos we made for our learning Engliah podcastsing site podcastsinenglish.com.

Jackie found Carob Cottage on the internet. It’s a modern cottage built on the edge of an old farm which had been the home of Tony and Maureen Hutchinson, a British couple who lived there for twenty years. As well as providing the perfect base for explorations of Northern Cyprus, Tony and Maureen were a mine of information about the area and ran walks in the surrounding countryside including their famous orchid walks which took place in early spring. Not many people know it but northern Cyprus features some of the rarest orchids on the planet and is a magnet for Botanists. I use the past tense as I found out that Maureen sadly died of cancer a few years after we stayed there and I believe Tony moved back to the UK.

We were adopted by Minoosh, the cottage cat.

Rearing up behind the cottage is the Kyrenia Range, an imposing line of forested craggy limestone peaks which feature many Gothic Castles, one of which is thought to have been the inspiration for Walt Disney’s fairytale version. This photo looks back from the range to the village of Hisarkoy and Carob Cottage.

In the nearby village of Tepebasi, we found a restaurant featuring Pide, apparently a Turkish favourite which is very similar to a pizza but I have to say far tastier.

The coutryside around the cottage was superb. Below are some photos we took on a walk on New Year’s Day.

Just as we were coming home, we happened upon this little owl.

Resting up after a tough day’s hiking.