Saturday 27 August 2011

HILL FIRE AT BELLAPAIX - looking back to Cyprus



Well today has been an adventure. Bellapaix Abbey must be only a forty-minute walk from the village so I decided to try. Twenty minutes into the climb I was out of the village and picking my way through a thistle invested ravine! The reward was an exceptional side on profile view of the north side of this gothic wonder nestling in the mountainside. Along another track, a side road, the main road and then I entered Bellapaix village at last.

Then pandemonium, on the main street, two fire engines, a police car and then there was a big pall of smoke and the thunderous crackle of flame. In the valley-ravine below the abbey, not far from where I had been 30 minutes earlier, a huge fire had broken out. As I write this water bearing helicopters, flown over from mainland Turkey, is running a water-bearing shuttle between the sea and our precious mountain. Quel dommage!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you very much for your comments - Tim