So it was with a heavy heart that we loaded up the bikes, a made a plan to head back. The villa Edward had booked for us was amazing, and it was a shame to leave after just 3 days. We had managed to fix the KTM sidestand, change Thorpys rear brake pads, and clean the bikes so it wasn't all rest & play.
Dave had decided to go and see Edward one last time, then ride over the Troodos mountains to the ferryport, while I took Thorpy & Neil out through the Famagusta border control, with a view to seeing some of the devastated city, said to be locked in time.
Dave left at 10am, while we gave the place a bit of spruce up and headed out about 1 ish. I immediatly found the main road closed, and in our diversion, saw the area in Agia Napa where all the bars and clubs were ... we had not realised it even existed. Grrr.
The exit from Southern Cyprus was just a passport stamp initially Thought that was it until the the Customs man suddendly got disturbed from his Computer game by the sound of 4 bikes passing his little window ... so he sprinted after us, looked as all our papers and waved us on.
I felt it better to thank him and take a photo to show our appreciation. Good job I did !
We passed the outskirts of Famagusta, and although I rolled up at the guard gate, and asked the Soldier if we could pass, the way he fingered his AK47 and shook his head said it all.
The road took us through a mountain range to the Northen coast, where we looked for a lunch venue.
Wasn't long before we spotted the Eagles Nest Restaurant, which was perched on the rocks. The owner had a chat with us, and he had also done some long distance m/c trips. We listened for a while, then got bored, and got on with our food.
With lunch over we headed for the ferryport, with Dave arriving minutes later. There was a small issue with the booking being for another route, but a phone call soon cleared it up.
We now had 3 hours to kill so headed for a restaurant in the city. Dave's Google map insisted on giving us a tour of the side streets, the main streets, and possibly even a few parking lots. Eventually on the road out, we felt better to do a U-turn and take the first available... turned out a great choice food wise. Headed back the port for 2100 when Police were supposed to open their booth ... must be in a diferent time zone to us.
We imagned the formalities on the return could not have been any worse than the arrival ... oh, how we were wrong. Piss-ups in breweries come to mind. And then we had Customs ... who said we had the "wrong" papers. My patience running thin, I stated its what Customs in Famagusta looked at and approved. They didnt believe me, so with a flourish, I pulled out my phone, showed them the pic I took earlier, and said ... "Him, he did". That got them excited.
Long story short, we had to go and see some head honcho in another building, get his paw print, back to the booth, another stamp from "miseryguts" and we were on our way. Like any of this was our fault !
The ferry crossing was a bad as before, although two of our members had the foresight to organsise their sleeping arrangements beforehand, in the name of " Lilo Lil"....
Thorpy might have paid a bit more for his as he complained it went down on him in the night !
Well the ferry arrived at 8am, and the shambles continued.
