By Heidi Trautmann
Among us friends we often say …‘let us go westward’,
either for a bicycle ride or as recently for a long walk, actually to the
Northwestern coast of Cyprus, past Kayalar and Sadrazamköy, a village at the
end of the world you would think. There is a big tree where the tarmacked road
ends and the sand road starts with a map on a board. If you go right you come
to a holiday village, the place looks weird, a ghost village in a land called
Nowhere.
We did that road years ago by bicycle down to the very
end, to the Cape of Kormakitis, where there is a mast and a transceiver
station, nothing has changed since. However, we had heard of a marked foot path
along the cliff coast where there is nothing but macchia. So we left our cars on
the mainroad where this touristic sign is – white-green-white - and walked
…walked….over stone and macchia, on our right the sea, so calm after days of
storm, around us nothing but moonscape, sandstone carved by water and wind,
hollow circles where water stands, it looks as if people from another planet
have lived here ages ago, there are marks everywhere…no trees, nothing but sky
above us. Weird.
We have to watch our steps, cannot lift our eyes and
look around, we stop once in a while, go close to the rim to look down to the
water below, nowhere a place for a boat to anchor or find shelter if caught by
the wrong wind.
After two hours of slow careful walking through this fascinating
nothingness – sea must have covered the place once, who knows, I saw one or two
shells, we arrived at a fenced-in place, a sheep shelter I thought – no, a
human’s shelter, and we entered invited by a man who stood there and his dogs
were barking.
A shelter made from bamboo and whatever was available,
dogs and cats and a row of cages for birds; a place to sleep, tables and
benches to sit for him and friends; we were invited to share his meagre lunch
on the still warm grill, some green pepper, tomatoes and…chicken stomachs; and
he distributed among us fat oranges from his orchard in Güzelyurt. It is his
outdoor place, he comes here every day to feed the animals and enjoy the peace,
to do some fishing and look out onto the sea. What is he looking out for?
When we left to continue the rough path towards the
very end – because it was a must to finish the walking and take a look from the
most western point of the island towards Europe in the distance – I looked back
and took a picture and saw him standing there and I waved my hand, and he waved
back, and he stood there for a long time.