Avakas Gorge

Hiking at the Avakas gorge was always on my bucket list, so despite the scorching July hot, it just had to happen.

We decided to spend our Saturday night in Paphos after spending the morning in Pissouri, wake up early in the morning before the sun and the countless tourists hit the place, and enjoy the hike.

Luckily the road to the parking spot was still manageable with our little, definitely not 4x4 car, no one else was there yet either, so the walk began.

The beginning of the trail was a flat, dusty surface next to the stream, didn't require any hiking efforts. The sun was already up, the air was beginning to warm up but in a few hundreds meter we reached the entrance where the trees and bushes grew tall enough to give us some shades.

The temperature instantly became more bearable and hopping from rocks to rocks over the creek was great fun. Winter time the water level is much higher, the stream becomes a torrent, so passing through is quite dangerous if not impossible.

Once we passed a curtain made of oleanders the path opened up for the canyon's narrowest end.

The gorge was created by a raging stream which was flowing over the limestone for thousands of years, building walls up to 30 meters in height and in 3km length.

It was so extremely peaceful there. All we could hear were pigeons cooing, pebbles rolling around in the shallow creek and the water constantly dropping from the rocks above. It was an absolute fairy tale place, even if it had a strong resemblance of 127 hours. The nature did an amazing job there.

We pushed through the keyhole shaped walls and sat down on the big rocks for a few minutes before we made our way back. I could have sat there for hours but the temperature was rising rapidly and we had more places to visit too.

We left the canyon behind and got back to the dusty path where a nonchalant goat welcomed us.

Arriving to Avakas at early hours turned out to be a good idea. By the time we reached the parking, it was overcrowded with tourist groups and more and more safari jeeps kept appearing. I really cannot imagine that many people, including small children squeezing through the gorge and balancing over the slippery rocks, but luckily for us, we didn't have to witness that.