Climbing to the Top of the World

The childhood story played in my head as each painful step forward was an excruciating step upward, "I think I can, I think I can, I think. . . ." But, in all honestly, the last phrase was, "I think I'm going to die." I'm not a mountain climber--I'm a flat-land walker. The idea of physically moving my body upwards to a spot 3083 ft. into the clouds was totally beyond my comprehension. Why would I do that? Just to see some castle ruins at Buffavento? Are you kidding me?

And, yet, I climbed. This is what Buffavento Castle looks like in the guidebooks: It is described as "one of three castles of the Kyrenia Range. . .the lofty fortress of the Buffavento is the one that plays hard to get." The guidebook continues, "This majestic castle, whose name means 'buffeted by the winds', perches precariously 940 m above the sea, overlooking the plain of the Mesarya to the south. It dates at least back to 1191 when Richard the Lionheart took it over from the Byzantine emperor Isaak Komninos."

This is what it looked like at the beginning of our climb: Honestly, you can't even see it in the upper left hand corner of the mountain top. From the "main" road, it was a 5 km, 15-minute drive along a dirt track to a small parking area below the base of the cliff. The "walk" up, under normal conditions, is supposed to take 40 minutes. I know my body was functioning under abnormal conditions.

This is what I saw looking down, halfway up: The cliffs were rocky and vegetated. Tiny lizards darted out across the path. Wild flowers clung to nooks and crannies. Pausing to look back at the panoramic scene below, stretching across Nicosia to the Troodos Mountain range beyond, was breath-taking. The air was a bit hazy, like Southern California smog. "It's Egypt dust," Evi my friend, colleague and guide confirmed. I might add at this point that Evi is Austrian and half mountain goat. This climb was a simple jaunt for her. But, she was kind, moved slowly, and was delighted to take photos of my success.

And this is me joyfully greeting the world from the top window of Buffavento Castle:

In one of the roofless castle "rooms," we paused to share a fresh orange and our water. My heart was racing. "I did it!" At first it was just the fact I climbed the mountain. Then, I realized those others who had been before, especially those who had constructed this magnificent structure! What a mighty effort that was, one stone at a time.

Ah, what a journey. Who knows? I might be bungee-jumping from the Pentadaktylos next.

Just kidding, family, just kidding.