The Baths of Adonis
by Pat Lloyd
Aphrodite is to Cyprus what Bonnie Prince Charlie is to Scotland. We had already visited the Sanctuary of Aphrodite and the Baths of Aphrodite, a gloomy pool which made you wonder why it was necessary to trek approx. 80km just for a wash, so we were hoping that the Baths of Adonis would be rather more scenic. This was the place where she met her lover Adonis and, as legend has it, became the progenitors of the people of Paphos.
It was sunny but very windy as we left the apartment in Paphos, managing, with only one wrong turn, to find the road towards Chlorakas, where we found the first brown tourist sign for Adonis Baths and waterfall. We had a steep climb up to Tala in bottom gear where we diverted to a bar to cool off before taking a left turn, still following the brown signs.
This took us through Kamaras holiday village where a sign proudly proclaimed that they had built 950 villas. A couple would have looked nice but they were piled up like egg cartons. Contouring round the hillside we found the brown sign pointing us to the left where a concrete track sent us downhill and rapidly ran out of concrete. The driver of the hire car which had been parked just before the turn, and who had been informing his passenger that it didn't look too bad, was in for a shock as we were soon negotiating deep ruts left after the previous weeks rain.
The rocky surface was then mostly rideable with patches of concrete on the steepest parts. We passed a tiny church, which unfortunately was locked, before arriving at a deserted bar. Any car drivers getting so far would need a double brandy.
The track kept climbing up the valley and eventually dropped down to cross a stream at a shallow ford. A sign painted on a boulder informed us it was only 500 metres to the baths so we pushed on up the hill to where a right turn up yet another climb brought us to where we could see below a building with tables, a parking area, and a stop me and buy one tricycle with flat tyres and no ice cream.
Inside the building a man was waiting to sell us tickets and on hearing that we had cycled from Paphos he let bus off the full price and charged us the child rate of £3.00. The building had originally been a water mill, built 400 years ago by the monks of St Neofytos monastery, and used by surrounding villagers who had brought their corn on donkeys. It had been in use until 1950 when this man's grandfather, who had been the last miller, had dismantled the building and sold the timber for firewood.
The miller had had to pay the monastery 200 bags of corn as rent plus a gift of two pigs and the monastery had the privilege of the first milling before Christmas at no charge. The present building had been restored by someone as a memorial to his parents, his father having been a famous poet. It contained a small museum where the man pointed out a bed where his grandfather had begat twenty children. The waters of the baths are reputed to be an aphrodisiac so he must have been making full use of them.
Outside was a statue of Adonis and Aphrodite with a text saying that "ladies infertile who wish to become pregnant touch Adonis' appendage and have many children thereafter". I didn't take up the invitation but looking at the polish on the said appendage plenty if ladies had.
Some rough steps led down to the bath which was situated below a waterfall with high cliffs on either side and a few leafless trees leaning over the water. Much pleasanter than Aphrodites Bath and, according to the photographs, well used by bathers when the weather was warmer. We retraced to the ford and had our sandwiches before climbing back up to take the other track which our leaflet said would take us to tarmac within 2km. We still had some climbing with the Mavrokolympos reservoir below in the valley fed by the stream from the baths and presumably the water supply for Coral Bay holiday resort.
We met up with the tarmac on the road from Akoursos and had a fast descent to join the coastal road at a sign for Paphos 7km. Altogether it had been 7km to Tala then about 7km on unsurfaced track but as the airline had broken my computer cable these are only approximate.
The large scale map supplied by the tourist office in Paphos did not show the baths and they were not mentioned in our guide book. A four wheel drive operator had given us a leaflet about them as they were on his itinerary.