The Camel Trail Venetian Bridges

Published 23rd of January, 2019

TLC Required

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I talked about the Camel Trail in a previous blog, but I appreciate you may not have read on all of them, so here's a quick summary:

The Venetians built bridges to assist the transport of minerals from the mines in the mountains to the ports. Camels were used to transport the wares, hence the term "Camel Trail". The bridges are often hump-backed. This was so the camels could walk over the river when it was flowing, and walk down it, and under the bridge, when the river was dry. Humps for humps, so to speak.

Venetian Bridges are dotted throughout Cyprus, and don't just belong to one trail. This particular trail though, is particularly well known.

Interesting Crystals

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Another thing copious quantities of rain does is clean rocks, revealing sparkling jewels within. Ok, these are probably just quartz crystals, but they look lovely. Be warned though, that they are incredibly fragile. If you can get this vein out in one piece, you will be lucky. If you can carry it back to the car, even luckier. And if it survives the car journey home luckier still.

I managed to get one home once, and it fell apart once it had been rained on. Basically, these are much better admired in-situ.

However, if you look on the ground, you may well find similar rocks. Some of these will be a bit sturdier, as they have already survived being knocked off the rock in the first place. If you look for smaller rocks you can find some nice surprises.

Upstream from the Modern Bridge

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Now this looks quite sweet and innocent. Imagine the scene a few days ago though...

Roudia Bridge

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This is another old picture, showing Roudia Bridge in all its glory.At the time, I was puzzled by the roots. Why didn't they go underground? The answer was obvious really. They did at one point, but periodic flooding had washed the dirt away. But doesn't the bridge itself look a bit dirty?

Spic And Span

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Now look at it! It has had a lovely wash.

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