As you drive from Paphos to Polis on the B7, you will come across the village of Stroumbi. It is a village of two halves. Kato Stroumbi hosts the main church and the Police Station, and a tavern or two. It used to have a bank before the bean counters put profit ahead of convenience and they retreated to the cities. It is slightly offset from the B7 though, so unless you are visiting you will probably drive straight through it. Pano Stroumbi on the other hand, has a useful supermarket and a few cafes on the main B7, so you are more likely to notice it.

Beyond the shops, on the way to the Kathikas junction, you will find this telecoms tower. If you want to see the bus, park near here.

And here is the bus itself, peeking shyly through the undergrowth. I am guessing it has been here for a few years, though I only recently noticed it. I assume they have cut down some vegetation in front of it which was obscuring the view from the roadside.

To the left of the bus is a faint track, which I walked along. It brings you to the rear of the bus, and easier access.

Our main forum used to have a member called PaphosAl. Now sadly departed, he would have loved to have seen this bus, though he would have been appalled by its condition. He made the following comment on the Bedford Bus back in 2018. I shall repeat it here, as if he is watching from the afterlife he will be thrilled to see his words in print again.

In 1941, Vauxhall Motors in Luton won the WD contract to build Churchill tanks at their factory there. Some 5,640 tanks and 2,000 spare engines rolled off the production lines, not to mention steel helmets, rocket bodies, and top-secret components for Frank Whittle's jet engine (from a 99.9% female workforce!!)

At the same time, the British military's demand for Bedford trucks still needed to be satisfied. Vauxhall did this by 1942, by opening a huge new Bedford trucks 'shadow factory' in Boscombe Road, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, so truck production continued for the wartime effort.

This factory was extensively rebuilt and extended into the northern countryside between 1955 and 1957. In 1958, along came the Bedford J type Commercial truck. It's straight 6 petrol engine would have been the same 2.6 litre lump used in the top end Vauxhall E Wyverns and Velox saloon models at the time. But their compression ratio was dumbed down, in order to run on 2* petrol (rather than the 4* grade needed in their cars, difficult to find in developing countries). From 1958 until 1986 (when the Bedford truck factory had to be shut down by GM, on account of Thatcher's political decisions favouring Leyland military MOD truck supplies...) production was strong.

Later, the straight 6 petrol engine would have kept pace with the car engines, growing to 3.3 litres by the mid 80's (but still low compression). The J type was manufactured from 1958 until 1986 (when the factory ceased becoming GM Bedford). The other side of the road was a similar sized factory- Commer Commercials (Rootes Group).

I have more personal historical stories to relate about both factories, from 1967 and 2002 respectively, if anyone is interested? Suffice it to say for now, the Bedford J Type lorry rolled off the Bedford one mile long production line in either Chassis-Cab or Chassis-Cowl variants, for export all around the world, from 1958 to 1986. A sad resource now lost...

I guess the Cypriot coachbuilders would have used the Bedford J chassis-cowl import on which to handbuild their wood-framed bus bodies onto the back? They still look beautiful to this day, and it's great to know that a few of them are still getting TLC and are keeping going...

I don't think this bus is going anywhere now though.