Ascent of Baspinar Circular Route with Near East College Mountaineering Club
NECMC group photo at the start/finish point (elevation about 460m or 1500 ft), with restaurant
owner Saffet in green shirt. Baspinar Restaurant is above Lapta (Lapithos).
Kitchen staff preparing the charcoal oven for our delicious dinner of kleftiko (hirsiz kebab or thieve's
kebab - lamb in herbs cooked very slowly for several hours) eaten at the end of our walk.
A photo of the photographer! Teacher and NECMC co-founder, Sait Baki on the Red Route.
Lunch break on a prominent peak half-way up the route (about 820m, 2690 ft)
Achieving the day's highest point (935m, 3068 ft) on the Jeep Track engineered by the British Army,
which winds along the Besparmak (Pendadhaktylos or Five Fingers) Range.
An exploration of the Turkish Army tank (with a 1952 American Oldsmobile engine still inside)
abandoned in the 1974 conflict
Exploring the derelict 14th-century Byzantine Church of Panayia Kriniotissa (Our Lady of the Spring)
The NECMC group spread out on the last few kilometres of the Blue Route descent
A sad end to the walk when approaching Baspinar - an abandoned church has been vandalised and
the graveyard of Greek Cypriot souls has been desecrated.