The yearly arrival in North Cyprus of the turtle population brings about hectic activity by marine groups, volunteers and the general public!  Beaches all over the island are cleared and made ready for female turtles which come to nest all across the shores of North Cyprus.

There are two types of turtles which come to nest in North Cyprus and these are the loggerhead (Caretta Caretta) and green sea (Chelonia Mydas) turtles; they make the yearly journey to nest and then return to the sea, leaving their eggs deep in the sand to hatch.  Environmental groups have been active since 1992 in helping to protect these precious and endangered creatures, monitoring the hatchlings to ensure that their survival is as guaranteed as much as possible.

Turtles nest on the same beaches every year, and they also like to nest on the same beaches you like to sunbathe on so please don’t dig your sandcastles too deep or bury the tip of your beach umbrella too far from the seashore as you might accidentally crush or unearth precious eggs!  Most nests on the beaches which are monitored now indicate nests with wire cages and coloured rocks though so you should have no worries!

Nesting and breeding takes place from late May right through to October, when the mature females, usually aged between 20 and 25 years old, will return to the exact beach of their own birth to lay their eggs.  They can lay up to an astonishing 100 eggs, but given that the survival rate of baby turtles once in the sea is probably pretty low its not surprising that they lay so many!  Once the female has laid her eggs they will then take around 2 months to hatch.  Tiny delicate baby turtles have to hatch themselves, struggle to reach the surface through sand and then reach the sea, so you can imagine how much energy they have to use to achieve their goal!

This is where the hands and help of groups and volunteers come in handy, with nests being monitored and beaches being cleaned from any debris that could obstruct the babies’ progress.  Hatchings are given a helping hand too, with volunteers helping to excavate the nest, taking statistics of each hatchling and then helping them down to the seashore.  This then gives the survival rate an extra boost, which is badly needed, but one which will hopefully prolong the life of the species for years to come.

The main groups involved are the Marine Turtle Research Group and SPOT
(Society for the Protection of Turtles), and also the local Department of Environment.  The research group actively recruit yearly volunteers to help with the nesting season – if you would like to know more about them please visit www.seaturtle.org/mtrg/projects/cyprus or click on the link for SPOT.

If you would like to attend one of the nesting evenings where you can wait to see a female come to lay her eggs on Alagadi Beach during the nesting season, or to experience the sight of an excavation of baby turtles, then you can either contact the Society for the Protection of Turtles on +90 (0)533 846 9563 or you may come across them in the old harbour in Kyrenia and you can book yourself on their list.  It’s an experience not to be missed, and one we at Essential Cyprus thoroughly recommend, although patience is required as you might wait a long time for a female to come ashore!

Alternatively you can visit The Hut on Alagadi Beach where volunteers will be happy to help.  You can also read a diary which is usually written by one of the volunteers and which appears in the Cyprus Today newspaper, published every Saturday.

One last comment and that is please take note of the following during the nesting season:

• Do NOT go to the beach area between 8pm and 8am during breeding season.
• Do NOT use ANY boat or jet-ski in the 2 mile radius of the protected beach area.
• Do NOT throw plastic bags or bottles and any litter or any food on the beach or in the sea.
• Do NOT dig or use beach umbrellas or sun beds near turtle nests.
• Do NOT bring dogs or any animals onto the beach.
• Do NOT light fires on the beach.
• Do NOT touch baby turtles for your own safety as they may carry salmonella.

East

Heading out east from Kyrenia along the coast road (obviously!) you’ll come firstly to Diana Beach, (near to the Coca Cola plant), which has a small sandy beach and a café.  Not much further along is the local belediye plaj called Çatalköy Beach or Korfez Beach which has a café and water sports facilities, and is a very popular weekend family destination. Both have good stretches of nice sandy beach.

Via the same turnoff for Korfez you can also now reach the beach allocated to the Malpas Hotel, which is called the Conaro Beach Club & Restaurant, offering guests a rather swanky venue with a sandy stretch of beach, decked jetty and sunbathing areas with restaurant and bar facilities.  Offering a variety of water sports during the day, at night-time it becomes a popular club venue transforming itself into Club Mansion.

A bit further along the coast, just after you have turned off on to the Esentepe road, you’ll come to the Acapulco which is a large holiday resort complete with water slide park and very accessible family beach.  It has become an incredibly popular choice for families with children…the children can play all day while the parents can enjoy the bars and restaurants and child friendly atmosphere.

After Club Acapulco comes Lara Beach which is seemingly signposted down into the power plant!  Trust the sign and you’ll actually drive past the power plant and round to a pretty little beach which is very popular with expats.  The beach has a small cafe and very basic facilities, but it’s friendly and sheltered and a great place for swimming.

Another excellent beach location is Alagadi or Turtle Beach.  This is the next one along the eastern coast road and is actually two bays separated by a big sand dune.  The bays are home to nesting turtles and as a result they are protected, and you must be very careful to not leave rubbish on the beaches or stay later than 8pm after which time the turtles come to lay their nests during May to October.  You can always join a group to watch this spectacle via the Marine Conversation team, so please see our related article for more information.

Travelling further along the coastline where the road runs very close to the sea, you will see the various beaches heading out towards the Karpaz Peninsula, such as the areas at Kaplıca which have various facilities and in Yeni Erenköy there is a lovely little public beach.  You will also find that the small pensions and various little hotels located on the coast have their own areas of sandy beach for guest use such as the one at Balcı Plaza for example.

Coming back down to the south side of the Karpaz Peninsula on the way to Boğaz and Famagusta, you will find some of the most stunning beaches in North Cyprus.  Golden Sands is the most well known but still relatively quiet beach, seemingly going on for miles it is very popular with the more budget minded as it has accommodation right on the beach in the form of basic beach huts which are really cheap.

Continuing south you will find various other beaches popular as turtle nesting areas, with one aptly named Turtle Beach!  You will then come to the area of Bafra, the newly appointed touristic area for North Cyprus, where you will find the 5 star hotel Kaya Artemis, with others set to join it in the years to come.  They have their own beach area here, and guests can enjoy the hotel’s facilities for a fee.

Further south you will hit Boğaz, a quaint old fishing village, now a popular coastal area which has a variety of sandy beaches to enjoy via the hotels on the road through to Famagusta, such as the Boğaz Hotel, Merit Cyprus Gardens Hotel, the Paradise Resort, the huge 5 star Salamis Bay Conti, the bungalow complex of Kocareis and the smaller Mimoza Hotel.

Even further on down and into Famagusta and the area of Salamis you will come to the Park Hotel, it has a restaurant overlooking the beach, then onto the relatively new Venus Beach Residence which has very modern facilities. There is also the very popular Glapsides Public Beach area, which is extremely popular with locals and visitors alike, where you can relax with facilities such as bars and restaurants or partake of a few water sports.

The last beach, and maybe the most interesting, is the sandy strip located within the 5 Star Bilfer Palm Beach Hotel complex.  It is a perfect place to while away the day with some stunning shoreline, and is often not too busy.  The interesting aspect to this beach is that it continues into the area of Varosha or Marash, now closed and forming part of the buffer zone with the south.  This area, now home to crumbling and decaying hotels, was once the most popular area of Cyprus for holidaymakers.

Please note: you will usually have to pay for access to beaches which have hotel, beach club and public facilities on them, and these days the cost differs between beaches, but you should expect to pay around 10-15ytl for the day.  However, it is also worth saying that no hotels or beach clubs are allowed to charge if you just want to have a swim and a sit on the sand as the beaches do not belong to them officially – just don’t sit on their sun loungers!

Also, there are no lifeguards or life rafts or sea patrols in North Cyprus, so be sensible about how far you swim out to sea.  With regard to nude sunbathing then we have to say that it’s not really the done thing in North Cyprus! Topless sunbathing is passable, but only in certain locations; however please remember that although North Cyprus is a secular country there are many that do practise the Muslim faith, therefore it is wise to be mindful of this and know that if you flaunt your body you could cause deep and serious offence!

If you would like to find out more about beaches on the west coast of North Cyprus, please follow the link provided.  You can also find out more about the various beach clubs and water sports available at some of these beaches in other related articles.

SPOT, or the Society for the Protection of Turtles, is an organisation that has been involved in sea turtle monitoring and protection in North Cyprus since the late 1980s.

Many people will be familiar with the marine conversation efforts each year, with volunteer students from the UK arriving en masse to Alagadi Beach to help with the conservation all over North Cyprus.  They study and give the practical help needed to enable these wonderful sea creatures to emerge unscathed from their nests, and to reach the shoreline safely upon hatching so that they can hopefully live for many years, returning to North Cyprus to give birth to their own young in the future.  You can find out more about SPOT and their turtle watching scheme in our related article.

A local couple called Tricia and Peter Dann, who had a home near to the ‘Goatshed’ which houses the volunteer students and project facilities at Alagadi, decided to do something themselves to help raise much needed funds after having spoken to the various members and students who partake in the project, and the ‘Friends of SPOT’ was formed in 2005 after a successful ‘Turtle Awareness Fund Day’ at the local Octopus Water Park.

Friends of SPOT are now regular fund raisers and have other volunteer members to help organise their activities such as carol singing, turtle racing (plastic ones!), kids activities and music entertainment evenings amongst others.  They have also been involved in education seminars and presentations at hotels to boost interest in the conservation project.

In recent years they have also been allowed to man an information desk in the old Kyrenia Harbour area over the summer months when hatching occurs, keeping people informed and giving them the opportunity to watch a nest excavation.  This is a very popular activity with many people who sit on beaches well into the early hours in anticipation of seeing baby turtles emerging from their nests.

Friends of SPOT can be contacted via the ever enthusiastic Tricia Dann on +90 (0)533 846 9563 and you can find out more about them as well as the Marine Turtle Research Group, its research and volunteer programme at Marine Turtle Research Group.

If you’re looking to leave the hustle and bustle of Kyrenia behind and you want to venture out further into the ‘real North Cyprus,’ then head east along the coastal road and you’ll come to pretty Esentepe – your gateway to the Karpas region, the coast and the foothills of the Kyrenia range.  At its centre is a charming old village, which is so laid back it makes you want to sit down and while away the day over a coffee or perhaps a glass of local wine! The central village population is mainly made up of mainland Turkish people from the Black Sea region, who moved to North Cyprus post 1974.

Esentepe has grown over the past few years to become a village of some note because many visitors to the area have fallen in love with the area and sought to establish their own homes in and around the village.  Most of the new developments close to the village have taken root along the coast road.  Rest assured, none of this detracts from the idyllic coastal retreat of Esentepe village that nestles at the foot of the Kyrenia mountain range; rather the new development that has come to Esentepe has raised its profile and desirability instead of taking away its rural charm.

Esentepe and the beauty of the surrounding areas of Alagadi, Karaağac and Alevkaya make this area a must see, particularly due to the turtle nesting sites on the fantastic beaches of the area, the forest walks, picnic sites and the Herbarium featuring samples and illustrations of native botanical species.  It’s also an area historically rich with ruins of various monasteries, as well as the domed church of Antiphonitis which contains one of the last examples of 12^th and 15^th century frescoes in North Cyprus.

For further information on Esentepe, the surrounding areas, things to do and see and places to stay, please refer to our related articles.

There are an abundance of butterflies and also mammal, reptile and sea species, and you can find examples of wildlife anywhere in the mountains and along the unpopulated coastal areas.  North Cyprus is also famous for its wild flowers, especially the rare orchids that attract travellers from all over the world.

Cyprus is well known for its now rather depleted Moufflon population too.  This wonderful animal, which resembles a cross between a deer and a sheep, was hunted severely in the past and there ’s now just about 200 breeding pairs left, meaning the Moufflon is in danger of extinction.  You may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one or two towards Lefke on the western side of North Cyprus, or if you’re visiting the south of the island you may spot them around Paphos.

Obviously we must mention the Karpaz donkeys when talking about wildlife, because they are one of North Cyprus’s tourism treasures!  Many write that they are wild, but they have actually become undomesticated in recent years.  Many were originally domestically kept animals, but then abandoned during the conflict of the 1970’s and left to fend for themselves.  You will find them in the Karpaz region of the island, grazing in fields by the roadside.

It would also be remiss not to mention the mating season of both the loggerhead (Caretta Caretta) and green sea (Chelonia Mydas) turtles, which lay their eggs on the various sandy stretches of beach all along the North Cyprus coastline.  In other articles you will find information on how you can get involved with the organisations working to protect these species, and how to watch egg laying as it happens.

North Cyprus also has various species of snakes too!  Their numbers seem to be on the rise again after having been depleted after the fire of 1995.  You may frequently see them whilst walking in mountainous areas, but they can also be found in lowland areas too.  As with all snakes, they will generally not disturb you unless you disturb them!  If you are visiting North Cyprus and are bitten by a snake, you must seek emergency treatment immediately. Doctors will need to determine the correct antidote for the venom, so you should try to determine the pattern of the snake where possible. and

Small groups of monk seals and dolphins can also be seen of the coast near to the Karpaz Peninsula, and you may come across flocks of goats along the coastline too, some of which may be wild, but more than likely these days they will be domesticated and belong to a local farmer.

Other wildlife of note includes the various lizards that you will see scuttling around making lots of noise, as well as the yearly ‘screaming’ of cicadas, which can leave you quite deaf during daylight hours!  These insects have such a short life span, but the whole process of being born and maturing and then mating and starting the whole lifecycle again is fascinating!  The wonderful chameleon can also be seen slowly meandering along paths and in gardens, changing its colour as it goes.

The Karpaz National Park has been recently designated as a Special Protected Area in line with EU regulations.  Ecologically the area is home to more than 100 rare species of flora, and its beaches are also important nesting sites for the Loggerhead (Caretta Caretta) and Green Sea (Chelonia Mydas) turtles.  Historically within the national park area remains of the Kastros, the first human settlement on the island of Cyprus, have been found too.  So you can clearly see just how significant and important a region of Cyprus the National park truly is.

However, hunting has also been allowed in this area, thus allowing the possibility of already endangered animals to become dangerously close to extinction in North Cyprus.  In the recent past there have also been instances of the Karpaz donkeys being shot for encroaching onto private farming land, they have been blamed for destroying crops and damaging property.  Up until a few years ago the donkeys were housed within an enclosed area in the park, with rangers being employed to ensure that they were fed and watered.  All this was funded by the EU but the initiative seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Unfortunately there are now the beginnings of some rather haphazard development encroaching into this area too, with property developments beginning to creep further and further towards this protected land.  There has been much discontent over recent electrical power line installations as well, these were approved by local authorities to enable distantly located residents to have the benefits of electricity, but the installations have resulted in ugly electrical poles scouring the countryside.

Much is made of this area of Cyprus and its valuable ecological existence, and the issues associated with keeping it preserved.  The EU’s valuable involvement and various other studies which have taken place, along with the constant monitoring of turtle breeding and the activities of environmentally conscious groups may play a part in saving this national treasure in the years to come.

Please also see our other related articles about this area, as well as about other groups and organisations which are concerned with the environment.