Description

The Discovery natural trail is located nearly 4 km outside Pedoula towards Kykkos Monastery. The region belongs to Nicosia district but the trail resides in Paphos forest. The trail is unique of its kind since it has lots of different beautiful landscapes which alternate continuously. The impressive and scenic views like walking by the river Platy under the pine trees, hiking into the rich vegetation and dense Paphos forest with a gorge shaping to your left side or going up from mountain peak to mountain peak with insane panoramic view, for sure will amaze you and of course leave you speechless.

The trail is very demanding and strenuous since it has continuous downhills and uphills, so obviously it is a difficult one. The trail is circular with 12.6 km long. According to the signs the duration of the trail can take up to 6 hours but this of course depends on your speed. Personally it took me 4 hours to finish, with enough time taking photos. The maximum altitude of the trail is 1139 meters.

Viewpoints

The Discovery natural trail has lots of viewpoints where each time you can enjoy a different landscape. It begins with a downhill and the deeper you go down the more beautiful it gets. The trail can be “split” into two legs.

The first leg is from Xylogefyro to Xystarouda, where the first beautiful view you will see is the dense forest with the tall pine trees. Then you will be crossing the Platy stream plenty of times and after that you will be walking along the river with certain areas having rich vegetation with algae in the rocks and trees making the view really nice and enjoyable. In this leg, in some parts of the route you will be covered by the trees and in some others you will get to enjoy the forest on the mountains next to the trail.

The second leg is from Xystarouda back to Xylogefyro following a part of the Xystarouda natural trail. The landscape here is getting better and better. Rich vegetation, lots of green, dense forest and a gorge lying to your left side with beautiful panoramic views will leave you satisfied. But that’s not the end. The rest of the trail is an uphill to the point you will be walking from mountain peak to mountain peak offering incredible views of the forest.

Starting points

The trail has several entry points since it crosses the road a couple of times. However I will provide two possible starting points with their GPS coordinates listed in the table Natural trail information:

• Xylogefyro starting point (600 meters before Xylogefyro bridge – main starting point)
• Xystarouda picnic area

Personal comments

First of all, I believe this trail is not recommended for beginners. Regardless of its beauty, it is very demanding and strenuous and for sure it will test your stamina and endurance. It begins with a downhill of nearly 2 km. The first ~ 1.3km is a narrow path covered by trees. Then the path widens like a country road but with the difference that is deeply in the heart of the forest. The widened trail goes up to the 4.4 km (counting from the beginning) and during these 40 minutes the terrain will be relatively flat.

The easy terrain should not bring you any comfort. The Platy stream crosses the trail many times. I stopped counting after the 5th stream crossing. I hiked it in March with a season that didn’t have any heavy rainfalls so I could cross the stream easily. However, have that in mind, in case of heavy rainfall it may be difficult to cross the stream. It is worth noting that at this point there is no signal coverage.

After 4.4 km the uphill begins towards Xystarouda picnic area for nearly 1.6km. I totally recommend taking a  break at the Xystarouda picnic area. Take a breath and enjoy the area for a little bit because it is going to get tougher. The trail continues with a steep downhill for 1km and then the great uphill begins for about 4km. The last 1.6km do not have any significant difficulty.

This is truly a trail of discovery and adventure and I totally recommend it. The various scenic landscapes across the route will amaze even the most demanding hiker. And if you are lucky enough you may get to see the Cypriot Mouflons.

Natural trail information

GPS map

Gallery

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