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 News Update TRNC (Turkish Republic Northern Cyprus)June’03 presented us with a golden opportunity to realise that our dreams could become a reality. This is when our research into TRNC stepped up a pace. January ’04 took us to the shores of N.Cyprus for 2 weeks and into two Estate agents. We eventually narrowed our search down to 3 properties at Lapta, Lara beach and Karakum all stunningly beautiful places. At the end of our second week we had made our decision, a 3 bedroom villa with swimming pool in Karakum the reason for this was simple. It chose us……and only a 20 minute walk into the harbour and town. Contracts signed with Mark Unwin from Unwin estates, the house, due for completion May ’05 that’s it, we’ve done it, now it was all systems go.Prior to our second visit in February, we received a phone call from a guy called Andre (later to be known as ‘onest Onge from Lewisham’) he found our number on a bulletin board regarding North Cyprus and called for a chat. Turned out he was visiting TRNC on the 19th with his wife and we were flying out 21st so we arranged to meet and discuss our views and experiences. What a great couple Andre and his lovely wife Dawn are, we all got on really well and they actually bought on the same site and would be our new neighbours, pity about his golf handicap though, never mind I will give him advice on how to better it when we play together.We stayed at the Manolya hotel in Lapta where we had previously stayed and have become good friends with the owner Mehmet (I’ll be giving him golf lessons too) and Ercument & Mustapha who both work there and have become our temporary Turkish teachers (serious lessons start later) There are several 4 and 5 star hotels on the island but the Manolya offers the very best in genuine Cypriot hospitality a pleasure to stay there. We spent most of our second visit building relationships within the local community, dining out with Andre and Dawn, visiting the builders to arrange ‘extra’s’ that we wanted for the house and a 2 day trip up to the Karpas region on the most northern part of the Island. We drove all over just getting to know the island and of course trying out the restaurants and local bars. Michele was in no hurry to buy kitchen equipment…..We returned home on March 6th and put our house on the market and set an entry date for June 16th, sold it the very next day. Next on the agenda was to find property for renting in TRNC as we were going to be homeless for 9 months. Another person I met on the bulletin board whilst doing research was Donald. Donald has a fully furnished penthouse in Kyrenia (Girne) and suggested that we rent from him. Turned out to be a fantastic deal, we had somewhere to stay at a reasonable rent; in return Donald had someone looking after his penthouse. As we had made the decision to drive over to Cyprus all we had to do now was put our house items into storage but first was the delirium of what goes what stays and what goes to charity? Surprisingly there were no arguments or tears.We felt a little sad on the Wednesday when we locked the door of our house for the last time; after all, we had been there for nearly 19 years. George and Irene our friends had kindly offered us a place to stay until I tidied up on the administration side, banks, solicitors etc. By the Friday all had been done, we left George’s house and travelled down to Dumfries to stay a while with my sister Dots and say goodbye to her family. On the Saturday we travelled back up the way we had came for about 18 miles to play in my last golf competition in the UK at Moffat, this is were my mate George originates from and it is a grand little course, however my golf wasn’t too grand but what a really good night with George and Irene who had come down plus a few of the golfers up from Dumfries. We stayed the night at Moffat and then back to my sisters in Dumfries on the Sunday.Monday consisted of a drive down to my brothers in Manchester, however with him being in Turkey it was a quick hello goodbye to Tom his son, a quick coffee then on to Shipley to stay at Michele’s sister Ann Marie. Michele’s mum Simonne had also arranged to stay there, as well as her other sister Jacquie and family who came up from London. We had a really good time there. Lots of great food and liquid refreshment to wash it down, however on the 25th it was time for us to depart, after tears and hugs we were on the road with the adrenalin starting to flow. The time had flown past since June ’03 when we first looked into the move and here we were on the road to Hull ferry port and the start of our adventures in North Cyprus.Welcome - Hosgeldiniz - Get to know the island It is the most easterly of the Mediterranean islands and the third largest in the area after Sicily and Sardinia. The geography of North Cyprus is characterized by a unique blend of mountains, plains, and beaches. The Kyrenia (Five Finger or Besparmak ) mountain range, with its magnificent jagged limestone peaks, the highest of which is Mount Içova at 3,357 ft. runs along most of the northern coastline to from a startling backdrop. To the east of the island the mountain range loses height as it extends along the narrow peninsula known as Karpas or more affectionately, `The Panhandle'. It is here that the best beaches of Cyprus can be found, long wide empty bays of the purest sand that stretch for miles. To the south of the Kyrenia range lies Nicosia (Lefkosa) the capital of North Cyprus, through which runs `The Green Line' separating the North from South Cyprus. The most inhabited places are the tourist resorts of Famagusta (Magusa) which is quite unique in, that, the south of the city is fenced off and not been lived in for about 30 years. quite eerie to look a, it also has a large port. Kyrenia (Girne) which just now is like a huge building site, most foreigners on the Island live in this area and Guzelyurt (Morphou) which is the citrus area of North Cyprus The journey begins! 
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