Akamas road from Baths of Aphrodite to close

The road linking the Baths of Aphrodite and the Fontana Amorosa beach in the Akamas national park is to close for almost two weeks on Monday, the forestry department announced on Friday.

The road is set to be closed to the public between October 14 and October 25, with the forestry department saying they will be “carrying out road works to normalise and avoid dangerous points of the road surface”.

The forestry department said they “apologise for any convenience to the public”, but stressed that “the work has been deemed necessary due to the frequent accidents which occur on the road”.

A forestry department spokesman confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the works had nothing to do with the other, larger roadworks project in the Akamas region, but that this is a “separate project” aimed at making the road safer and more accessible.

Accidents on the road have typically involved quadbikes, with one ending up in the sea after plunging off a 90-metre cliff in August.

Paphos police’s assistant operations director Michalis Nikolaou explained at the time that the two on board the quadbike had avoided more serious injuries as they had managed to jump off the vehicle as it was beginning its rapid descent.

In 2021, a 59-year-old French national died after his quadbike fell 150 metres off the side of a cliff on the road.

With these and other accidents having occurred, the government commissioned a special ecological assessment of the road, which found that it had “access problems” and a number of accidents which had been caused by its surface being eroded by rainwater.

Specific conditions have been set to ensure the area’s natural beauty is not disturbed by the works, with it having been stipulated that the road cannot be widened, among other requirements.

However, some have come to the conclusion that the road should now no longer be open to public vehicles, especially quadbikes.

Non-governmental organisation Terra Cypria argued that quadbikes degrade the natural habitat in the area, disturb the local wildlife, and also are dangerous when used on roads such as the one linking the Baths of Aphrodite and the Fontana Amorosa beach.