Sunday January 13th

I am sitting in my jim-jams (courtesy of Primark) writing this, having had a lovely day courtesy of Keith Watkins who organised the beach clean and courtesy of Crafty Jane who drove her beautifully washed truck down some god awful tracks today and got it filthy but which was cleaned again courtesy of John.  We are about to eat a chicken casserole courtesy of Mum who provided the chicken and courtesy of neighbour Angela who provided the potato, onion and kohlrabi and I have a toasty warm head courtesy of Laura who sent me my knitted ear warmer for Christmas.  I wasn't sure when I would get to wear it but I wore it today and am now thinking that this is the sort of thing the crafting ladies at Neo Chorio might be wise to reproduce - I certainly wouldn't mind another in a different colour!

We were going on a beach clean today - weather permitting.  Last night after we returned from Nessa and Dave Coaches it began to blow a hooley and continued in that vein all night with some rain chucked in for good measure.  The forecast had been for a nice warm day!!!  When I got up at 8.00am it was windy and as black as your hat so I text Keith to make sure that the clean was still on.  He was confident that the weather was going to improve and so by the time we actually go up the sun was indeed shining but it was still chilly up here in Droushia so I adopted the layered look and put on my Christmas Ear Warmer - it does bugger all for your hair but it really does keep your head warm!!

We were being picked up by Jane in the truck because she was hopeful of finding some driftwood for their wood burner whilst beach cleaning.  She had to get petrol first from Polis and was reliably late!!!  We didn't want a repeat performance of the last time we went beach cleaning and took in most of the Akamas before getting there so Jane and John agreed the route and all bar one little unscheduled detour we made it down to the coast, following a man who was eating a big old torpedo roll resting his hands on the steering wheel so that he beeped every time he hit a bump which was a lot!  Being Sunday and shooting season we encountered lots of trucks packed with hunters.  We always wonder what they think they are going to hunt as there are no large native mammals save the Mouflon which are protected.  John is of the opinion that they still think Dodo's are alive and kicking in Cyprus and they are determined to find one.

The weather on the way down to the designated beach had been lovely but the minute we got out of the car it started to rain.  Not much but enough to get you a bit soggy and Jane had to cover herself up in one of John's voluminous showerproof jackets!!!  I am not sure how many people pitched up for this clean - we were in double figures and although there was quite a bit of general rubbish the worst thing was the tar that had been washed up.  There wasn't much by way of drift wood either and we felt a bit guilty as Jane's beautifully clean truck was covered in mud as we had passed through several areas where water was gushing across the dirt road.

We cleaned for a good two hours and by the time we were ready to move on we had (a) filled a couple of bags and (b) got stiff backs!!!  The area was looking much better and there was certainly little to no evidence of general waste lying around when you had a look.  There were plenty of green bags which had been filled though!  We felt slightly guilty leaving Keith hard at it but he was, as always, very grateful for the contribution we had made and came to thank Jane for coming along.  Who knows perhaps next time Trev and Vix will join us especially as two dogs came along to join in the fun.

We decided to move up the coast for three reasons - 1.  We wanted to eat our packed lunches, 2. We wanted to find a beach that might have some drift wood for Jane and 3. Jane was desperate to find an accommodating bush for a wee stop and there were just too many people around at the beach clean beach!  If you could turn a blind eye to all the crap that had been washed up then this was a lovely beach and the threatening skies made the sea dramatic and dark.

We had our lunch and Jane had her wee and we scoured the beach and found enough wood to fill the back of  the truck before making our way slowly back home.

We have been amazed to see so many rivers gushing on down to the sea - we didn't think we had had that much rain but obviously we have.  

We kept saying to one another today how lucky we were to be able to get out in the fresh air and even though we had had some rain it was really quite pleasant and we all had glowing cheeks!

Jane stopped for a cuppa, whilst John cleaned off the worst of the mud from the truck, before making her way back home and husband Budgie Smuggler Mark who is working flat out getting Trevor and Vicki's new home ship shape and Bristol Fashion.  This time next week they will be here on their new adventure.