Saturday March 30th...

NO DIY IN THE WISEMAN HOUSE TODAY!!!

We had decided that were having a day together today – in fact we had decided to go on a misery tour around the Akamas.   

We seem to manage to get lost every time we drive around that area (John and Running Susan can testify to that fact!)  We have no idea how or why exactly so we were doing a recce of the area in readiness for visitors who should be coming later in the summer.  John had even though to find a way of marking routes for the future so was armed with a toffee hammer and some coloured disks!

We got ourselves organised and packed up a picnic and after some discussion headed off for Fontana Amorosa at the very top of the island.  We dutifully followed the signs which took us through some beautiful countryside and passed no end of walkers that we could see had left their cars and were striding out with purpose – a long way downhill which meant that they would have a very long walk back uphill on what was a warm and humid day.

We are not sure exactly what happened because we never made it to Fontana Amorosa – we got to a road that looked like it might have taken us there but it was nigh on impassible and having knackered the fuel gauge last time he was off-roading we decided to park up – make the most of the scenery and eat our picnic – ham cheese and pickle butties!!!

We turned round and made our way back towards Droushia and encountered some goats that were having a bit of a barney – there were actually three of them but one managed to keep out of the way whilst the other two decided to sort out their differences on the road.  Eventually the brown and white one on the right pushed the bigger white one off of the road and down the hill!

We always laugh that out on the Akamas ALL signposts to Drouseia are marked at 13km no matter where they are – they must have had a job lot when they started marking up the roads!   

We passed this sign and then traveled quite a way before coming across the next one and yes we were still 13km from Drouseia or Droushia depending on which sign you were looking at!

Now there are 13kms and there are 13kms and when the 13kms takes you on a rough old road that was most definitely not built by the Romans that 13km can seem more like 100km!

We remember poor poor Hazel who endured the journey down to Lara last year clutching at the handle on the car door because she was afraid of heights and when we took an impromptu diversion through a goat farm I thought she was going to pass out!  We do at least now know which is the road that we call the 'concrete road' which is a reasonably comfortable ride and takes us into the back of Droushia or Inea.

Some of the scenery you pass is absolutely stunning and if it wasn’t for the colour of the sky and the colour of the sea even on an overcast day like today you could be forgiven for thinking that you were in Cornwall.  Maybe that is what drew Dad to Cyprus in the first place.  Vicki always says that she can’t believe that she can wake up every day and see the sea – I have to admit that we are very lucky to have it almost on our doorstep.

We eventually arrived home late afternoon and were going to take a trip down to Polis and the Oceana bar as there was some sort of reception being held for the ENAD football supporters.  We made our way down there but couldn’t really see that there was anything particularly special going on save for a smallish group of guys have a drink inside and a smallish group having a smoke outside so we decided not to bother and on driving back home through the village realised that the Droushia Heights Hotel had all the lights on and a whole load of cars outside so we decided to take a look inside for ourselves.   

We met what we assume might be the duty manager Irene who confirmed that they were open and had a group of journalists and photographers there for the weekend.  We said that we were interested in looking at the disabled facilities and she invited us to go back in the week to take a look around – she also directed us to the proper website for the hotel which took me ages to find as she called a hyphen an underscore!