Walking in memory of loved ones no longer with us...

On the hottest day of the year so far and far hotter than normal, I had a day of activities guaranteed to bring on a bit of a sweat.

Today was the April village clean which was attended by Klaus, Rob, Di, Lynda and Lynda's visitor Des who had come across from the other side of the island and got roped in.  We were followed all the way by the local dog Bella who chases cars and who was hit and had her leg broken but she soldiered on regardless.

We assembled outside Lynda's (so she had no excuse but to turn up irrespective of how many  G&T's she had consumed at Bambos the previous evening!!!) and we worked around the edge of the village passing by the bottom of our road and up past the cheese factory and then past the Mukhtar's going out towards the radio mast and then taking the shorter route which brings us out by Palates and then past the Church finishing at O Stathmos for a very welcome drink.

I have got to say that there was much less rubbish than when we tackled this route previously, in fact the village is pretty good even after the Easter celebrations which can result in more litter than normal.  It really is no hardship to go for a walk and take a bag with you - the countryside is looking absolutely stunning and we probably have the best views imaginable for litter-picking.
At O Stathmos we were really chuffed when the man John and I call Papou but whose name is also Bambos paid for our drinks - really kind of him and made the whole morning's exercise doubly worthwhile.

We normally encounter something a bit weird when cleaning - today Rob picked up an old cardboard box and disturbed a small snake - one of the venomous ones but he left it where it was as it wasn't doing us any harm.

Back home I had a shower and rest before Diana, Susan and I participated in a Twilight Walk in aid of St Michael's hospice and organised by the Aphrodite's Bra Chain which is hoping to regain the Guinness World Record for a continuous chain of bras for which they need over 200,000.

John Read very kindly took us down and we assembled at the Municipal Baths at Paphos Harbour complete with our decorated bras before we walked to the Atlantida Fish Restaurant at Geroskipou.  I bumped into Nicky and Mark there who were also walking.

It was the most fabulous for a walk and the coastline looked absolutely stunning.  It was an easy route, mainly footpath along the front of all those big hotels so you get to see places like the Alexander the Great from the coast - the gardens along there were so beautiful - it is clear to see how much warmer it is there than in Droushia because everything was so much more advanced.

John took himself off for a Chinese whilst we completed the task in hand and was already there and waiting for us when we got to the finish point.

It hadn't taken us anything like as long as we had thought it might which was good because it meant John and Susan could get back at a nice reasonable time and Diana and I could call into Fitos for something to eat.

To enter the walk it had cost us €5.00 each and we were provided with a bottle of water and a glow stick for our travels.  At the end we could purchase a heart for €1.00 and dedicated to a loved one - each of the hearts was then put into a three dimensional box frame which will be hung at the hospice.  I dedicated a heart to three special people, gone but never forgotten, Richard, Elena and Hadge.