Thursday 5 October 2017

Douseia Day Out - Part 1 - the Kritou Terra leg...

Once a month we set aside a day with Di and Rob which is deemed our Day Out - to discover or rediscover parts of the island.  We take it in turns to decide what to do.  It could be anything sightseeing, eating, whatever!


It was my day today, I had been and recce'd it when John shot back to the UK with his mum and I had tried to keep it relatively local so we started off right on our doorstep in Kritou Terra.  Our journey through the village didn't start well as in once place the road was blocked by lorries so we had a little detour which took Kenny down a very narrow street only to come face to face a little further on with the incredibly stooped man from Inea on his mobile rotovator at which point a little road-rage ensued, not between me (I was driving) and the stooped man but between me and my back seat driver John!

We settled our differences with John agreeing to try and keep quiet and made our way to the waterfalls - stopping at the top bit first where the water shoots out of the side of the cliff.  It was here that we first heard the unmistakable sound of a kitten crying.

We then drove down to the little picnic area and were greeted by the cat that had been making the noise.  Such a beautiful female kitten which transpired to be one of a pair.  Both of which were clean, and loving, totally cuddly but very thin - clearly dumped here which was criminal.  There was very little we could do as we had nothing we could have put them in and all the cat rescue places are currently full. 

We took the view that as there were two of them and they were surrounded by good clean water and they would be able to hunt to feed themselves we would leave them there but advertise the fact that they were lovely and in need of homes and then we would go and rescue them if anyone showed any interest - it is a long shot sadly and it left us with very heavy hearts.  Had we not already got four cats we would have certainly taken these two but we have to remember we cannot save them all no matter how much we would like to.  I just don't understand why people have to dump cats like that.

Before trekking down the side of the valley to show Rob and Di the cave we sat down at the picnic site to have our morning coffee accompanied by some rather nice muffins courtesy of Paps.

We were joined by the little kitten who got some heavily watered down milk for its trouble - we had nothing else we could give it and John and Rob were saddened by the speed at which this disappeared.  This cat looked well cared for so it had probably never had to fend for itself before.  Every now and then we thought it had run off - but then when we looked round it would be sat quietly by one or other of us.

We started our trek to the cave followed by the kitten who led us to its sister en route - then both of them followed us all the way to inside the cave where they enjoyed some fresh water.  The second kitten is a bit smaller - probably the runt of the litter but equally as affectionate and wanting some love - you could pick them up and cuddle them without any problem.  I checked with a friend to see if there was anywhere that might take them in but sadly not.  As we walked back to the picnic site more tourists were arriving to do the walk and the smaller of the kittens didn't come all the way back with us but the original one did.  I secretly hoped that it might work its magic on the newcomers - I certainly hope so because I felt so bad leaving them there.

With heavy hearts we made our way back up to the village to have a little look around, stopping at the place where the original village washing facilities were located and admiring the old buildings and the view across the valley.   We took the road to Polis via Chrysochou to be faced with a wall of smoke as the reed beds appeared to be on fire once again and then heard the unmistakable sound of the water carrying helicopters which had been called on to put it out.  This is about the third time in so many weeks a fire has broken out there.  These helicopters are no longer a novelty unfortunately.

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