Friday 16 February 2018

Drouseians February Day Out Part 1


I am gutted, almost every day since we had to cancel our original trip to see the Flamingos two weeks ago we have had lovely weather, almost too lovely and then last night it rained and this morning it rained and we woke up to an indifferent start.  I checked the internet and it told me that Limassol would be fine and bright so we were good to go - it lied!!!


Our first stop was to take a look around Kolossi Castle.  I can't remember when we might have visited previously, if at all and Di and Rob hadn't been for ages so this was a good start on our Discover Day.  The Castle has been beautifully preserved with some lovely gardens which probably weren't looking at their best today but would look stunning in a few months' time.


So here we are the Drouseian Day Trippers and John with his newly replaced selfie stick!  It was rather overcast but dry and when we arrived there were about two other people there and then two bus loads of tourists arrived!!!  We had a good look around before setting off with my instructions from David Carbine as to how to find the Environmental Centre at Akrotiri.


Driving down to Akrotiri was a real trip down memory lane for John and I as we have, over the years, been lucky enough to get indulgence flights to and from Brize Norton/Akrotiri enabling us to visit Mum and Dad regularly and cheaply.  We found the environmental centre almost by accident just as it was about to rain.


The Environmental Centre is an interesting place and from the outside balcony you can use their telescopes to view the flamingos on the salt flats although they are quite a distance away and it was raining and the visibility was poor.  We arrived just as a party of people from the P3A in Paphos were there so we hung around so that we could monopolise the telescopes once they had gone.


So battling the rain and with my lens out to the max this was the best shot I got of the flamingos but at least you can see exactly what they are!!!  We stayed for a while hoping that the weather would improve, we had instructions as to how to skirt round the salt lake and in so doing hopefully get a better view of the birds before stopping at the Monastery of the Cats and then on to Limassol to meet up with ooh la la Louise for lunch at her establishment at the Old Metropole Hotel.


We went into the pub across the road from the Environmental Centre for a coffee.  It was the most British of establishments we have been in for a long while complete with the smell of overused chip fat!!  This was quite clearly a Squaddie haunt as we were so close to Akrotiri base.  The establishment might not have been up to much but the coffee was plentiful and good although we had to ignore the barman's rather off-putting builder's bum as he cleaned the woodburner behind Rob!

Part one of our day completed...

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