The day after the BIG STORM...

We woke this morning to the remnants of the BIG STORM which swept across the Island yesterday afternoon and through the night.  We seem to have escaped relatively unscathed apart from outside furniture being flung around, things blown over and part of the cover of one of the gazebos now free to flap in the wind oh and the very expensive cover for John's outside BBQ now ripped to shreds.  All these things can be sorted but at least nothing structural thank goodness.  The cleaning up exercise can start when it is more settled.

We were off down to see Mum and Dad today and for John to play badminton and because we wanted to go and finally sort out the tiles for the swimming pool and pay a deposit we set off around lunchtime and when we got down to Paphos it was much brighter and warmer but the wind was still very strong.

Whilst John was away getting some exercise and a bit of him-time Mum and I decided to go down to the coast to see the sea - I love watching the waves crashing round when it is windy and although it was extremely windy it wasn't cold.  Our first stop was at Banana Bay near the SeaYou beach bar - this stretch of the coast is always quite rough with a strong undercurrent even in the Summer.  Today the waves were being whipped up and it was obviously a popular place for people to stop and take photographs of the conditions.  Sods law is that when you arrive you witness fantastic breakers and then you get the camera out and there is a bit of a lull and so the waves don't look anything like as impressive!!!

From there we moved on to Coralia beach which has changed beyond recognition from when we first used to come to Cyprus.  There used to be nothing there except a little taverna on the top which overlooked a small bit of beach now there are hotels or at least hotel apartments and it is all tarmac'd with a proper carpark and a small sort of harbour with breakwater.  It is still a really pretty piece of coastline.

The power of the sea is amazing and I could have stood and watched it for hours but we decided to move on and take a look down by Oniros beach bar where the second wreck is located.

Again this was a popular place for people to have come to capture the forces of nature, apparently my friend Marie Huntrods was there at the same time doing the same thing!!!  It was wild there but not cold but as the wind was so strong thought it best to confine Mum to the car otherwise I could see her being bowled over and swept out to sea!!!

Oniros is currently closed for the Winter but it looks like it has had a facelift as it is now painted in shades of seaside blue.  I don't remember it being this colour when we came last year but as it was ever-so busy maybe I just hadn't noticed the change.

Our reward for all that exercise was to stop off at the Blue Olive for a cuppa and a piece of Derrick's delicious date and ginger cake.  I know John and I were only here yesterday but I knew we could guarantee that it would be open.  It also gave me the opportunity to take a quick look at the Ascos Beach Hotel because we had heard that morning that John's cousin and her husband are coming over in August and will be staying there.  We were already familiar with it because Mark, Gemma and Archie had stayed there previously and we had come down and picked them up so they could spend the day with us.  John is excited about the opportunity to catch up with other family members as it will have been over 5 years since he saw them last.

Back home and it being a Friday we treated ourselves to a steak supper - good old Paps - the fillet steak never lets us down!