A Great Walk

I was nowhere near as achy as I had expected after our exertions yesterday BUT I was totally unprepared for the fact that John would decide to get up at around 5.30am!!!  To be fair we had gone to bed super early last night so had had more than the 7-9 hours recommended sleep.  I was quite glad to be up early and organised as I had arranged to go for a walk with Rachel and Nicky.  We are supporting Rachel in her drive to lose weight and get fit having been  that her sugar levels and cholesterol levels are both too high.  

I have realised that walking with a couple of other people is a great way of getting exercise and seeing parts of the island I would not normally get to see.  Belinda couldn't come today. She is covering an extra shift at the Gravity Road Diner because Sharon and Sean were involved in a car accident at the weekend.

Nicky drove to Rachel's and we walked from there up into the village and then turned off down a side road just before the house that Das and Belinda used to rent.  Kathikas is a very pretty village and there are some fabulous buildings - some of which, like the one in the photograph above, have been there for a very long time and are in need of some TLC, even so I just love the weathered wood of the shutters.

The road we followed was not one I had traveled before and even though we had only just started out we were glad that we had chosen to start walking at 8.30am because it was beginning to feel very hot already.  We walked out of the village heading towards the coast on the Paphos side.  The route was beautiful and we passed by some spectacular countryside.

There were quite a few hills but as we were chatting they didn't seem quite so daunting and the final leg was up the Akoursos Road and past the holiday villa that Kaye and her family rented the first time they stayed in Kathikas.  We had met just one car and one cement wagon (at the same point on the road unbelievably).

We walked back to Rachel and eagerly awaited to see exactly just how far we had traveled and we were delighted that it was just less than 7 kilometers.  Next week we are planning on a trip to walk in and around the waterfalls at Kritou Terra and Nicky and I are going to recce a walk out to Pittikopos and back for the following one.

On our return there was some excitement because there was a fire nearby - in fact it was across the road from the Gravity Road and took quite a while to get under control.

We had the water bearing helicopters going over the top of us along with the fire spotting planes.  Eventually though they must have sorted it and hopefully with limited damage to the flora and the fauna.

The remainder of the day was pretty quiet as we had asked Isabel to come up for a drink this evening as she now feels that she should be make more of an effort to face people.  We know that ideally she would be going back to Scotland for Christmas to be with her son and his partner and to start making arrangements about a permanent return but sadly Covid is putting paid to that at the moment.

We have told her that she is welcome to come and eat with us on Christmas Day rather than be on her own.  She has said she will consider it - obviously we cannot accommodate the dog but think she should have some company on that day.  Her wedding anniversary is fast approaching November 1st and she is uncertain as to how she is going to feel about that.