This island is so beautiful...

We are determined to make the most of these beautiful autumnal days as rain is forecast for most of the rest of next week.  We were walking today with Liselotte - so somewhat more hardcore than I am used to.  It was sold to me as a 10km with 330m elevation - it was the least far with the least elevation of the choices she had given us but I was still worried that I would be complete drag arse Charlie.

It was to be a circular route starting and finishing at the picnic site in Neo Chorio (Smygies) so we met in Latchi at La Plage carpark and left one car there before setting off up the hill.  

We parked under the canopy of a massive fir tree on the edge of the picnic area and followed where the Garmin took us - this meant quite a steep incline right at the start - talk about baptism of fire!!!  The pay off for all this was that the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

Depending on where we were there were times when we could see the coastline to the West of the island or the coastline to the North of the island and at times we could see the sea on both the left of us and the right!  We encountered one vehicle and two cyclists and realised that one of the cyclists was our friend Paul Dionysos from Inea!

There were all sorts of wild flowers poking their heads up to the sunshine, crocuses, miniature hyacinths and teeny tiny single white flowers which smell like jasmine.  Towards the end of our walk the Garmin decided to say "No!" and we went a little off piste but found our way back to the car - the route we did take was glorious if not a bit rough.

I really felt a sense of achievement when it was confirmed I had walked further and did more incline than we had thought originally but boy I was knackered for the rest of the day!!!

Super pleased to hear tonight that our Christmas present to Laura and Mark arrived safe and sound.  These are clearly not for Laura and Mark themselves - they are house-trained enough to eat from a plate with a knife and fork, these are for their dog Arnie and their cat Lady Hattie!!  Apparently they are a hit.