New Experiences

There was only one word to describe today - GLORIOUS - and I was pleased because I had planned a walk for Liselotte and me in and around Arodes which I reckoned she had probably done a million times before but as it happens I managed to find some bits which she had never tackled.

I got my permission to go exercise and then drove to Arodes as I had arranged to meet Liselotte there in the square and my Komoot Route showed us walking out of the village and down a valley and then up - it ended up being 12km with 385m ascent which for me is tough.

About 2 minutes out of the village of Arodes we were in beautiful countryside for as far as the eye could see and we had beautiful blue skies and as the walk progressed we had to shed layers one by one as we were getting warmer and warmer.

We walked where there were sheep grazing and where there was water running and found spots which would have been fabulous for picnics and after all the rain the surface we walked on was great save for two spots where there was standing water which we had to negotiate.

At one point we were passed by an old truck - like an old army surplus vehicle - Liselotte remarked that it looked like there should be two insurgents hanging off the back hanging on to their Kalishnikov rifles heading for the hills of Afghanistan!!!  We passed the same truck later at a goat farm in the middle of nowhere and the driver was unloading big bags of feed but we reckon it was probably stocks of semtex for the insurgents!  Shortly afterwards we passed some random man stopped in a car staring at what was going on at the goat farm - we reckon he was the interpreter or the shoe bomber!!

It was an absolutely stunning walk if not a bit testing for me and I was really pleased that Liselotte enjoyed it too.  Even the final part through the two Arodes villages (Kato and Pano) were interesting as we saw buildings we haven't seen before.

We made it back in time safe and sound and well within the three hours that we are allocated to completed our walk.  I am out again on Saturday if the weather is fine but this time with Rachel and she wants to walk extra because our walk was cut short last week because of the weather.

I was knackered when I got home and didn't intend to do anything else BUT I had a text to say I had a parcel which I had to collect from Parcel24 within 72 hours - first off I wasn't sure what it would be and second I had no idea what on earth or where on earth Parcel24 was.  So apparently this is a new collection service where you are text a pin number and then you go to the allotted Parcel24 bank of yellow lockers and press COLLECT on the screen, pump in your pin number and then stand back and wait for one of the doors to open - hopefully there wont be anyone standing at that door who pinches your goodies and absconds with them!!! or worse there irhymn  a time limit and by the time you have spotted the correct door it slams shut and you never get your goodies again.

So as there was quite a tight window of time available to collect this mystery parcel we shot off down to the Big Yellow Boxes which are outside the main Post Office in Paphos and tried out the system.

John dropped me outside the boxes and there was no-one around and by the time he had spun the cara round I had tapped in my pin, watched one of the doors open and collected the parcel inside.

Deep deep joy it was the bedding I had ordered way back at the end of November and which seems to have been halfway around the world before arriving here and even more joyfully I didn't incur any extra charges which, since Brexit, are being slapped on goods coming in without any sort of rhyme or reason. 

A good day all round - tomorrow we have earmarked for some DIY followed by a date night takeaway and I cannot wait!!