Soaked!!!

 

There was some fairly wild weather overnight so I had arranged with Rachel that we would look to see how it was at 8.00am and make a decision.  John's fairly trusty weather app did not show rain until early afternoon and if that was the case Rachel and I would have been done and dusted by then anyway.  We had already agreed to stick to the roads rather than go where it might be very soggy underfoot and to take the route around Kathikas where Savvas could come and rescue us if needs be.  

It was pretty cloudy and grey overhead and wet underfoot but dry when we set off at 8.30am and as we walked down and out of Kathikas we could see sunshine down below us in Peyia - we had our fingers crossed that this weather was coming our way.  We both said it was good to be out and I knew that Rachel would have been going crazy cooped up over the last week what with homeschooling Athos and dealing with takeaway meals.

The glimmer of sunshine was shortlived as we stared to encounter rolling mists - it was cold and miserable but not raining so we continued, chatting as we went, catching up on the intervening week and not overly bothered by the conditions except that they worsened.

At their worst visibility was down to about a meter or so and just to give you some idea this photograph would normally show the coastline of Paphos in the distance!!!  Just before the house with the rope boundary we had to nip into the verge to avoid being taken out by a young lad who failed to see the need to have any lights on even though he could see bugger all.  We were just crossing over the road that goes down to Akoursos when, on looking left, we could see the shadowy figure of someone walking emerging out of the mists.  He greeted us cheerily saying that it was good to know that he wasn't the only nutter out walking on such a lovely day!!!

Shortly afterwards the mists cleared which was very welcome and we were about two thirds of the way round and talking about whether or not to include the Machu Pichu loop after Big Dog Hill which we thought was definitely doable weather permitting and would give us a total distance of more like 9km but sadly Rachel is to walking what the Albatross was to the Ancient Mariner because within a minute or two it started to drizzle.

Did I say drizzle?  Well it lashed down as we were walking down Big Dog Hill but from there it isn't too far back to the start so we thanked Andreas from Sterna Winery when he stopped to offer us a lift and we thanked Savvas's sister when she stopped to offer us a lift and carried on but it got worse and in the end we had to shelter at the Cemetery!!  We are still smiling though!

The remainder of the day was a write-off really as the weather deteriorated rapidly.  John was out shopping and I got a call from Les to tell us he was back in hospital having felt poorly in the morning he had called himself an ambulance and although he had taken John's advice and had a bag packed in case this happened he had forgotten his glasses so it took several hours to get his carer organised to pick up the glasses and the other things Les needed.

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse we realised that there was an issue with our internet and John wanted to watch Sheffield United play Man City.  He managed to get sorted on his I-pad and then the power went, it put in a brief appearance before going again - for about 18 hours!!!  The weather was so wild it was scary and although we were warm and cosy with the woodburner (which had been lit for most of the day) and our candles we threw in the towel when it was clear we weren't going to get any joy from the electric for some time.