Droushia/Drouseia Dits: Walking the Witches Gorge with Rachel

Today, Saturday, could not have been any more different from last Saturday if it had tried. We had wall to wall glorious sunshine for our walk (Rachel and I) rather than getting soaked to the skin and pelted by hail which felt more like ball bearings.

Having cut our walk short last week Rachel asked if we could push ourselves a bit today - I think she will be regretting that decision as we did indeed push ourselves, covering 12Km and negotiating 370m ascent in the three hours they allow us to go out and exercise.

Knowing that we were on a tight schedule to complete our walk in time we met in Kathikas square at the carpark which was to be our start and finish point. We walked down through the village and crossed the main road and followed the road down past Vasilikon Winery. Rachel was excited because this walk was going to take us through the Witches Gorge which is something she had wanted to tackle. I have walked the Gorge before starting and finishing at Arodes so this was a slightly different route for me which was great.

The Witches Gorge has been so named because of the strangely shaped rock formation which looks like an old crone in profile. Clearly over time this is being weathered and altered and there will be a time in the future when this distinctive landmark is no longer recognisable. To the right of the chin we could see a huge birds nest complete with a very large bird sitting on top - it had to be large to be visible to the naked eye - sadly not enough zoom on my phone to be able to see any more detail to know what sort of bird of prey was watching over us.

It was a glorious walk - the weather was absolutely unbelievable and we saw some of the most fabulous views which are right on our doorstep. My little Kamoot app errs on the side of caution with distance and ascent so the walk was actually longer and steeper than we were anticipating but we supported one another on the difficult bits so that we made it.

Towards the end of the walk there is a long tough uphill which we have negotiated on about three different walks - it's a killer but it has been transformed into an avenue of wild flowers and today we were greeted by the cheery little heads of flowering anemone in all colours from white, through pink to purple. It made it a much more pleasant experience but we were still knackered at the end of it.

Towards the end of the walk we had a choice of routes home - we chose the shorter one as time was running out but in so doing had one last short sharp uphill which nearly broke us but once again I was inspired by Rachel telling herself "I can do this" and she could. We walk well together and I am pleased to be helping her (and me) on this journey to better fitness.