What a day!

Today was both brilliant and a bugger.  The buggeration was the fact that, at some point during the day I got bit on the back of my left knee by something horrid which caused a huge hard swelling which was both sore and itchy and made me feel quite rough.  This is in addition to the bloody big bite I had at the top of the same leg last week 😕😕😕.  If that were not enough I dropped my phone getting out of the car - I have done this a million times but today it bounced off the running board and in so doing caused cracking on the front screen which isn't too bad, a bit unsightly but doesn't stop the phone from functioning and I just thought to myself I would get it repaired but two quotes so far are the same at €110 Euros!!!!!  I am not sure the phone cost a lot more than that new last year when I went to the UK 😠😠😠.  Bugger, Bugger, Bugger!!!!

The morning had been brilliant though, tough but brilliant.  I had decided that when I was walking with Liselotte today we would follow some of the route I had been with Nicky on Tuesday and we were going to actually try and get through the tunnel in the cave to witness the waterfall from the other side.  Little did I know that Liselotte isn't keen on confined spaces - she kept that quiet until after the event!!

We assembled in Kritou Terra at the place where Nicky had fallen several weeks earlier - it is still really difficult to see what caused her to go down so badly.  

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From here we took some pretty little side streets through the village before leaving on some roads less traveled out into the countryside beyond.  Thankfully it was considerably cooler at 8.30 today and so it was really rather pleasant.  At least I knew that around here we would be able to find quite a bit of shade if needed.

It was a beautiful start to the walk, going downhill towards the waterfalls through lush countryside which could almost have passed for somewhere in the UK.

The man on the tractor passed us as we were setting out and asked if we were ok or if we were looking for something and we explained that we were just out walking - he looked at us as if we had sprung another head each - he obviously couldn't see the attraction of Shanks's Pony.  

He passed us again a couple of hours later when we were on our way back to the village - he almost shook his head in amazement that we were still waking and quite some way from where he had seen us previously.  He waved cheerily but clearly thought we were completely bonkers!!!  

We carried on making our way to the waterfalls and then embarked on the path down to the cave.  This was actually the worst part of the walk as the steps are quite difficult to negotiate particularly as they are uneven and the size and spacing varies.

We got to the cave and prepared ourselves for getting wet as we went under the shower of water coming into the cave and then crawled through the tunnel and emerged on the other side.  As you come through you have to negotiate a deluge of water coming off from further up and it is pretty cold!!!!  The tunnel is in the bottom of the photograph just right of centre and isn't very big - in fact just before you emerge there is a sharp stone which sticks out so you have to negotiate it sideways and breath in - the tunnel is low and narrow so I am not sure whether or not John would be able to get through - I hope he can as I know he is keen to try it.

There is nothing at the other side save for an absolutely spectacular view of the water rushing down providing a show of rainbows as the sun was filtering through.  

It was breathtaking - it reminded me of our holiday in Borneo as any minute you expected to witness monkeys swinging through the trees.  No monkeys but the unmistakable song of the bee eaters.

On our ascent Liselotte said that we could take a shortcut to cut out half of the steps - this was a great idea but almost vertical!!  I made it and was rather glad that I had just had a drenching as my wet clothes were keeping me cool.

We walked up to the highest point and then instead of turning right to go back into the village we turned left - Komoot had shown that there was a track which wound itself round and added an extra couple of kilometers to our walk.  There was indeed - part of which took us along the edge of a wheat field and then up some very minor lanes which I know Liselotte loves.

We had a small amount of roadwork to get us back to the village - Komoot gives a total distance for the walk and a total for the ascent - both of which are a bit on the pessimistic side but it is all I have to go on when I am planning.  It had said that the total ascent for this walk was 260m - I knew this would be less than what we actually did but upon completion Liselotte declared it was actually 365m - no wonder my legs ached afterwards.

I will leave you with the last picture I took before leaving Kritou Terra - we passed a house with beautiful climbing roses and a selection of succulents and cacti.  These caught our eye - not sure why!!!!

The afternoon was quiet - my leg started to throb so I was glad not to have anything much to do.  There is always something to do but nothing so desperate that it couldn't be left this afternoon except making a chili for our tea!!