A fabulous surprise right on our doorstep

The weather this morning was very strange, overcast and cool with thick grey clouds.  We had had lower temperatures last night and a rolling mist which indicated a change.  I thought we might get rain today and would not have been surprised if we had.  It was an ideal morning to go down to Polis and get our bit of shopping done without getting hot and sticky.

We did our shopping and had a light lunch and the weather had improved so John suddenly decided it would be ideal to go and check out the Nature Trail in Kathikas as Liselotte and I had noticed that the entrance to it had recently been cleared.  We parked up in the carpark in the village and walked down to the start.  It would be very easy to miss the entrance but if you know where it is and walk down the old stone 'steps' you are greeted by a magnificent view before the path turns sharp right.

The beginning of the walk is cool and shady taking you down tracks which have now all been cleared so it is easy to see where you are walking.  There are two tracks, one which goes up along to the Donkey Sanctuary which we would have had to walk there and back on the same track or if you take the left hand fork it can be a circular walk and this is the one which we chose.

The views are literally out of this world - such diverse landscape it is amazing.  Once you have negotiated all the downhill section you then have a lot of up on much looser paths but the way is still visible and providing you are sensible you are unlikely to slip - mind you if you did it would be a long way back up!!!

I am rarely in photographs I know, but John wanted to take one although I was not so keen as my hair looked a right old mess with my landfill scarf tied around it!!!

We are about half way up the ascent at this point.  It was getting quite warm but there were fluffy clouds to it was cooler than it might otherwise have been.  On this bit of uphill there is very little shade so if  you are going to tackle this walk you need to bare this in mind.

From here you could look across and see the donkey sanctuary - you could hear them as they seemed to be watching us and braying to one another "what nutters are doing that walk in the sun???"

I was very grateful that John had the rucksack and we had plenty of water and I didn't have to carry it because I find that two full bottles of water weight heavy on my shoulders.  I can begin to have some sort of sympathy with the forces guys when they have to go on a run with their Bergens (very large rucksack with 50 litre capacity) on their backs.  On the plus side walking in the sun has given me quite a tan, on the minus side it stops at my ankle socks so I have very white feet which looks ridiculous when I am wearing flipflops!!

We stopped at one of the viewing points to take a break, catch our breath and have a drink.  The second half of the ascent is considerably steeper than the first but there is more opportunity for a break and even some trees which afford a bit of shade.  From here we continued to the top.  At the top I realised that I had approached the entrance here from the other direction with Nicky and Rachel one day but it had been so overgrown we couldn't see where it went and ended up having to travers a vineyard to get back onto a track we did recognise - we had been so near yet so far.

We made it back to the car all hot and sweaty - not before I had taken John to see the Bus which has been turned into someone's holiday home.  We had put a change of shoes in the car and took our boots off and then rewarded ourselves with a drink at the Kathikas Gin Bar. 

I opted for the healthy option - a ginger and beetroot smoothie which was absolutely delicious and really hit the spot.

Although the walk had not been that far - about 5km with the extra loops - we had really enjoyed it as the trail was so beautiful.  As we said it isn't always about the distance or the difficulty it is about the area and the views and this one was spot on.

We were both pretty knackered on our return so decided on a nice quiet evening sat out in the garden enjoying the late afternoon sun before going in for some supper.  The weather had, by the afternoon, sorted itself out and was back to being hot and dry.

We watched another episode of Innocent before calling it a day.