An interesting Walk

I think we are in a heatwave - it certainly feels like it but I haven't seen anything official.  That being the case I needed to find a walk today that would be in the shade for Nicky and I and that is proving to be rather difficult.  Anyway I had plotted a walk around Tera using some roads we had walked on before and some we had not.

The recent hot weather means that the landscape is beginning to turn golden brown (texture like sun, lays me down, with my mind she runs la la la).  I think this is early - I am sure it is hotter earlier this year than in previous years.  Anyway we started out at Tera and our initial walk was mainly on road which Nicky feels safer with and the views were stunning.

It was all going well and we had managed to find a reasonable amount of shade.  We then took a lesser path which was going to form part of a long loop.  Halfway along we encountered some pretty mangy looking dogs that were attached to an old Goat farm - we had to walk past them and then found that our path appeared to peter out which meant we had to turn round and walk back past them again.  Poor things they looked in a pretty poor state but at least now with the new laws they are not chained up or confined to a small cage.

We had to negotiate a very long line of processionary caterpillars - initially I thought it was a bit of string.  Processionary caterpillars are a real danger here in Cyprus.  There are sharp, small hairs covering the caterpillar's entire body and they contain thaumetopoein which is a toxin that can potentially cause asthma attacks and vomiting as well as dizziness, fever and eye and throat irritations.  If ingested by cats or dogs they can prove fatal.

The next part of our walk was a stretch which John and I had walked relatively recently but we must have been the last ones because everything had grown up so high that the path was obliterated - good job I had Komoot otherwise we would have got well lost.  We ended up with boots and socks full of grass seeds - seeds which have to be pulled out in one direction because they are barbed so it takes forever!

The Vrisis area of Tera is beautiful.  We sat down by the arches and we said we could be in Italy - it was cool and we were on the last stretch and save for the mangy dogs everything had been perfect.  It wasn't the longest walk - it was about 6km and that was fine - we had been up and at it and would be home before some people are even thinking about getting up.

Shortly after I got home John returned from his walk with Liselotte which he said was hard but enjoyable.  We had nothing else planned for the day save to do some bits and pieces around the house and I went into the pool to cool off.  Whilst in there I noticed that we had a colourful visitor - a swallow-tail butterfly who had come to dine on the seeds of the poppies.  They are beautiful.