A Fabulous New Walk

John and I decided we would get up early and go for a walk this morning.  I had plotted one up in the hills above Agia Marina which appeared to take in a reservoir and we thought that would be a nice shady place to try.  It is about a 20 minute drive from Droushia and it was a beautiful day to take in the coastline and surroundings.  

We found the starting point and a safe place to park the car and started with a steep ascent up the hill into the trees passing some pretty amazing homes being built on three consecutive plateaux with panoramic views across to Latchi.  Opposite were some strange wooden buildings which on closer inspection turned out to be for pigs but not the big black aggressive looking ones we are used to - these housed little fat pink and grey mummy pigs who were porked out on water melon and marrow by the looks of things.

We carried on walking uphill.  This is not an area we are familiar with so were quite surprised when we suddenly encountered a sweet little picnic area.  There appeared to be little birds skipping in and out of the water but on closer inspection it turned out to be frogs - hundreds of them!!!  At the top of the picnic area was a small shrine with running water.  This is the Agiasma of Agia Marina - Agiasma means a curative holy spring.  Marina the Monk or Saint Marinos was assigned female at birth but adopted the name Marinos and entered a monastery as a man in 5th Century Lebanon.  Marinos embraced his male identity for the rest of his life and his female anatomy not discovered until he died. 

The walk did indeed take us along the side of a beautiful reservoir and there were steps which allowed us to walk down onto the causeway and take in the view and take a photograph.  It was spectacular with the sun bouncing off of the water and it was so peaceful.  In fact for the whole duration of the walk we saw no cars nor any other human being save for when we returned to our car.

We followed the side of the reservoir for as far as it went and then we crossed left across the top of it and back round towards the coast.  We were at our highest point and the views were absolutely spectacular.  The camera just does not do it justice - we certainly had some WOW moments today and for me that makes it all worthwhile.

It was beginning to get quite warm at this point and as you can see there was very little shade so we needed to step it out and get back before we got too hot.  What we hadn't realised is that shortly after this stretch Kamoot wanted to take us down a fire-break which was exceptionally steep and loose under foot so we had to re-evaluate and find a different way down which we did but which took us slightly longer.

I am throwing this photograph in to give you some idea of the space and the colours and the beauty which is right on our doorstep and which, without lockdown and taking up walking, we might never have come to experience.  Ain't we lucky?  Yes we really really are.

Our alternative descent still had a pretty steep downhill stretch - John is stood here at the summit before we carefully side stepped our way down.  Fortunately once at the bottom we were able to work out roughly where the car might be parked and headed that way with reasonable paths underfoot.

This is towards the end of what had been an exceptional walk which we both really enjoyed.  We decided we had earned an ice-cream so on our way home having got our few bits of shopping at Paps we stopped at the ice-cream parlour in Prodromi and had ourselves a little treat!!

We didn't do much else for the remainder of the day save for some repairs to one of our garden brollies where the sun has wrecked the fabric and I made a quick trip around to see Ellen at 5b as she had wanted to show me all the work that she and Richard have done as she is now ready to move in there - she has been camping out at 5a with Richard until her kitchen was installed.  They have done fabulous work to those two properties and they are a great addition to the estate.  

I leave you with a bizarre photograph - Ellen and I were leaning over the wall of 5a to look at the derelict property next door with an overgrown garden and green swimming pool.  It looked for all the world like someone had drowned in there - it was actually the head off of a doll - or at least we think it was!!