Easter weekend

The Easter weekend began on Friday with a parade of icons and a firework display at the village Church.

Saturday started with a walk from Pissouri to Kyrena beach, we returned home for a superb BBQ at Steve and Mary's house (Quality lamb steaks.)

We spent Easter Monday afternoon in Pissouri square, taking in the atmosphere and watching the traditional dancing.

Photos by Daintre and Tony Hart

Tina's birthday at The Hideaway

Friends of Tina and Paul gathered at The Hideaway restaurant in Pissouri to celebrate Tina's birthday. A traditional Cypriot Meze was served, followed by a nice bit of Cake ! Thanks to Paul for his hospitality.

Hiking the Archimandrita area

Another, day, another hike,driving North of Pissouri we decided to hike in the Archimandrita area. Our first stop was to check out the New wind turbine farm that is being built in the hills above Kouklia. The farm is due to site 41 turbines producing 82 MW of electricity.

We then moved onto  the Village of Pano Archimandrita and made our way down to "The Cave of The Fathers", it is said that this is a shrine to 318 Holy men that were killed in the area, the site still had relics and skulls from that time.

We then headed down into the Khapotami valley, weaving through the Olive tree groves until we came to the small river that flows through the valley and the site of an ancient arched bridge. We then trekked through some rough scrubland until we reached the abandoned village of Kato Archimandrita, before hiking back up the fire breaks to our starting point.

Easter break at The Capital Coast

As an early Easter break we decided to go to Paphos for a weekend. Mary and Steve tagged along and we were also joined by the Newly weds, Jan and Alun.

Our base was the Capital coast Hotel, we spent the afternoon using the the resorts spa, sauna and indoor pool before toasting the newly weds with a glass of Champagne.

In the evening we went down to the Mataxis restaurant for a  superb meal, it was then time to meet  up with our friends Hannah   (employee of the Year again !) and Jon for a few drinks and to catch up on their News/Goss.

On the Sunday we took a drive up to Coralla Bay, the temps in Cyprus are now upto 22 degrees but the water temp of the Mediterranean sea is only about 17 degrees. One brave member of our party went for a quick swim, the other got his ankles wet !    ...You know who you are PADI.

St. Patricks day

To celebrate St. Patricks day we went down to local pub to celebrate with the odd pint of Guinness and a flutter on the horses from the Cheltenham meeting.

Luckily we stabbed out a couple of winners and celebrated with a fish and chip supper.

Hiking the Avakas Gorge

 Taking advantage of a bright Spring morning we started off  St. Patrick's day with a  drive out to the Akamas region , we parked up and hiked to The Avakas Gorge.

The Gorge lies North of Paphos at the begining of the Akamas peninsula, there is a decent path down to the entrance of the Gorge but then the path runs out and you have to carefully pick a trail amongst the rocks that lie on the floor and cross the stream numerous times.

The views inside the Gorge are impressive with the cliff walls rising to 150m. As you progress along the gorge the going gets a bit tricky and you have to scramble over some of the lager boulders and climb over felled trees.

Hiking the Xeros River area

On a bright,  Spring morning, Steve and I made our way over to the Xeros valley (East of Paphos) for a hike along the Xeros River.

 Our Starting point was the village of Chorletria, which was substantially damaged in the 1953 earthquarke, the ruined buidings are still to be seen among the newly built villas.

The walk follows the crystal clear waters that stream down from the Troodos to the Asprokremnos reservoir. 

We then hiked East over the hills that climb to 500m before turning  South.  We came upon an Ostrich farm and noticed their large eggs on the ground.

We the came upon the ruined buildings of the old village including the village  church with its collapsed roof.

We then meandered down to the reservoir to cool off  and take a well deserved drink.

This week our little blog received  a visit from someone in Tonga, this took the total to 101 different countries that have visited this blog.

Over the last two days, this part of Cyprus has been under a cloud of dust/sand blown in from Africa by the Coptic winds. Then a second dust storm came in from Sina and Israel.

St Davids Day

Happy St Davids Day to all my Welsh Friends

 The Usual suspects turned up at the local pub for an afternoon of Sunday Football, some good natured banter between the fans of the various teams made for an amusing afternoon....Tip-Never go to the toilet in the middle of a game, the sods cheer for a false goal, they'll get you every time. 

Megan's Birthday and Jan and Alun's Wedding

Local Munchkin, Megan, celebrated her 5th birthday with a visit 

 from her two new village "Aunties", Amanda and Mary, she loved her pressies especially the Glitter pack, although Dad, Darren, was'ent too thrilled !

Congratulations to our friends, Jan and Alun, who were married in Las Vegas, All the best for a very Happy future.

The Happy couple flew to Barbados for their honeymoon.

  






The Ceremony is at This Link

Petrol Strike

Our phones were ringing Red hot last night as rumours of an Island wide petrol station strike spread like wildfire. We popped down to the local filling station to be met by lines of cars waiting to fill up. 

The reason the Petrol stations went on strike was in retaliation to a goverment order putting a cap on pump prices

A trip to North West Cyprus

Along with our friends, Steve and Mary, we took a weekend trip to the North West coast of the island. Our base was the village of Pomos, which has a picturesque fishing shelter next to a small beach.

We took a drive out to the local dam, this is such a peaceful area where the only sound was the gentle trickle of the overflow of water from the Dam.

 

From Pomos we drove on to small town of Kato Pyrgos, this is the start of a dramatic drive to Kampos. The winding road clings to the mountain and takes you through the Tylliria hinterland and follows the deep valley of the Pyrgos river.

The village of Kampos sits in a natural valley and has an Alpine feel to it,  most of the buildings having balconies and the older part of the village  has tiny houses  that huddle together in narrow streets.