Melander meander

We went for a walk along Melander beach today.  Just a nice stroll along the beach – very pleasant.  It reminded us all of almost one year ago, when we had first arrived and we came to this beach and walked from the Kyrenia restaurant to the Melander and the latter was closed.  Today, it was very much open and we partook of a drink each and shared a few chips.  It’s still not over warm here, but slowly heating up.  Give it another few weeks!

Famagusta

It’s definitely NOT ‘grim’ up north!  A day trip to Famagusta included a quick stop in to see Stu and Caroline and their 6 month old baby boy ‘Finley’  What a happy soul he seemed to be.  After a cup of tea and some lovely cake in Florentine’s cake shop, we set of through the ‘Black Knight’ crossing into town.  A look around the beautiful old town with it’s Venetian walls and then down to Varosha in the ‘Forbidden Zone’.  Here we explored the lovely sandy beach area and played with starfish, crabs and all sorts.  Elena was very pleased with a particular shell and was set to take it home, until it’s inhabitant (a fairly large Hermit crab) had other ideas and started to ‘leg it back to the sea.We had a wonderful time and a nice meal at a little restaurant called Gingko in the main street near the cathedral.  All in all a lovely day and one which I am sure we will be repeating before too much longer!

Rain rain… go away?

We went for a walk today along the Kouris dam, almost exactly one year since we saw it for the first time.  Comparing the water levels then and now gives a pretty good indication of the amount of rainfall we’ve had this past couple of months, good thing it is too!

Taken 6 Apr 2008

Above are the pictures from a year ago, below are today’s…

Taken 8 Apr 2009

Kyle, Elena and I had a nice walk across the dam, looking at the water level and listening to our echoes as we crossed back.  Kyle loves this part of the walk.  In the picture above, is an old raft, resting at the point where it obviously came to rest at some point when the water level was remarkably higher than it is now. Forecast for the next week?  Still more rain.  Oh well, no more water worries this year I guess, or a lot or people will want to know the reason why!

Camping trip

Well, we decided to go on a little camping trip overnighter.  The original plan was to go to Akamas and camp wild there for the night, but to be honest, when we got there we discovered a whole lot of not very much. Sure it’s pretty, especially as there has been quite a lot of rain lately, but frankly there isn’t too much to entertain either adults or children, so  after a good look around the area we decided to press on over the top of the peninsular to Polis.  We found a decent little road going over the top via Ineia and down into the valley the other side.  It would have made for some great views, but for the low cloud, which absorbed the top of the hills completely.  Once into Polis, we decided to abandon the idea of wild camping altogether and instead, headed for the campsite in town.  At only €2.50 per person and €3.40 per tent, it turned out very reasonably indeed.  We set up the tent, had some food and then set off for a walk along the beach path to Latchi and back, before some games on the beach and hide and seek in the campsite.  We turned in very early, about 8pm, just as the light had gone. In the morning we had a look around Polis, which has a very picturesque town square and main street, then we headed off for home.  A pleasant little night out which we all enjoyed.