Randal has been working days on end rewiring and moving wires in the saloon ceiling to make way for the stove pipe for our diesel heating stove. It isn’t a cooking stove; just one that can heat the boat more efficiently than the reverse AC heater which needs sea water for cooling and electricity for power. Since the electricity here can at times be iffy, it will be nice to have the diesel stove working. We can put a kettle on the top and always have hot water for tea! So yesterday, Thursday, I joined Sharman and her puppy Sophie for a lovely long hike. Here’s the story.
Our path…sort of along the green line from the Ay. Thyros Church back to the marina which is on the coast where the red loop starts near the S of Sipahi. There are really no good maps available so we use what we have and Sharman had a print-out from Google Earth. I know I couldn’t redo our walk as most dirt paths look the same to me until we got to a spot near the end where I’d spent an afternoon painting a bad picture. That I recognized. You can’t really get too lost as you can always aim for the coast which you can see from just about everywhere. And occasionally a car goes by on the hard packed dirt roads. Those are the roads that Randal and I motorbiked on back in August. We had a wonderful walk and never even needed to break into our snack packs. Lots of toast, cheese, and marmalade for breakfast can last quite a long walk!
Ru
I walk every day, but Sharman really walks every day. She leaves her boat at 8 am and returns about noon. Of course she does have great company…her rescued puppy Sophie.
Sophie with “Grandpa Lewis” who babysits when Sharman has to be away from the boat for the day. Actually several of the cruisers fight over babysitting duties.
When Sharman found Sophie she was abandoned and ill. Now Sharman is trying to find a home for Sophie because the cruising life doesn’t easily match with owning a dog. But until then there are lots of long walks with Sophie who loves exploring the hills along with Sharman. Sophie is really so sweet and well behaved.
Sharman and Sophie at the statues.
Modern relics
The remains of a sheep that hadn’t been dead for so very long as the bones aren’t bleached white and there is still a bit left to be picked from the carcass. Hopefully it died of old age. I think we spent as much time wondering about the sheep bones as about the statues.
Looking back from the top of one climb and we could see across to the village of Kaleburnu closer to the south coast of the Karpaz peninsula..
Wildflowers are blooming everywhere and all the fields are green.
The hillsides are still scrub. Sipahi is off somewhere to the left of the photo behind the hills.
We left the dirt road and made our own trail for a bit but then rejoined the dirt track once again.
A small herd of large, wild donkeys.
We saw these donkeys just as we were almost back at the marina. If you could see down the hill from where the donkeys are standing you would probably see the marina. I really couldn’t get close enough for a good shot and the zoom on my small camera is not good. I could kick myself for not getting a better camera last visit home. Next time for sure!!!
The walk took us from about 8:15 am until noon. Randal had kindly driven us the mile or so from the marina to the start of our walk. During our drive to the start, Sharman mentioned that it was a lovely way to be spending her birthday. Thursday mornings there is a radio net and Randal announced that it was Sharman’s birthday. So later that day everyone kept going up to Sharman wishing her happy birthday…a surprise as she had officially not told anyone!