Randal and I did our first "Thursday Deks Walk" Thanksgiving morning and we can’t wait to go next Thursday.  We had a great time.

Ru

Deks Walk # 1

Deks Restaurant and Bar

The walks are advertised as starting at 9 am (as long as there is no rain;)  but  it being our first walk, Randal and I got there early. There was no one there but the front porch of the restaurant was open so we each chose a book from the racks and made ourselves comfortable. Everyone always meets at Deks, but not all walks start at Deks. Denise said Randal and I could drive with her and leave the motorbike at Deks. This morning’s walk actually did start just across the road from Deks.

Deks activities.

Shortly after 9 am Denise arrived. An xpat Brit married to a Turkish Cypriot, I believe she is part owner of the restaurant. She leads the walks and also teaches Turkish Tuesday mornings. I’m planning to go Tuesday morning, but there is “homework” so we’ll see. I’m going to get stuff together for the Christmas Bazaar they are having December 11th. We’d collected stuff to give away on our journey up the Red Sea, but as we shipped the boat instead, we still have those things. I’ll give the money to the charities Deks contributes to; the local clinic and a group of 5 donkeys that had been rescued and given shelter by some Americans? Brits? I can’t remember. But they can’t be let back into the wild because they are too old, too blind and one just born among other things.

Mick, Julia, Denise, Randal and me.

Mick and Julia left their spouses behind but each took the family dog. Both couples, one Scottish and one British, live in North Cyprus. This photo was actually taken on the way back but it shows the path we took most of the way up to the church and statues. We had been told the hike was up to see an old stone church but nothing much was said about the statues so I expected regular old church statues.

Trails are marked just as the dirt path we motorbiked back in August over the mountain roads.

The stone church.

This is the back of the church. Just through the arch a small bit of fresco is still visible.

You can just make out the shape of the people and the books they are holding.

The man on the left has a white beard and mustache and you can just make out some of his face.

The fresco was up too high to really see it well.

This recent icon had been hung on the wall.

The stone remains of something, perhaps a house is just near the church.

Denise explaining Cypriot history to Randal while Julia and Mick water their dogs that, once they’d been let off their leads, had been running like mad the entire way up.

We left the church and continued up into the hills to find the statues.

The statues!

I was not expecting these stone statues that looked Roman or Egyptian to me.

Denise said that no one has studied the statues so their origin and history is not known.

Denise is explaining which way is up because it takes a while to understand what you are seeing.

This statue is lying on her back; at least Denise thinks it’s a woman.

How not to take a photo and have shadows obscure the stone carving.

It looked to me like a soldier with a helmet and his right arm bent to hold a weapon.

Farming must have been difficult.

An old stone house off in the distance.

This land had been church land and now is owned by the Turkish government and leased out.

I think the land is beautiful with its openness and stone walls.

And the views overlooking the Mediterranean

This walk took us to the right: wonder what’s to the left?