CYPRUS - Day 4 (the final day)🐐

This blog is brought to you by Barry…

It was another early start for me this morning as I tackled the mean streets of Paphos for a morning run. Thankfully the sun was a bit less oppressive this time around and I took a slightly different route running around the full length of the archaeological site and then back through the town. It was a hillier route but I felt far better for the lower temperatures and survived relatively intact.

With that foolishness out of the way I met Ellie back at the room who was already up and about getting ready for the day. After a quick turnaround we headed over to breakfast - with it being a few days of roughly the same choices we’ve got our selections down to a fine art, although the amazing pastry I had on our first day is yet to return. Only one morning of the trip left so keeping everything crossed for tomorrow!

After the exertions of the past couple of days our plan was for a relaxing trip to the beach. Our intended goal was to reach Lara Beach, a sheltered bay about 50 minutes to the north that was famous for regular visits from Sea Turtles. It sounded a perfect place to while away the day and we set off in good spirits - Captain Ellie was behind the wheel of the car and seemed much more confident handling the Kia’s frankly rubbish clutch.

Sadly our progress was halted shortly before we reached Lara Beach. We’d seen in our research that the beach was only accessible by one dirt road. Shortly after this we came across a large sign - it was all in Greek so we were none the wiser but I imagine it read ‘Lovely New Tarmac Road - Coming Soon!’ There was a very short section that had been paved but beyond that very heavy roadworks with diggers, lorries and workmen doing their thing and blocking our path. There were other cars around us stuck in a similar situation and everyone generally seemed a bit perplexed.

We decided to hop out of the car for a bit of a wander and to discuss what to do next. As we approached the nearby cliff edge we realised there was another beach below us, not the one we’d intended (so no sea turtles this time) but the water looked very blue and the sand almost unoccupied, so we decided to improvise and visit this beach instead.

We headed back inland to take the sweeping path down to the beach. The ground beneath us was quite rocky and uneven, and usually in a situation like this I’ll take the lead to pick out the safest possible route for Ellie to follow. On this occasion however she strode out ahead of me, no doubt spurred on by the prospect of a lovely sit down on the warm sands. Suddenly, she was a lot more horizontal than she’d been a moment before. Unfortunately she caught her foot on a rock and took quite the tumble just out of my reach. It was almost a two-stage fall as she initially looked like she’d managed to catch herself halfway on her knees, before dropping fully flat onto the ground. Thankfully the patch of earth she’d landed on was soft and there was no more damage done than a grazed knee. Still, poor Ellie.*

The rest of the walk was without further self-inflicted injury/attempts at slapstick comedy and we soon found a place to settle in the sun. The beach was a curved bay with a cliff face on one side and sharp volcanic rocks to the other. Most interestingly, it seemed to be a location where people practiced their best rock balancing skills as there was various large and seemingly precariously set towers of rocks in various configurations all across the sands.

It was a beautiful warm day and felt about as far from November in the UK as it possibly could do. To prove this we both had a swim in the sea which was a perfectly acceptable temperature and very calm indeed, aside from a few minor waves which occasionally came coupled with jumping fish. A day at the beach is usually a bit much for my restless brain as I tend to get a bit bored, but even I had to admit this was a pleasant way to spend the day.

The rest of the time at the beach was spent pretty uneventfully for the most part (if you discount the German couple flipping off the high rocks into the sea and unexpected nude man!) as we divided our time between reading and having another dip in the blue waters. As we prepared to pack up we thought we could hear a bell ringing in the distance, it wasn’t a church bell so we thought it could maybe signal the end of a shift for the roadworks crew. However, we were soon delightfully proved wrong when a whole herd of goats merrily appeared on the cliff side, bells around their necks clanking away. We’d seen numerous signs telling us to watch out for goats on the motorway yesterday and here they were at the beach! Their surefootedness on the steep slopes was impressive, it certainly put the balancing abilities of some of the humans below them to shame.

At about 15:30 we packed up and headed up the hill back to the car and drove back to the hotel for a bit of a rest from all the resting we’d done at the beach. As Ellie had done such an expert job with finding an excellent restaurant last night I left her in charge of selecting a destination for our final evening meal in Cyprus. Her choice was a traditional restaurant further in the town than we’d ventured previously. We decided to drive in and park up at the large car park we’d seen on foot near the Archaeological site. This proved easier said than done thanks to our old friend, unexpected roadworks. The road to the car park was now completely closed just shy of our destination and Google Maps was less than zero help so we had to improvise a route through the town in order to approach the car park from the other direction. I’m sure Paphos will look very nice when it’s done but at present it seems to be 60% roadworks and unfinished/abandoned construction projects.

After the troubled journey it was a great relief that Ellie had come up with gold once again with her restaurant selection. The Windmill specialised in Cypriot cuisine and with this being our last meal in the country we pushed the boat out and went with the full Meze mix for two. It was an absolutely delicious meal consisting of lots of tiny plates of food coming out a few at a time, everything from salad and bread, to courgettes and aubergines, and sausage, chicken and pork. It was getting to the stage where we were starting to dread rather than welcome the new plates as they arrived and we finished absolutely stuffed. Still, an amazing meal and one we ate in the company of some more local cats who took the time to regularly visit each table and ‘welcome’ each guest - in our newfound tradition these cats were given names by us, in this case they were Clive, Cynthia and Claudette.

And so ends another day, and indeed another trip. We both feel very lucky and grateful to have had so many adventures together this year, and already have more on the agenda for 2024 (if Iceland isn't reduced to a pile of steaming magma). Catch you later, Blogfans.

*If your name is Hannah and Ellie laughed at you when you fell over on a trip to Cyprus together in 2017 then you are exempt from this, as she admits it’s probably karma!