We drove over to Kaledoni Falls, near to Platres in the Troodos Mountains. The journey took us over on the new EU funded piece of dual carriage way to the east then north along winding roads that had been partially converted into Tarmac. The only real rule on these roads seems to be, if you have a big car you get to stay on the road and force anything smaller off to the hard-core at the side. (I slept pretty much the entire way there. I woke briefly when we stopped at a dam, and also at a bluff that overlooked a lovely valley. I was too groggy to appreciate them really, but apparently, they were lovely. I have no idea why I fall asleep almost the instant that I get into a warm, moving vehicle.)
In spite of the local farmers trying to kill us we arrived in Platres.
Platres is I lovely little town in the middle of the mountains. It has beautiful views over the valley. They also have one of the smallest police stations I have ever seen. It looked about the size of a small village hall. Occasionally a local copper would come out the front of the nick and sit on a chair that he had situated by the door giving him a view over his domain.
I can imagine it being the most boring job in HISTORY. (Doing nothing all day, in beautiful surroundings, with seemingly friendly locals, and very occasional bursts of activity, probably involving a tourist who’s parked outside the lines? Sounds grand to me.)
At the foot of the ravine there was a small Trout Farm. This was really odd to see actually half way up a mountain. I suppose that it’s because there is an abundance of fresh spring water. In the pools the trout seemed to circle ominously. (Ominously if you’re in some way scared of fish. Or circles. Just circley to normal people. And let’s be honest, with the size of the pens, they
would have got really bored going backwards and forwards. I suppose it takes less effort just to go round and round rather than having to constantly do turns at either end.)I don’t know if this is because they thought that as a group they would be stronger and no one would fish them out or if it was some kind of fishy dance.We had lunch at the trout farm and surprisingly I had trout, it tasted NICE! It was simply grilled and came with boiled potatoes. (I also had trout. It tasted of trout, I guess, which is ok. It was a little more flavoursome than any trout I’ve had at home, although I don’t know whether this has to do with the freshness, or if it is a slightly different breed. Lunch at the farm was like being in a large, sun-filled school cafeteria, as the waitresses were, without fail, ‘older’ ladies wearing tabards (the one who served us was actually Northern of some description!). That was great. It also led to the second best ‘D’oh!’ comment of the holiday. Falling in neatly behind the Richard/Turkey debacle, comes Donna with, to the waitress on the trout farm, ‘Where are your trout from?’ Genius. Of a sort.) I did not have trout, I had chicken. There was loads of it and it was immensely yummy.
After lunch we decided to have a walk up to the falls. (Goldy headed back down to the car park to put more time on our car. Unfortunately for him, we didn’t want to wait, so he had to go off and play in an arcade while we climbed rocks and hills. He was, naturally, gutted.)
After the 1 km walk past loads of little pools, falls and clambering over rocks, we reached the main water fall. It was LOVELY, but very cold. The plunge pool was not very deep but nice enough to paddle in and was pretty cold. (The waterfall was pretty nice. We hadn’t been sure if all the little falls we’d seen were what were referred to, as it seemed like we had gone much further than 1km by the time we got there, but it was worth the walk. Anna and Laura seemed most excited by a mangy cat that was there. Laura was not happy at all with the nature ramble, and I think that, had she known exactly what it would have been like, she would probably have stayed with Goldy. She doesn’t really do nature. I think it might be difficult to convince her to go camping.)
I got us a bit lost on the way home as I wasn’t paying attention to the map when we left Platres. We were singing 99 green bottles and I got a bit carried away getting us down to about 65 on my own, but then when we got to a junction (around 45 bottles) I realised we were on the main road to Limassol with no way of getting back to the road we should have been on. This led to us taking about 40 minutes and 50km more to get home than we should have done.
I hate getting lost so I was quite upset, but no one else cared so I felt like an idiot as well.
Tonight, we take Donna to Stavros’s place for dinner. Going to be so ace. (It sounds like we’re popping round to one of the neighbours’ or something! (Technically he is kind of our neighbour – you can see his place from the villa))
Later on….. Dinner was once again a miracle given form. The food was excellent and a great time was had by all. We even had a visit from a small “Bork Bork” frog. He was about an inch long and bright green. (I didn’t think that the food was as good as the first time, unfortunately. There were some differences than last time, such as the fish being far bonier, and the steak having mustard on it, which might not sound like much, but prevented the overall experience being as good as it was the first time we went. Due to the fact that there were only customers in, rather than friends and family of the proprietor, the atmosphere was also not as good. Now, I’m not saying it wasn’t a good night, but it wasn’t quite the same as it was. And I suppose that’s why you should only visit places once. Oh, the frog was cool though.
When we got back, we sat and had a quiet drink (by which I mean, I had tea.) The frog must’ve followed us, as there was one on the back of Anna’s chair. It seemed quite happy to hop onto her arm while she threw it into the bushes. I think she probably killed it by doing so (I did not! He was fine!). We all went to bed soon after that, in preparation for an early start to Latchi.)
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