Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Cyprus, Part Five - Caledonia Falls

On our fourth day in Cyprus, we decided to head inland. This would end up being my absolute favorite day in Cyprus. I loved going to the beach. Mostly, because I loved watching the kids play in the sand and the surf; it was as though I could see the synapses connecting forming memories.

But for me, after a year in sparsely vegetated Jordan, I was missing trees, hills, and mountains. Though we didn't go super-often, I was missing the days we would drive out to Shenandoah for long hikes on the trail, the quiet, the clean air, the whisper of the wind in the trees or the babble of water in a brook. I hadn't experienced this in over a year, and the fact that we were able to go on a hike in Cyprus was an added, unexpected bonus.

We drove about an hour and a half inland toward Troodos and Mt. Olympus, the highest peak in Cyprus, where there is even snow and skiing in the winter (a fact I didn't know about Cyprus).

 

The plan was to do a short 1 km hike to Caledonia Falls, followed by lunch at a trout farm at the base of the trail. If I recall correctly, Peter was disgruntled upon our arrival because he was cold. (You can see him shivering in the photo below as we start the hike, then in the photo below that, he has on Elise's t-shirt for added warmth.) 







After not too long, we made it to the base of the falls. 




After reaching the falls, we decided to keep going to the top of the falls and beyond. 


Fortunately, we didn't have to take the escape route. Though Sam and I did journey down it a short ways, so he could take a poo in the woods. 

We hiked for about another hour or so. For some reason, Peter got it into his head the trail would take us out of the canyon. It seem to appear as though the canyon walls -- beyond the curtain of pine trees -- were getting lower, but we had no idea how much further we would have to go to reach the end of the trail or even if the trail had an end.

I could understand how his mind was working; many of the trails we hiked in Shenandoah reached a destination, a mountain peak, or as in the case of the hike to Caledonia Falls, a cascade. But when we decided to keep going past the destination, as we did that day, we opened a Pandora's box of possibilities in his mind, i.e. there must be another destination, or there must be some reasons beyond hiking for the sake of the hike, we must keep going. Or, again, at what point do you decide to turn around and go back? Don't you always wonder or want to know what's just around the next bend? If we only go a little bit further?

This is something I've dealt with on many occasions, often when I am running. When do you decide to turn around? Because you're, in essence, turning your back on possibilities. Wouldn't you always wonder what you missed. I think this is what was so hard for Peter to grasp. But we did have to turn around at some point. If we didn't turn around at all, we could've been hiking until nightfall. But it was past noon, and we were all starting to get hungry for lunch.

Peter was, needless to say, extremely disappointed, despite my calls for reason, and started crying. In the end, I think he was just as hungry as the rest of us, but his sense of adventure wouldn't let him admit it.

I was especially eager to make it back to the trailhead, because after our morning hike, we had a lunch of fresh grilled trout waiting for us!

I'm serious. You can't make up days like this! Maybe in heaven...






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