Saturday, March 29, 2014

Walking by the sea-front, for a change...

As I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, the Salt Lake trail was due to be sprayed against mosquitoes. I don't know if this happened on the rainy day when Sheila and I got drenched to the skin, but the notices stayed up, and the second spraying was due on Thursday and Friday.

I've been waking fairly early, assisted by Sophia, so I texted Sheila and set off to meet her. The sun was just poking through the clouds at about 6.20am as I crossed one of the local streets:


It wasn't as dark as it looks in the photo, but it's quite a dramatic effect. 

Since we couldn't walk along the trail, we walked through part of the park and then down to the sea-front. The sun was shining by the time we got there, and it was interesting to see some of the ongoing construction work, as the promenade is - slowly - upgraded. I had thought these concrete wavy things were going to give the edge of the beach an interesting shape:


But apparently they are just supports.

An interesting feature of the new pavement (sidewalk) that is being constructed is the set of grooves, clearly marked (yellow in the photo) and easy to feel with the feet - or, I imagine, a stick - when walking on them:


We've been told that these are to help blind people to keep on the path - and thought they were an excellent idea.

Except that in some places they come to an abrupt halt:


The notice in Greek says 'Entrance forbidden', which is clear to those with sight, but could be quite distressing to someone using the grooves to navigate along the path.

But at least there was some fencing there, albeit rather flimsy. 

More worrying was this:


It's not obvious from the photo, but the drop down to the sand must be almost a metre. And there's nothing to stop someone from walking right off it, and sustaining a nasty injury. 

But, as they say, 'This is Cyprus!' 

We kept walking, and probably managed about 10km in all. By the time we were back it was nearly 8.30am and the sun was already too hot for my tastes.

Thankfully the clocks go forward in Europe tonight; we lose an hour, but will then be able to enjoy lighter evenings - and cooler mornings. At least until Summer really sets in. 

1 comment:

Anvilcloud said...

It will likely be a fine walking path when completed.