Day 4 - Alinca to Sidyma

We went to sleep at night to the dulcite tones of rodents gnawing their way into our shack. Away at 8:45am. A steep descent down a zig-zag path, then a sidle above cliffs. More spectacular views over the Med.





After three hours walking we need to find the junction where the track splits. One route continues along the coast, while the another heads inland. Everyone else that we had spoken to intended to take the coastal route, but we want to see the ruins of Sidyma on the inland route. It takes us an hour to find the poorly marked turn off to the inland route, then we lose another hour trying to follow the route across a farmer's fields. The route markers (where they can be found), guide book, and GPS enabled smart phone app, all disagree with each other. And it is a total waste of time as there is a road running parallel about 150m away.





Honey Salesman





Eventually the track becomes coherent again, but we have been walking for six hours, there is thunder and lightening about, and one member of the team has their first blister. Apparently it is not a good idea to put on socks that are still damp from washing the night before.

We find some ruins (they turned out to be a Roman watchtower), but the track has disappeared again and there are hints of rain about. We've been walking for seven hours, and are still well short of our destination for the day. There is a water spring emerging from the side of the hill, and a flat sheltered area beside it on which it would be easy to pitch a tent, so we set up camp high on the terraces amid the ruins.

The stove and gas cylinder don't want to talk to each other (our fault - we should have tested this before setting out), and the waterproof matches won't strike. Other than that it is pretty idyllic. I eventually manage to beat the errant kitchenware into submission. Two packets of soup each for dinner, after having biscuits for lunch. The diet of champions. No phone signal. Will have to send the blog tomorrow when we've departed the Roman era.



Camp Tragedy

Daily tortoise counts:
Day 1 : 5
Day 2 : 4
Day 3 : 8
Day 4 : 5 - including a capsized one. What did they do before they had people to come along and right them?