Deks Walks and Charmaine and Linda arrive

  I am really tired!  We’ve had three great days with our Canadian pals who arrived 1 am Wednesday morning.  I’m just about asleep but want to get this off or I’ll never catch up as every day is another adventure!

Ru

Deks Walks # 11 Stone Statutes Loop

Randal holding a Gladiolus Italicus or Common Corn Flag

Now normally we don’t pick the flowers but Randal needed this one for a prop in the crazy story he was concocting about the Stone Statues. So we’ll forgive him this one time.

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Randal telling the story of the stone statues..

Here we are at the statues listening to Randal tell his story of Larry (known in Turkey as Osman Melemendi.) It’s a long story, too long to tell now, but it involves a flower, a kiss, meeting back at the statues a year from the date of the walk and the awakening of the statues. I don’t remember the rest but it was quite entertaining to hear.

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A very skeptical audience Mary, Mehmet and Denise listen to the story of Larry’s lost love who became

the stone statue. Mehmet was quite a wild flower expert.

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The stone statue with the flower…that was a prop but now even Randal can’t remember why. And as far as I can tell this statue may actually be a male…so maybe Larry’s love was Osman Melemendi!

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Randal Denise and Mick walking back through the fields to Deks.

clip_image005 An olive tree with some asphodel and fields of Cyprus mustard plants.

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A donkey tethered in the field and white and green trail markers.

Sophie visits our boat.

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Dog-sitting.

Sharman had to be away from the marina during the day a few times last week so I “dog sat” for Sophie who was recovering from “female surgery.” I had to carry her over our passerelle and up the back steps and into the boat but she just let me without a struggle. Now she is back to her perky self so the Sharman walks will begin again.

Our Canadian friends are here!

Charmaine (left) and Linda (right) landed at the Ercan airport at 1 am Wednesday morning. But with Air Canada on strike and changes in their itinerary, it was good they got to Cyprus “on time” and with their luggage. And the drive back to the marina was easy as there’s traffic at that time in the morning!

We let them sleep in a few hours Wednesday morning and then the whirlwind tour of North Cyprus began. Charmaine and Linda met Randal when they all did the “Around the World Bike Trip” in 2000. While we were home last fall we visited them on their island home in Lake Charbot in Ontario.

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Charmaine and Linda on an introductory walk through Yenierenköy. Thursday they went on their first Deks Walk and our 12th.

Deks walk # 12 the Carob Warehouses and Bird Watching.

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Inside the old warehouse which is now being renovated into a “green restaurant.”

The renovation is just now starting so we probably won’t eat there this trip to Cyprus.

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Photo op.

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Sharman and Sophie

Sophie is back to her old self so Sharman joined us for the walk.

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Denise and Randal enjoying one of their “walk conversations.”

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Just lovely.

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Sophie and I are playing “crouch and run.”

After the walk we all returned to Deks and it was “bacon sandwiches” all around. Deks now offers a new sandwich called “The Randal Sandwich” which is bacon and scrambled eggs on grilled village bread. The best!

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Jay and Diane (in red) with their backs to us.

Jay and Diane, retired high school science teachers from England, were spending two weeks in Cyprus; the first in the north and the second with friends in the south. They had rented an apartment at the top of the hill where Rob and Julia live. It was great that they came on this walk when Charmaine and Linda

were here because all 4 are great bird watchers. They spotted lots of tiny birds I could hardly see and also a flock of resting crane. It was a great day for all 4 of them and they’ve planned to try to meet when all 4 of them will be in Australia later this year.

As we were about to leave Margaret, Donkey Dave’s wife asked if we’d left our sunglasses. We said no, but guessed they belonged to Jay so we offered to bring them to him. They weren’t Jay’s but we had a nice last visit with them.

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Jay, Linda, Charmaine, and Randal

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Looking for the “Cyprus grey striped something or other.”

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Diane and Jay

Randal taking a photo of Diane and Jay with their camera so they can prove they were at the same place at the same time. Usually only one of a couple is in any photo.

Then it was back to return the sunglasses to Deks where Denise would try to find who owned them.

That was Thursday. Friday we went to Iskele to the Friday Market, the Icon Museum and then up to Kantara Castle and then for a picnic. On the way home Charmaine, Linda and I got out of the car in Yenierenköy and walked back to the marina. They then went to the gym to do yoga and after that came back to the boat and cooked a super Mexican meal. Whew!