News.

And sometimes it rains.

January is traditionally one of the wet months in Cyprus. This year looks likely to continue the trend. Whilst total volumes of rainfall are still quite low, Saturday night saw us experiencing serious volumes of water falling from the skies in one storm.

The coastal town of Latchi, one of our local haunts, with its little harbour and great seaside views was overwhelmed by a wave of mud. The mud was collected by a flash flood from the many small - normally - streams that come down from the hills and feed into the one outlet river going into the sea by the port. Several shops and restaurants were flooded and one food outlet, a caravan, right on the banks of the watercourse, was washed away.

More locally a track which Helen and I use for training rides and which passes alongside a - normally - tranquil winter stream was severely damaged by the flood.

In the picture you can see that the concrete ford crossing the stream was stripped away by the flood. The look on Helen's face tells you that she is not sure that we will be riding through this soon. Its about 2 feet deep in the middle there. Even Rocky the dog is curious.

Further down, part of the track has been partly washed away. All of the gravel road surface has been stripped away to the bedrock. Helen is elegantly trying to point out the remaining gravel on the edge of the track to show the depth that has been taken away, perhaps 15 centimetres. The stream normally runs to the right of the large bolder.

Despite the rain we will still get out and ride. If you plan to visit the island for some mountain biking, spring is a far better time to ride here. If you are here anyway then why not join us for a splash and a pedal, but not necessarily in that order.

Happy New Year.

Al Smeaton 09/01/2012