A Matter of Choice

Many years ago I saw some photos online of a small church built into the rock somewhere in Protaras, I'd often wondered exactly where it was and finding it has been on my 'to do' list for ages.  Walking has never really been our 'thing' especially with several years toddlers or pushchairs and the fact they don't mix well with exploring, but now the boys are bigger it's a lot easier to go 'adventuring'. After our successful geocaching day earlier this month, I decided to give it another go and started searching for our next geocache and was pleased to discover one very close to the church, making it very easy to find.  We ended up going with Sam and the kids, who knew where it was anyway and was surprised to find out we'd only been a very short distance from it when we went out last time! It's a fascinating little place and while it's only a few minutes drive from Protaras and Ayia Napa it feels like it is in the middl...

It's been a long time since we went geocaching, maybe even a whole year but on Tuesday 2nd Jan I suddenly decided to download the app again and planned to go out with the boys the following day. They were excited about the idea, especially after our recent 'adventuring' walk and even more so when it rained so much first thing in the morning ensuring there would be plenty of puddles to jump in! In an unexpected coincidence, it turns out that it was 2 years to the day since we had found our first geocache , so I jokingly announced it was 'Geocaching Day' which impressed the boys even more. There are many geocaches in the area we'd like to go and find but I thought we'd head to Protaras today, firstly because the boys enjoy the 'off road' ones more than the ones hidden in more busy areas as they get to run, play and explore, and on a day like today to jump in muddy puddles!  There are 8 geocaches in a reasonably small area in the hills of Protar...

Having been bitten by the geocaching bug we have been on several outings in the last month looking for them in the local area. The app that I use gives you a list of those local to you so it's an simple case of scrolling through until one takes your fancy. I had my eye on one located at the beach by the Crystal Springs hotel in Pernera and thought it would be an ideal time to go searching for it while the hotel was still closed.  As we got out of the car it started to rain slightly but I was on a mission so I decided we would carry on,  Louka was not impressed as instantly complained he was cold (despite the fact it wasn't). It didn't take long though to realised that my phone was playing up and I really had no idea where to start looking.  I was feeling a bit bad that we were out in the rain (with no waterproof clothes) so we jumped back in the car for a sandwich snack stop.  The rain suddenly stopped as we drove away so I decided to head to the nex...

Every year in the winter months the Salt Lakes in Larnaca are host to thousands of migrating flamingos, am impressive sight to see in all the many photos which pop up online every year but one I'd never seen for myself. So just before the boys went back to school I suggested we drive to Larnaca and have a look or ourselves.  After our recent geocaching adventure I thought I'd take a look at the app to see if there were any near our destination, and the boys were excited to see that there were several.  There was a geocache at the Kamares Aqueduct which caught my eye and we decided to head there first.  I'd seen photos of the aqueduct and always fancied going to have a look but always decided it was a bit pointless to drive there and then have the boys moan there was nothing to do, plus the fact I didn't know where it was! Of course, having set the GPS on my phone for the cache finding the aqueduct was not a problem. It was quite interesting driving round b...

As we approached the end of the holidays and after the excitement of Christmas and New Year, the boys were getting restless and I was running out of ideas to amuse them. The last few days were dragging as I was eager to get 'doing' and get on with the new year, I wanted to do something and to get them away from the tv and games consoles but with very little cash (and patience when it comes to arts, crafts or baking with kids) I was stumped. I turned to facebook, as you do for a moan inspiration and a friend of mine suggested geocaching. Initially I dismissed it, it sounded like hard work, and well, we'd have to leave the house! In case you are wondering, here's a quick explanation of geocaching... (taken from www.geocaching.com ) Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. At its simples...