I look forward to the first rain of the year, but elsewhere in Cyprus people are less enthusiastic. Flooding in Limassol and Nicosia is far from rare – last year in November(ish) the motorway out of Nicosia was a river of ice-strewn water from torrential rain driving grapeshot hail headlong on the wind.
In Protaras we even had a four-wheel drive Shogun towing a guy on a wakeboard down the road past Sfinx and McDonalds. The guys in the kayaks that had got there first were far from happy.
Such meteorological excesses I can manage without. This year we have just seen some flooding in Nicosia and Limassol but the roads were still passable for ordinary traffic for those who kept their nerve and took things slow. Cool – enough.
In the past I have had to battle through fast-flowing water that leaves you guessing as to where the kerb is under the muddy torrent and whether or not your engine is going to die on you even if the idiot throwing up a bow-wave from the opposite direction doesn’t take you out first but as you may guess, I’m not a fan.
All I need is the scent of fresh, damp earth, the changes in the colours of the greenery and the smell of wet asphalt.
Noah and his four-wheel-drive ark need not apply.
