Below the Radar - Cyprus Summer of '74

Chapter 14: False Starts (The Morning After)

Scheduled to start shortly after sunrise on Monday morning, the Horseshoe Hike would finish late the following Sunday afternoon. With luck, determination, stamina and mental toughness, three quarters or more of the starters would last the seven gruelling days and complete the trek. But ..... until the twentieth and last stamp 'Final Control' was printed in each log book at Yermasoyia Dam the hike was not complete.

But a lot can happen in a week and the hike had not even started yet.

The 6am start along a rough trail behind St.Johns School in Episkopi created difficult preparation and travel arrangements, so teams from outside Episkopi had been given permission to camp at St.Johns School on the Sunday night. Some 20 boys took advantage and spent the evening, unsupervised, in the school grounds and the night on the floor of a duly assigned and empty St. Johns School classroom.

The absence of adult supervision resulted, unsurprisingly, in a boisterous evening as several teams gathered early and enjoyed a nights' freedom before the challenge of the hike began. Despite the boys' natural excitement and exuberance, they had somehow avoided crossing the line of unacceptable behaviour until the early hours. By which time many had climbed into sleeping bags to get much needed sleep, but half were still clowning around, amongst them Alex, Dan, G and Rick.

Sleep was delayed further or rudely interrupted when a fire extinguisher was accidentally set off. In the ensuing mayhem water was sprayed at high pressure around the darkened classroom, soaking everyone and everything. In the commotion a large window was smashed. The shattered glass and most of the excess water were eventually cleaned up, but the boys knew both the extinguisher and broken window would require explanation in the morning.

Team members from both BG teams had stayed at St. Johns that night, excluding Simon who decided the nights' freedom could be used to greater advantage. His girlfriend Diane had decided not to take part in the hike, spurning physical exertion of that nature. She was babysitting for a young army couple in Limassol and was staying the night in their flat. Too good an opportunity to let pass, Simon stayed most of the night in Limassol with Diane, hiding under Diane's bed when the couple returned home. In the early hours he had climbed out of the first-floor bedroom window, dropped to the floor and started the long walk to Episkopi, hoping to hitch a ride to somewhere close to St. Johns.

His plan for the latter half of the night did not go quite as intended. Simon was not overly worried, content the early part of the evening had made it more than worthwhile. In the end he had arrived at St. Johns School just before 3am, eventually getting a lift for the last five or six miles with a young squaddie from the resident Royal Anglian Regiment. By coincidence he was also returning from a late-night adventure, this time in the red-light district around Hero's Square in Limassol. The belated lift was welcome, but Simon had already walked a substantial chunk of the 16 miles from Limassol to Episkopi and was shattered.

Simon had found the designated classroom, by now full of boys slumbering in sleeping bags. Having no reason to be concerned about what may have happened during the evening and needing at least a few hours' sleep before the sun rose, he quickly found a sleeping bag and got his head down.

By 6am the full hike operations were gearing up for the off, but a growing delay had been caused by the inevitable and tiresome enquiry into what had happened at the school the previous night. The boys had owned up to the incident, hoping to get out ahead of the inevitable discovery of the broken window. Still, an investigation began, and discussion quickly became littered with dour phrases and warnings; lack of responsibility, betrayal of trust, serious consequences, blah, blah, blah....... Alex sighed as the mood deepened around them, potential disqualification from the hike being thrown in for good measure.