Below the Radar - Cyprus Summer of '74

Chapter 23 : Barrack Room Blitz (The Harder They Come The Harder They Fall)

Horseshoe Hike Day 4: Wild Things & Gloves Off

Ten minutes later the five boys started the short stroll down from Mount Olympus towards Troodos village and on to the main RAF camp. They had been joined by another team from Limassol that had reached Mount Olympus five minutes after they had. They were all upbeat and the banter flowed as they enjoyed the first part of the hike that was downhill. Soon they spotted two more teams still on their way up to Olympus, having chosen the reliable road route most of the way.

For a moment Alex's heart raced as thought he saw Kate, but as they got closer realised it was the other girls' team from Akrotiri along with one of the Episkopi boys' teams. As the four teams crossed going in opposite directions the ribbing, good natured in the main, flew back and forth.

"Good idea to take to the road boys, the cross country route was tough, but even you can't get lost this way." Gareth one of the Limassol lads walking with the BG Team shouted out. At the mention of getting lost Alex and the other BG lads looked round at him in unison, before realising he was focused solely on the teams approaching, whereupon they all broke out laughing again.

Kenny jumped in, seeing a girl he knew well. "Hey Lisa, you girls had better hurry or there'll be no food left by the time you get to camp."

"Yeah, yeah, we know you lot will eat anything, even if it hasn't got your name or number on it! Don't you worry we'll get there, slow and steady is fine with us."

"Hey Nige, how's it going", Will called out, after spotting their erstwhile mate among the team from Epi.

"Yeah, good mate. We only took the road cos' well, our maps a bit dodgy and that, otherwise we'd have gone straight up the mountain."

"Yeah sure Nige, course you would", frowned Dan. He hadn't forgotten Nige had got him a good kicking outside Scotti's and decided on a quick follow up. "Just keep your eye open for cyclists, you know how they can creep up on you."

Nige looked hard at Dan, seemingly trying to form some clever come back. If that had been what he'd intended, he failed miserably, whatever his thoughts they never took verbal form.

The two groups passed and the girls' team kept moved steadily on up towards Olympus as G, eventually having thought of something witty to say turned to shout out loud towards them. "See you all later ladies and don't worry about the food, if there's nothing left you can share my sausage anytime", to be met by derisory groans from his mates and hand signals from several of the girls as they disappeared up the road.

They reached the camp in another fifteen minutes and completed the relatively muted checking in process, 'RAF Troodos' completing the full set of eleven stamps to be collected on the ascent stage of the hike.

The large barrack block they were directed towards was long, narrow and virtually empty. The room had windows along each side but was very basic, the concrete floor covered by a thin wooden layer with doors at both ends. Alex and the rest quickly claimed an area at one end for the BG teams and spread out sleeping bags and rucksacks. As expected there was a simple free bbq planned later, all hikers invited, down near the football pitch next to the cinema. Doubling as a working RAF base and also year round leave centre for forces personnel and their families, the relatively small base had excellent facilities. This included tennis courts, ski-ing equipment and restaurant; on top of the cinema, full sized football pitch and family sized cabins, which were also basic but comfortable.

* * *

By mid-afternoon all of the teams had checked in, though two had suffered further dropouts during the day. Two lads had pulled out due to injury, both from teams that had taken the direct route up the mountain. One lad from Limassol had pulled out at the Monastery checkpoint struggling with a badly turned ankle. The other from Akrotiri had suffered a gashed forehead and mild concussion when he slipped in the snow and fell head first onto a rocky outcrop. Fourth day, six hikers down.