This is the Grand Canyon of Cyprus. It’s called Avaca’s Gorge and it’s beautiful! We visited it last weekend. This was my third time there, but my first time during winter. I haven’t seen it before with so much water. The little paths on river stones were covered with water. The water was furious, in rush to deliver an important load to the sea. The water was brown, carrying with it nutritional soil to feed the sea life.

We entered in the gorge at our own risk, as we know that stones may fall from above or a flash flat can happen in minutes when heavy rain begins. We were very careful though, attentive to the weather and prepared to turn back and leave when the first drops begin (as we did).

At the beginning, we complicated our journey, using the already known path, jumping from one side of the river to the other over some slippery stones. Oh, but following the ordinary route was so difficult, full of fear of slipping from the wet stones, falling in the river, getting wet, destroying the shoes or hurting ourselves. Many times I delayed the journey, taking off my shoes, crossing the river barefoot, and putting them on again. But eventually we had to make a decision. There were no more stones available to step on if we wanted
to go forward. Going backwards would make us miss the wonder of the gorge in this season. Walking barefoot with a pair of heavy shoes on our hands would endanger our balance and keep our pace very slow (there are thousand stones if different sizes beneath the surface and you don’t know where your foot will
land). So, the only way was to move on wearing our shoes. And we did it.

Oh, it was such a majestic combination of feelings: awe, curiosity, interest, joy, enthusiasm, relief, gratitude, connection. What touched me the most was the feeling of liberation of walking in the river with the shoes on, forgetting about the fears, following our intuition, creating our own path. This is definitely an experience I will remember. Leaving the ordinary makes things extra-ordinary.

Eleni Michail