We Then
Continued Through White Barren Hills For Another Two Miles, And
Descended A Steep Hill, Halting For The Night Upon Hard Flat Gypsum Rock
Opposite A Village Named "Lauranchina," Above The Dry Bed Of A Torrent,
Twelve Miles From Larnaca.
On the following morning, after a slight shower, we started for Dali.
The narrow valleys were more or less
Cultivated with vines, and about
three miles from the halting-place we entered the fertile plain of Dali.
This is about six miles long, by one in width, highly cultivated, with
the river flowing through the midst. As far as we could see in a direct
line groves of olives, vineyards, and ploughed land, diversified by
villages, exhibited the power of water in converting sterility into
wealth.
I always make a rule that the halting-place shall be at a considerable
distance from a village or town for sanitary reasons, as the environs
are generally unclean. All travellers are well aware that their servants
and general entourage delight in towns or villages, as they discover
friends, or make acquaintances, and relieve the tedium of the journey;
therefore an antagonistic influence invariably exists upon the question
of a camping-ground. It is accordingly most difficult to believe the
statements of your interpreter: he may have old friends in a town to
which you believe him to be a stranger; he may have the remains of an
old love, and a wish to meet again; or he may have a still more powerful
attraction in the remembrance of an agreeable cafe where he can refresh
himself with liquor, revel in cigarettes, and play at dominoes. It is
therefore necessary to be upon your guard when approaching a town, which
should be looked upon as the enemy's camp.
My amiable bullock-driver, the big Georgi, had always assured me that
"game abounded in the immediate neighbourhood of Dali;" of course I knew
that the happy hunting-ground contained some special interest for
himself. Upon arrival on the outskirts I ordered the vans to pass on the
outside of the town, and I would seek a camping-place up-stream. Instead
of this I was assured that we should pass through the town, and find a
lovely grove of olive-trees by the river-side, the perfection of a
halting-place. For the first time I now discovered that Georgi's wife
and family lived in Dali, and that he was not such a fool as he looked.
In a few minutes we were descending a lane so narrow that the gipsy van
only cleared the walls of the houses on either side by three or four
inches. This lane had been paved centuries ago with stones of all sizes,
from a moderate grindstone to that of a football. When people had wished
to build a new house, they had taken up a few stones to make a
foundation; the street was a series of pitfalls filled with mud and
filth, including miniature ponds of manure-coloured water.
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