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Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
 
An invitation had been issued to ex-pats and others to attend the Turkish Peace Forces in Cyprus exercise, which was held today up near the St Herlarion Castle. There were a few hundred ex-pats and many locals who came to watch Commando exercises against terrorists, which included the odd big bang, making many jump out of their skins. There were exercises using helicopter borne assault troops simulating the clearing of occupied buildings etc. and this was followed by a simulated hijack on one of CTAs old planes. Maybe we will see this one
on the Ercan/Stanstead route next week. The exercises were very entertaining and showed just how well trained these special forces really are. This was followed by a walk down a pathway specially prepared where we were shown how these troops can survive in remote areas, anyone for soup or I suppose anything else you want to cook up in your helmet. There were troops in makeshift sleeping places and even this one in a fox hole. He had apparently been there since quite early on in the day and it didn't look very comfortable, but he managed a smile for all. There were weapons to see and vehicles to inspect and we finally ended up in the lunch queue. There must have been 400 plus people there and they had been able to cook, chicken, rice and a sticky honey flavoured pud for us all, in a field kitchen. All in all a very enlightening and entertaining morning for us all.
The evening was spent again in LDs, with most of the regulars and also Anne and Jeff who have come back home from the UK. Jeff is looking good after the first two sessions of his chemo treatment, but he has put on quite a lot of weight. he is to go back again at the end of next week and then come back home for the Xmas period. We were also joined by Steini and Siga who will be heading back to Iceland at the weekend
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