The Orchid Walk...

At our inaugural Droushia Ladies wot Lunch Club meeting Helen Smeaton from Wheelie Cyprus http://www.wheeliecyprus.com offered to take us on an 'off the beaten track' walk when the Cyprus orchids were flowering.  This has not been easy as the unseasonally cold weather means that things are taking their time to emerge but whether we saw any or not it was scheduled for today!

It was Jane and John's last day of their holiday and knowing that they were keen walkers I had asked them, and Janice, if they would prefer to rough it on our walk rather than do any other walk today and then join us for lunch afterwards.  Mum and Dad were joining us as Dad had decided not to do his usual Saturday walk.

John decided not to walk - three hours on a Saturday morning was a bit more than he fancied giving up so he dropped me off at Arodes where we assembled at 9.00am!

We were delighted that the day was bright if not a wee bit chilly but we are now so accustomed to dressing in layers that we don't think twice about it! Janice says she has worn more fleeces, scarves and gloves over here than she ever did in England!

It actually turned out to be more like three and a half hours walking through some stunning scenery with a backdrop of the Troodos and the sun shining on the snowy caps.  The temperature rose gradually which meant that our motley crew ended up in various stages of undress - not least because there was a fair section of steep uphill at the end when it was at its warmest.

This was a fairly disparate bunch of people but Friend Jane started talking to Craft Jane and found at the Craft Jane had worked in Exmouth with the daughter of Friend Jane's cousin and then Friend Jane's husband John realised he knew Marian's husband Chris from Clark's Shoes and they chatted like two old women most of the way round.  It is, as they say, a small world.

To begin with sightings of the elusive orchids were few and far between but as we got further into the walk they became easier to spot even though we had to go 'off piste' to see some of them - this proved a step too far for some who chose to take the shorter option route which was probably very wise.  I am not a great walker but I really enjoyed it even if I did struggle a bit on the last bit of uphill and I know I will suffer tomorrow as a result but it was really worthwhile to discover a truly unspoiled corner of Cyprus and some beautiful flowers to boot!

I shall now have to dig out my flora and fauna book and see if I can find out exactly what it was that we managed to see.  Some of these are really tiny and it would have been very easy to complete miss them, or worse trample on them if we hadn't had Helen to point them out and get us to train our eyes to what we were looking for.  We think that if anyone were to go back and do the walk again next week the orchids would be more plentiful and therefore much easier to spot.  

I shall have to try and remember the route and when Vix and Trev are next over do it even though there will be no orchids - it is still quite breathtaking.  

Apparently the big old orchid on the left is a common one and an early flowerer so is now well past its best - it looked OK to me!  The plant on the right is another spring flowering bulb (don't know its name) which is also very attractive and can be seen flowering all over the island at the moment - we even have one coming up in our garden.

We all agreed that we would be ready for our lunch by the time we got back to Droushia.  Mum and Dad had arrived already and were sitting out enjoying some sheltered sunshine in the front garden.  This is when the conservatory would have been a god-send had it been finished as although there was glorious sunshine all day today the wind had a real bite to it as it was coming from Turkey and the North.

We decided to eat indoors as it was easier and had sheftalia, lounza, halloumi, pittas, dips olives and salad followed by fresh strawberries and vanilla ice-cream and or banana yoghurt cake and or citrus curd!

Jane (whose face is unfortunately obscured by the brolly stand) is raising a glass to her cousin Brian who was up here with his wife a couple of weeks ago and who is currently undergoing some fairly major treatment - so we all wish you the very best Brian.  Jane and John are back in September so we will be seeing them again then and have invited them to stay.  They stayed up here once with Mum and Dad when it was still under a rental agreement  - let's hope they will think the facilities have improved!