Lysos Church

Another gloriously hot, sunny day packed with activity. In the early morning Pete and I went for a walk along Latchi beach. The harbour was full of expensive yachts, but beyond this was a strange mix of rusting boats, seaside bars and  luxury villas. As we headed towards Polis the beach habitat improved enormously, with lots of new wild flowers for me to puzzle over, as well as ocellated skinks, crested larks, several Northern wheatear and some Cretzschmar's buntings. 

By the time we returned to the villa it was about 24C, so we decided to head up into the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, where we thought it might be cooler. It wasn't! It was quite a long drive with some spectacular hair-pin bends and rockfalls to negotiate, but being early in the season we scarcely saw any other cars. We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and photographed the endemic Troodos orchid, and then headed on to Stavros tis Psokas, which is a forest station with a sanctuary for Cyprus mouflon, which are being re-introduced into Paphos Forest. 

We continued heading uphill for a few more kilometers,  and then went on a 2.5 km circular walk through the forest of Turkish pine, which has an understorey of endemic golden oak. In contrast with the pine forest of the Akamas, there were very few orchids, but we saw several tiny montane species, and Chris spotted a short-toed tree-creeper. The forest smelt just gorgeous in the hot sun. 

We had hoped to stop at the cafe in Stavros on the way down but it had just closed, so we pressed on to Lysos, where we found a shop that looked open. Chris went in to buy drinks, but the owner seemed very reluctant to serve him - perhaps too much effort in the late afternoon. As we wandered round the village, which had a beautiful church and square, we could hear a chorus of frogs in the valley. 

We strolled downhill to see if we could find the source, and were soon rewarded with a healthy population of Cyrpus marsh frogs in two small ponds. The noise was almost deafening! We then walked a little further along the road and found several tree-frogs in a water tank, which were equally loud. The final cherry on the cake was finding a very amenable green toad sitting on the side of the road which was quite happy to be photographed. The perfect end to a perfect day!