Not any old Bee Orchid...

Our last full day in Cyprus found us heading up to Smygies picnic site, on the upper part of the Akamas Peninsula. This area is fascinating, and has several endemic plant species that grow nowhere else in the world, including the tiny yellow flowered Alyssum akamasicum, Centaurea akamantis and Thymus integer.

It also supports a very diverse assemblage of orchids, and by the end of the day we'd seen twenty-six different taxa. For me, the most exciting find was a couple of colonies of Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera var. chlorantha, which I've wanted to see for many years. It grows in the UK but is very rare.

We walked down from the Akamas to a taverna in Neo Chorio where we enjoyed a vegetarian mezze lunch with a whole range of delicious local dishes. Several travellers then took a taxi back to the hotel, but most of us walked down the hill back to the hotel, adding a few more interesting species on the way.

The week had flown by, with excellent company and an amazing range of wildlife. Hopefully, I'll be back again next March, leading the trip while Philip is away on the journey of a lifetime.