Wednesday 6th April 2022

Rhodes, Greece.

Day 5.

After a fine night's sleep, broken only by the local Scops Owl hooting and calling from outside my room, surprising how 9 hours sleep can improve things.

I did miss another Hoope on the wires at the back of the hotel this morning, but we did see one on the way out later.

HOOPOE!

I had the same breakfast: yogurt and hones, followe by pasties and coffee, so was ready for the day.

Plan was to drive to Windmill hill", a ridge on the island's highest mountain, so see yet more orchids.

It would be a 90 minute drive.

We loaded the vans and set off, 40 minutes along tarmac roads before turning off and up. The road continues up for tens of miles, gradually getting worse and worse, ending up as a gravel track hugging the side of the mountain, with falls of hundreds of feet on the other.

Jon drove well, with us arriving at the first site at half ten. Just half an hour here, we were told.

90 minutes later we made to leave.

Up on the mountain the wind blows all the time, which is why there are five wind turbings. And among the clups of vegetation, orchids thrive, including the wonderful Orchis provincialis, a creamy white spotted orchid. I snapped that good.

We moved on to the foot of the turbines, but it was pretty much more of the same, and after an hour we paused for lunch, before one last search with revealed yet another new species.

We headed back down the mountain.

Acting on a hunch we stopped at one spot beside another dirt track, where a handfu of spikes were seen, we wandered for half an hour before being called back to the vans, and then driving on.

On a more open site, we stopped again.

The main plant we have seen is called the chicken wire plant. It is a hardy bugger, all soines and attitude and it scratched and scrapes your legs as yu go past. It grows everywhere. And finally, I had had enough and went back to the van to wait.

Last call was a sall coast site, which is the only reiable site for Anacamptis sancta, but none was showing. However, a search revealled a single Pyramidal Orchid just coming into flower, and that was our 39th species.

We drive back to the hotel, getting back at five, and most of us then headed to the ice cream parlour for waffle cones and wonderful ice cream.

I did some shopping for stuff to take home, before walking back to the hotel.

I reviewed my shots, then went down for a beer before dinner, and a laugh about all things, as friends do.

Dinner was braised beef and fries, and very welcoming after the disappointment of the fish the previous evening.