Sunday 8th March 2026

And so the last day of the tour.

We have seen something close to 30 species of orchid, plus birds, other plants, butterflies and other insects.

So, after a good night's sleep, and an early breakfast to beat the rush. We sat out on the terrace with our four assigned cats quite happy to take any leftovers we might pass their way.

I even remembered to take my bag of Yorkshire Tea bags to have a proper brew.

That drunk, we met at the bus just before nine for the short drive up the hill to the hiking area, where we had found the very rare orchid on Thursday.

It was a glorious morning, and we had three hours to wander off by ourselves to see what we could find.

Even with it being quite warm, I did fine, walking half a mile up the hill to see the rare orchid, and another that grew nearby. I walked with Richard and his daughter, we talked as we walked, as he wanted to see the spike I found two days previously

That found and snapped, we spit up and I wander up a hill to get views of the woods, and down to the coastline a couple of miles away. I saw a couple of Cyprus warblers, one in a bush just a few yards away. But would it come out after I had my camera raised? No, it would not.

Other than that it was a wander along new trails, trying to snap butterflies. And snap another Paphos blue.

After two and a half hours, I walked back to the bus for a drink, then wait for the others. At least it was shay in the picnic area, under the tall trees, with more birds calling from the branches high above.

By this time the rest of Cyprus had also woken up, and had come to the trailhead for a walk too. Crowds of fifty and sixty people, of all ages, walking and talking.

It went back to being quiet as they walked up the hill and out of sight, one teenager was complaining in both Greek and English about how unfair it was she couldn't lay in bed, or sit in the car with her phone at least. Teenagers of the world are, in the end, pretty similar.

At midday we had lunch at the picnic area, then drove to another semi-arid field site to look for more orchids and insects.

On the way we stopped at the donkey sanctuary, and fed the hungry beasts the bits of our lunch we hadn't eaten. They were happy as they ate, then began biting each other for the last morsels.

It was hot, but we found lots. And while I was looking at some ladybird larva, I saw a small bush move, so went to investigate, and found a large green preying mantis.

So I called the others, and over half an hour took turns in snapping it on a stick.

One last call near the hotel to look for more snakes, we drew a blank, then off to the ice cream parlour for one last sundae, which we ate while sitting on the beach.

It had begin to get cool, so we returned to the hotel one last time, and had a couple of hours before dinner in which to relax, and eat snacks.

And so, with heavy hearts we meet in the restaurant, eat well, drink red wine deeply, and talk about orchids and all the other things we had seen all week. Finally talk turned to football, as it always does.

But come half nine, we were all tired, so went to our rooms to pack and get ready for the morning.