Wednesday 24th. Very pleasant weather all day, who would have believed it was Christmas Eve?

Not so far to travel today. First we stopped in the local town, Polis (Polis Chrysochou to give it its full name), to admire a Very Old Oak. Touristically called locally the Magic Oak, it was a:

It was huge! Impossible to get it all in one view, unless one went a long way away, having crossed a very busy road, which we didn’t.

Leader Sarah showed us fallen acorns, to prove that, whatever its leaf shape, this tree was indeed an oak.

Best of all was just standing under it and looking up.

We moved on to Pegia Forest (about half way down and a little inland on the map). I had been regretting that on this lovely day we were to be spending time in a forest, but I had not envisaged this airy space.

We spent the morning being guided around this large area. The cognoscenti were well pleased, and I was well pleased to be with them. (By the way, the last post in this series will hopefully contain links to the formal trip report, including the names of all the species, animate and other, that we saw, and to an album of more than 250 amazing photos taken by joint leader Sarah.

All these – and much, much more of interest – were in one small area, near where driver Andreas had dropped us. We moved on to examine the edges of a rather sticky forest path, and in due course some rock pools.

I did not venture onto the rocks, fearing for both my balance and my ankles.

Phil, joint official leader, came back from his expedition to the other side of the rocks with this photo of a tarantula. There had been a whole colony of them. This variety was not dangerous, they said.

(I found it interesting how many of my companions used phones to take very close-up pictures of, particularly, plants, with no settings to be worried about, as far as I could see.)

We arrived at a picnic area, a little early for lunch, but sat and refreshed ourselves for a while – it was by now quite hot. Andreas later said that the following day, 25th December, it would be absolutely packed with locals.

We found this Troodos (‘Troh-ohdos’) lizard on the low perimeter wall. It posed beautifully for photos.

We followed another wide forest path for perhaps half a mile…

… to a viewpoint on a cliff edge.

Most ate their picnic lunches (provided by the hotel) here. I couldn’t find anywhere to sit comfortably, short of dangling my legs over the cliff edge which I didn’t fancy, so I made my way back to the picnic area, finding that fellow traveller Wendy had returned there some time earlier. We ate companiably, and I chatted with Andreas, who had by now brought the minibus here, for a short while. “What do you do all the time you’re hanging around for us, Andreas?” “TikTok – but there’s no internet here!”

In due course, Andreas drove us to the coast, to the small town of Agios Georgios – St George – where our next visit was meant to be to:

– but it was closed.

We were encouraged to visit the eponymous church, which I found much more beautiful on the outside than the inside.

With, now, time to spare, we took advantage of a café on the very sunny square, overlooking the small harbour. Ice-creams were the favourite refreshment.

In the very far distance was spotted a blue rock thrush. (I daren’t crop and enlarge this photo any more – it will become even fuzzier.)

Down at the harbour, we observed a Roman necropolis.

But the main purpose of our being there was to search for Aphrodite’s dandelion, with no certainty of finding it. We (they, to great excitement) did! Taraxacum aphrogenes, also known as the Pafos dandelion, is unique to Cyprus, and to the Pafos district.

Paul was turning stones again, and found a crab.

The sun was falling fast, as we went on to the beach, and looked back.

We came across a rather unattractive pool with artificially created banks (the camera has lightened the image) …

… but just to be perceived was a common sandpiper, who couldn’t care less about the aesthetics of its situation.

Time to go home. The sun has now set.