Pissouri, Cyprus - "Walk among the giants"

Some of the walking groups have been cancelled due to the ban on social gatherings. A small group of the Wednesday walkers decided to still walk. As one member put it "I was bought up that walking in the outdoors kept you healthy". Jimmy and Kay are "socially distancing/isolating" so I drove up to the starting point, above Kouklia. 5 cars, 6 people, no more car pooling. We were conscious of the world and our interaction, now being different. There were no hugs of greeting. When we gathered to discuss the walk we were further apart from each other than we would have been last week. We joked about it being windy, "blow that virus away". But we missed the others and conversation did not flow as freely or as "carefree".

"The giants" we were walking among were the wind turbines above Kouklia.

It was a circular walk among the 41 Vesta wind turbines.

Sporadic agriculture, here young carob trees have been planted,

but mostly dirt tracks and scrub undergrowth.

We were treated to a variety of Orchids. This is a Bee Orchid as it resembles and therefore attracts bees.

There's last weeks discovery; Naked Man Orchid

A little "finger nail" of a moon.

The wind farm was started in 2009 and Linda, who lead the group remembers

walking up here when it was being constructed, and being amazed by the size of each element.

From the EAC website I learned that Cyprus plans to have 6.8% of its energy from wind power and 7% of its energy from solar power by 2020. The rest is provided by 3 oil burning stations, for which they import oil.

Orchid, no idea what kind.

And another. Carol (the other one) wished she had bought her Orchid identifying book with her.

Another Bee Orchid.

Looking down towards Kouklia and the Sea.

At about the half way point we took a water and "sweets" break.

A little further along, one solitary Strawberry Tree.

A very common shrub of the forests of Cyprus. Also called Koumaria. English-speaking people call it the Greek Strawberry Tree, because its fruit look like small strawberries. These red fruits are an attractive food for birds living in the forest.
It’s fruit is edible and in Greece, it is used for the production of tsipouro or liqueurs. Since antiquity it is also known as a medicinal plant. Hippocrates used it against thrombosis, which is still used today. It is also considered antiseptic and diuretic.
The Greek strawberry tree is a very beautiful shrub that reaches 3-4 meters. It grows at an altitude of 600-1500 meters and is very common in the mountains of Troodos. It is evergreen with a red hard trunk and leaves (3-4 cm wide and 5-7 cm long), deep green and slightly fleshy, making it great food for goats and rabbits. from visitsolea.com

A surprisingly red trunk and white blossoms.

Getting back to the cars we had walked about 9 km in 2 3/4 hours. Four of them were taking a picnic down to Mandria but I hadn't bought anything to eat with me and headed home. On the way I stopped at some ruins that had a fence around that I had first seen with Nicola and David.

I drove up to the gate and a farmer, in his truck, pulled up behind me. I said that I just wanted to look at the ruins and he told me to go ahead, the gate isn't locked, and drove on.

No one there, no signage, just excavated ruins. I took it to be a fortification of some kind as there looked like thick barrier walls.

But no, it was a sugar factory.

The internet search was a little more intensive than my usual info from wiki. I found it was a sugar factory from a blog post of a geocacher who included a link to an academic paper on ancient sugar making that listed and described the excavated site.

"Built toward the end of the 13th century, this facility was likely owned by the royal house of the Franc Lusignan dynasty, which ruled Cyprus from 1191 – 1489. The milling and refining facility continued to be used through the Venetian period, around 1571, although the complex was remodeled and reconstructed several times throughout its use during this time."

 From - From Cane To Kitchen. An Investigation into Medieval Processed Sugar. By Gavan McBane

 

I had left it with my travel agent that we would reconnect this week to see if there was any improvement in my options to get home earlier than planned. She contacted me today with the following:

Hi Carol, I don’t have excellent news to share. All flights are sold out and I can see that nothing is operating by the looks of it until the end of March.

I don’t have another option with another airline also since the borders are closed in most transit countries now. I don’t know how to advise – and I do hope you are safe – but there are no flights available at all. are you in a safe spot?

The insurance usually does have a good clause that if you are stuck in a destination they will cover a period of time automatically. Its’ a forced stay and actually you are unable to exit the country so I do believe your insurance will be valid.

Your flight is not yet cancelled on my side of things. It’s still operating for the moment and I am checking it daily for updates. 

There was an announcement that Cyprus is putting its airports in lock-down and not accepting inbound passengers except under certain circumstances. Didn't say anything about people leaving the island. I am still assuming that I am leaving on March 31 but have accommodation if I need to stay. Playing it by ear.