Pissouri, Cyprus - working out the "buddy" system

I was again planning on going for a walk today and contacted Kay to let her know where I was going and how long I planned on being. As we discussed my route it became clear that we have different ways of identifying the village landmarks.

I call this "the destroyed road behind Sunrise" or "Cemetery Rd" because the cemetery is on it and Jimmy had called it that once. Kay calls it "Kapsalion", which is its official name but as there are no street signs on it I had no way of knowing that.

At the top of that road is what I call "Pissouri Village development" and what Kay calls "the Leptos development"

After a lot of back and forth on Messenger we were pretty sure we had my route sorted but we are going to have to get a better system. I set out with the intention of about a 2 hour walk and that I would text Kay if I was going to be any longer than that.

Another kind of yellow flower in bloom now. There must be about 10 different yellow wildflowers.

More of the pink Crepe Myrtle is in bloom.

Looking back and down to the Sunrise development and off in the distance, the Troodos Mountains.

Past "Leptos Pissouri Village", down this road and

then I am out on the track, away from people. (not that I saw anybody on my way to this point)

There was a constant whispering buzz in the air and I thought it was bees but now I look at this photo I don't think they are.

The first time I did this walk I took the track to the left but didn't go far. The second time I took the path up to the right and it ended at the abandoned goat farm. This time I took the track to the left with the intention of following it further.

As some of the flowers have now finished there are more seed heads around.

They just keep coming. I will have to come back to see what these look like when they open.

Where the track went over rock there were lizards basking. These large ones tended to be alone

and would leave the track to go under a bush or rock in a leisurely fashion. Predominately brown and green, a Spiny Footed Lizard.

Daniele asked me the other day if I could smell the sea and I tried to identify what I could smell now. Still not the sea. I could smell warm rock with a slight herb scent, nothing as strong as fresh mown grass and not that singular a smell, more a mixture of warm green foliage. Along with the buzz of insects there is now far more bird song and bird chatter.

The track has obviously been driven on relatively recently because, where there is grass, it has been crushed.

The double path turns into a single, heading gently downhill.

I thought these were Crepe Myrtle too, just white ones.

Although they have the same shape they don't have that crepe paper look. They are of the same genus.

Cistus salviifolius, common names sage-leaved rock-rose,^[1] salvia cistus^[2] or Gallipoli rose, is a perennial ligneous plant of the family Cistaceae. from wiki

I sat on a rock, contemplated this view and had a drink of water. There was the hint of a path descending further but when I looked at my watch I had been gone an hour, so I texted Kay that I was turning back

and somehow that "gentle downhill" had become a steep uphill.

These tend to be sunning themselves in 3s and 4s and as they become aware of me they all skitter off in different directions.

It was quite a challenge to get a photo of them. They all had that sort of orangy coloured tail and I saw a couple with stumps rather than tails. I think they are just young versions of the other one in this blog post, Spiny Footed Lizard.

A huge thistle.

A Kotschys Gecko

Back down that crazy road to home and I Messaged Kay I was back.

I think this may be the solution to Kay and my translation issues. Screenshot of Google Earth, downloaded into my computer, moved into a photo file, using the pen in the editing tool I can mark my route and then email it to Kay. I will try that out next time I take a walk.