Cyprus - Pentalia walk

 The weather has been rather wet so the walk on Wednesday was changed to accommodate that, trying to avoid mud underfoot.

My turn to drive and I just followed Jimmy's directions as we drove up into the hills. I hardly even bother to read the directions on the emails that come out to the group, as I rely on Jimmy to know how to get there. (pays off most of the time :)). It spitted rain as we drove and was threatening on most of the walk.

We all parked next to the old school and walked into the village past the church. Even a tiny village has a church!

The village is up high on a hillside. Most are. But there are some in valleys. Why one place and not another? Is there a difference in the sense of community in a valley village vs a hill village? So many questions that even Google can't answer.

We passed new buildings with magnificent views and derelict village houses,

some may have been abandoned due to the Turkish/Greek troubles but some may be due to the rejection of the village way of life by the next generation.

Celia, walk leader for the day, pointed out her lovely home in the valley below. This is a Paphos based walking group but the participants are spread out on quite a large circumference around Paphos.

I learned that Almond trees can have white or pink blossom. The ones with any amount of pink (even just a little in the centre) are sweet almonds and the darker the pink, the sweeter the nut.

The walk was a long gradual uphill with fantastic views as a reward.

Although the sky threatened, we had a bit of rain on the drive in, a bit on the drive to the taverna and nothing in between.

Wild mustard still framing the views.

Must be a sweet almond.

Lots of Orchids around.

The walk had some steep inclines, steep declines, and views for miles on mostly stone/gravel tracks.

After, we drove to the Spring of Life Taverna in Amageti where they bottle their own wine and beer (which we thought was better than their food)

Suzie (pictured) and Jimmy waited an extra 30 minutes for their food, which resulted in more drinking than usual. This also resulted in a hilarious and enlightening discussion of English dialects and slang.