DESIRE 2012 CYPRUS
Written by Kathy Troke- Thomas
Photos courtesy of all group
The trip started at Gatwick where I met the other four fantastic members that I was going
to be spending the next month in Cyprus with. We started to get acquainted as we made
our way onto the plane and off to Cyprus. For the week and a half we started off helping
to build a nature trail that would hopefully become part of a wider walk for a tourist track
in the village of Koalani. We worked with a fantastic local guide called George and
although there was a slight language barrier and our attempts at Greek tended to fail, we
had a fantastic time and learnt a lot from George. He was a bit superhuman, ploughing
through the overgrown path and we did our best to help along the way. We were located
in a beautiful valley surrounded by streams, farmland and fantastic views and would
enjoy mornings of work followed by afternoon visits to all sorts of local spots like the
donkey sanctuary’s and the stunning local beaches. We met town officials and on our
first day attended a meeting all about the plans for the village, attended by many locals. It
was all Greek to us but I enjoyed just watching and seeing the enthusiasm the locals
shared for making good decisions for the future of the village.
Our time at Koalani had been fantastic and for the butterfly, dragonfly and lizard
enthusiasts amongst us we’d been treated to some fantastic sightings and were sorry to be
saying goodbye to our mornings here. We looked forward to the adventures to come and
were not disappointed. In the coming weeks we were introduced to a variety of locals
whose interests ranged from bee keeping and honey making to historical and pottery
museums, we met with botanists and park rangers and all of them had so much to teach
us. We were taken on walks and drives across areas of Cyprus to learn about the wildlife
and the country’s history. We toured the Trodos Mountains, visiting look out points,
visitor centers, Botanic gardens, fire look out points and monasteries and it was all
inspiring and captivating.
Our host Thomas took us to some areas of conservation interest such as spots where
illegal bird trapping is known to go on, we visited a university specialising in a seed bank
project to help preserve and study endemic tree species, we visited beaches where turtles
nests were being protected and reservoirs and wetlands that were receiving special
protections for their important and endangered wildlife, we were taken to educational
centers across the Island spreading the word of nature conservation.
In our final week we worked in a local tree nursery, we were weeding and planting away
whilst being treated to lots of nice coffee and fruit breaks. Here their work included
growing native trees that were intended for eventual planting back on the Island. We
were taught about the work of some tree nurseries and rangers around the Island in
restoring a more natural balance of native flora. One issue came from an attempt to rid
the Island of Malaria some many years ago, planting non native eucalyptus was used to
remove excess water but it has left its mark as this non native tree now dominates many
areas of Cyprus.
Along every step of the way we were greeted by nothing less than the friendliest and
most interesting of people that taught us so much about this beautiful country and their
passions for preserving it. It was a place that I knew little of prior to my visit but returned
having being welcomed to a new world of fascinating history and culture that I will never
forget and will forever cherish. If I’m lucky enough to do so, I will return for many a visit
and can’t wait to see if Koalani’s nature trail makes it.