Warbling monks

Cyprus has plenty of monasteries so we thought we should visit one - this is the Stavrovouni Monastery on top of a steep mountain. (Colder higher up hence the jumper.) This is far as we got because they don't allow women in!! But guess what? I was able to go through the gate (despite the sign saying 'no shorts' - mine were already below the knee and I loosened my belt and dropped them another couple of inches) and head on up to the building at the top. The chapel contains a piece of the cross that Jesus was crucified on but unfortunately, although I looked all over the chapel, I couldn't find it!


We're getting plenty of good walking each day and running every other day with not a soul to be seen for miles. Lots of birdlife over here - tons of swallows and house martins, magpies and sparrows but also partridges on the mountain and jackdaws nesting in cliff faces - we spotted some of these mobbing a medium size brown hawk but we're not sure of it's identity and it wouldn't own up. Most of these birds need to keep an eye open for hunters who seem to blast out at anything that moves during the hunting season, the trails are littered with shotgun cartridges! It's supposed to be the close season now but we have heard the odd shots being fired in the distance.

And here's our ornithological find which I hope Jon and Victoria will be impressed with - at first I thought I'd spotted a Dartford Warbler up in a bush on the mountain, this is a fairly rare little thing (someone saw one in Dartford once!) I then looked it up and initially identified it as a Cyprus Warbler but now Vicky and I are sure it was the more common Sardinian Warbler which has in recent years taken over some of the territory of the Cyprus Warbler. This is not my photo - we weren't quick enough with the camera.


And here's Smurf having lunch with us in the village of Tochni - Vicky had Afelia which is a rather tasty traditional Cypriot dish and I had the Cyprus sausage.