Fig Tree Bay and Cape Greco

 We're still keeping up our weekly days out - so far, anyway, while the weather holds. Last Friday it was still really too hot for walking anywhere, so we decided to have a slightly longer drive than previously.  We knew of Fig Tree Bay, although neither could remember much about it. I recalled going there with friends some years ago, and that it was pleasant, but rather touristy. 

We decided to take a picnic rather than eat out, and took a mostly scenic route rather than the highway, where possible. Eventually we reached the small - and very touristy - town centre, and after a couple of Google Maps errors, found the main car park. We were very surprised to see how full it was - we weren't sure that we would find a spot, but eventually discovered another part of it.

We were even more startled to see that the beach was absolutely packed with people:

We had thought we might rent a sunbed and shade, and eat our picnic on the beach. Evidently that was not to be. We had thought that, on a normal week day in October, it would be a lot quieter. But apparently this is still tourist season as far as the beaches are concerned. When we returned to the car park later, we realised that more than half the cars in the car park had the red tourist number plates.

We walked a short way along a path by the beach, past hotels with people lounging in gardens. There weren't so many people in the sea, as the beach there was rocks rather than sand.

There were water sports as well as people swimming and sunbathing. We think we were the only people not wearing swimsuits or skimpy shorts.

Richard wondered if we could find the place where we were taken by colleagues twenty-nine years ago when we first arrived in Cyprus. We worked out that it was Cape Greco, which was about fifteen minutes' drive away, in the direction of Larnaka. So we decided to go there, hoping that it would be quieter.

Cape Greco is rather a confusing place; we did go there another time with visiting family, but it seemed  different from the place we were taken to back in 1997.  And this time, it all looked different again. But we followed instructions from the phone, and found a somewhat bumpy road which started with an environmental centre and coffee shop. We noted that for the afternoon. 

It looked like there were tracks down to the beach as we drove slowly along. But there was no shade, and it was still too hot for me to walk very far. And there was nowhere to park. 

So we followed a small road that had a sign saying 'picnic area'. Google Maps didn't approve; it told us to make a U-turn at the top. But when we got to the top, we saw what we had hoped for:

There was a small area for parking, too. And as we got out of the car, we saw that there were a lot of cats:

I think about six of them are visible in that photo. There were many more.  They all looked fairly well-fed, and comfortable around people. They evidently thought we were a likely source of food.  But - other than one, which jumped on our chosen table - they behaved very well, milling around but not being a nuisance. 

While we ate our picnic, we were amused that at least four other vehicles drove slowly up to the parking area at the top of the hill, made U-turns, and returned the way they came. We surmised that Google Maps had given them the same instructions, and that, unlike us, they followed them. One couple did park and got out to take a walk; the cats deserted us and followed them for a while, until it was clear that they were not stopping to eat.

And yes, we did dole out a small amount of leftover meat to as many of the cats as we could.

After sitting for a while, we drove back to another parking place where we could see a small chapel. Richard took a couple of photos, but we didn't see any obvious way of getting to the beach. 

We didn't particularly want to get sandy anyway, by this point. And we wanted some coffee. So we drove to the environmental centre we had seen on the way in, which was attached to a small coffee shop. It even had oat milk available so we had some rather good frappés. 

Then we decided to look at the environmental centre itself. We had to pay two euros each (no discounts for seniors).  It wasn't huge, but had quite a bit of information about the local flora and fauna, with areas for school field trips.

I don't particularly like looking at stuffed animals and birds, but the displays were quite interesting: 

There was even a partial skeleton of a pygmy hippo:

And a good view of the area from a little window:

We probably only spent about twenty minutes in there, including reading some of the information displays, but it was pleasantly cool and very well-kept.  There was a small outdoor area with local plants, but it was in full sun, so we didn't walk there.

If we'd had more time - and if it hadn't been so warm, and if we'd taken more suitable clothes - we might have explored more and perhaps found the beach where we were taken all those years ago. We might also have found the famous sea caves, which we've never seen. 

So perhaps at some point we'll have a longer visit.