I CATCH UP WITH MO

My father came to visit us a few weeks ago and stayed for 2 wonderful weeks. Now at 84 years of age, overweight and not the healthiest of adults, the holiday was not going to be straight forward. Luckily, he loved the people, the food and the beautiful scenery. Not being particularly mobile, the hotel he stayed at, allowed us to take a chair from his room so he could rest and be comfortable on our excursions. Now I know he has always enjoyed a bit of birding, so I took him up Mt Ainos for a bit of twitching.

The birds were not particularly helpful and stayed away mostly. We saw buzzards, northern wheatears, cirl buntings and a linnet, but all at distance. The butterflies were much more accommodating with brimstones, cleopatras and meadow browns in abundance. But the star of the show were the camberwell beauty butterflies that zipped passed us.

If you follow my blog, then you will know I am not very quick with the camera. This is a bit of a handicap when trying to capture wildlife, but I struggle on. I am still embarrassed about being too slow to photograph a tortoise, but as I mentioned in the Livadi Blog, it was related to Mo Farah. So, these gorgeous camberwell beauties are flitting past my dad on his chair and me poised with the camera but I am still unable to get a shot. It was frustrating, but watching these wonderful butterflies was still rewarding.

It was early afternoon and nap time was approaching, so we headed back down the mountain so we could have a siesta. We were snaking our way down the road when I spotted a tortoise at the curb side. I managed a reasonable emergency stop and rushed around the car to the boot for my camera. My dad had no idea what was going on, but I was not going to miss this chance and so left him in the car. The tortoise was trying to reach the scrubland by the road, but a deep rain gulley was hampering it. I quickly took some shots and then proceeded to take some better shots as it was clear the tortoise was not going anywhere. By this time, my father had managed to extricate himself from the car and was as pleased as me with the find.

Once I had enough shots, I picked up the tortoise and carried it into the scrubland where it would be safe from other traffic. This Hermann’s tortoise was about 200mm in length, so not fully grown, 250mm is their optimum size. I was surprised by how heavy it was, but also mesmerized by its beauty and I left the mountain a very happy photographer.