Foinikas In Bloom
Foinikas is an abandoned village steeped in history, that lies on the banks of the Asprokremmos Reservoir, just to the East of Paphos. Current water levels make a visit a bit tricky, but if you perservere you will be rewarded by a sea of colour as the spring flowers bring the village to life.
Foinikas Heights

In the springtime Foinikas turns yellow. I first noticed this phenomenon a few years ago. We were showing visiting relatives around and we thought they would like to visit the village. We were taken aback with what we saw, and we recorded it in our first blog on Foinikas.
I just had a quick look at that article. If you look at it you can see what Foinikas is like when the reservoir waters are low. Hard to believe I wrote that over five years ago. Time sure does fly...
Anyway, what has that got to do with this photograph? Well, I have been trying for a couple of years to capture Foinikas again when it is golden yellow. Lockdown prevented me in 2020. Last year I managed to get there, but the weather was so gloomy and overcast that the photographs looked terrible.
Ominous Weather

Now, because the reservoir is full, I couldn't get to Foinikas from the Paphos end of the reservoir, as the road is under water. The road from Nata was out too, as it goes down the river which is quite obviously running. So instead, I decided to drive to the hill above the village, and hike down from there. I had a big bag to hold my assorted cameras and drone. My main concern though, was the weather. As you can see, it was getting a bit moody.
Distant Foinikas

I filmed my walk down the hill and will publish it at a later date. It isn't the best film I've ever made, as I was trying out a new microphone with a "dead cat" muffler. I hadn't realised that if you don't position it correctly the hair gets in front of the camera if the wind blows. And the wind was blowing a lot. However, it does show the route, and it is a nice walk, so I will see what I can salvage.
Not Quite Yellow

I made it down the hill, but the weather got worse and it even started raining, On top of that, the wind meant that I couldn't fly the drone. However, on the way down I noticed that somebody had driven a truck to the fields next to Foinikas. Whoever it was looked like they were harvesting wild asparagus or something similar. They had gone by the time I arrived in the village, but it indicated that the road from Nata was in fact doable. So the trip wasn't a complete loss.
Rain, Rain Go Away

Eventually it stopped raining, and I lugged all my equipment back to the top of the hill. I was tempted to leave it all in one of the abandoned buildings but I don't think it would have gone down well if they had gone missing.
It was a lot harder getting back up the hill, I can tell you!
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Related Blogs:

Abandoned Villages - Foinikas
Foinikas has a special place in our family's hearts. It was the first abandoned village we explored in Cyprus, some ten years ago. We have returned to it each time we visited Cyprus, and consquently have more pictures than we could ever possibly want of the village and surrounding area. We posted some of them on our blog about the Asprokremmos Reservoir. We wanted some up-to-date photos for the Abandoned Village blog series. So last saturday we revisited Foinikas, and couldn't believe what we found when we got there...
Foinikas Revisited
When we first blogged about Foinikas it was springtime, and the abandoned village was bathed in a sea of yellow. It was always an essential destination on our holidays, but we had never been in Spring, so it came as a pleasant surprise. However, it made it difficult to explore, as you never know what you might tread on when you have to wade through thigh-high flowers. As frequently happens with our blogs, people posted more information about the site in the comments. So we decided to pay another visit a few days ago, and explore it in more depth...
Foinikas Heights
We love Foinikas, the abandoned village on the banks of the Asprokremmos Reservoir. We've already blogged about it twice though, so we thought we would take a look at some of the surrounding countryside, and see what else the valley has to offer. Hopefully we will show you that you can find stunning, remote scenery only a stones-throw from Paphos. You don't need to travel all the way to the Akamas or Troodos to lose yourself in rugged beauty...
Foinikas by the Lake
The abandoned village of Foinikas lies on the banks of the Asprokremmos Reservoir. Now that the waters are lapping at the village boundaries, we thought we would pay it another visit, to see how it looks now.
Foinikas Is Cut Off!
While Paphos waits for the Asprokremmos Dam to overflow, we thought we might as well photograph the rest of the reservoir, which is to all intents and purposes, now full. So we set off to Foinikas looking for some beautiful landscape nature shots. We didn't get very far though...
Foinikas Views
We just can't keep away from Foinikas. Somebody posted some pics of the abandoned village on our Paphos Chat facebook group, and people were asking how to get there. We bumped an old blog showing the route, but decided that a film was also needed. While we were out shooting it, we decided to take some more shots, but this time we went for some outstanding views...Good Pages To Visit

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Paphos Chat has been created for people who like our site and want to chat using Facebook. You can also easily upload photos of any size here. A lot of people are members of the Facebook chat group and the main forum. It's entirely up to you.

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eBookCyprus Road Trip 01: the Kathikas - Panagia Loop
Let me take you on a journey around the region of Paphos, Cyprus. Starting at Paphos itself, we travel to Akoursos, then Kathikas, Kritou Terra and Simou. We continue past Lasa and Kannaviou, before taking in the delights of Panagia. Getting a bit more adventurous, we visit the abandoned villages of Statos and Agios Fotios, before passing through Choulou, Letymbou and Polemi, and rejoining the main Paphos - Polis road.
The route is suitable for all types of vehicle, and requires no off-roading. The guide contains about 130 photographs including shots of all the road signs you need to pay attention to, as well as some of the highlights you may experience along the way.
There are also several maps which will help you keep your bearings.
You can do this journey in a day, or you can break it up into chunks. You can also do it in reverse, to get some completely different views. It is entirely up to you.
