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My favourite hiking trips in nature is where the journey begins with an equally beautiful overland 4x4 drive. Exploring unspoilt nature away from the crowds is so much more exciting than hiking the overcrowded tourist hot spots. Rejuvenation Hiking is all about reconnecting with nature.

​Filming on this beautiful December morning, the sun is hot creating a wonderful morning dew following the evening's cool mountain air.

Time to get ready for my hike. Just a short 8km route so I’ll take my favourite compact backpack from Mil-Tec. I find Mil-Tec backpacks ideal for our hot, dusty and rugged terrain with lots of sharp rocky edges and prickly bushes. â€‹

This beautiful green area with amazing views of hills and mountains in the distance will be my starting point today. â€‹

Beautiful pink rock-roses on the trails this time of the year

This beautiful old olive tree must be hundreds of years old, still offering nutritional olives to humans as it has done for many generations.

Something amazing about seeing wild mushrooms surface above ground.

Amazing olives trees are abundant in this whole area, check out my other videos on harvesting and curing olives.

I love the shape of wild fennel plants

Wild blackberries, not quite ripe for picking, I’ll check on these in a few weeks

The second most common tree after the olive trees in this area are pine trees. In the hot summer months you can hear the pine cones popping as they open and sprinkle seeds to the ground to produce more trees. How wonderful nature is.

Lots of prickly pear cactus trees grow in this area too. When in season the fruit they produce is really delicious but it's quite a skill to gather and prepare them due to the tiny needles that cover them.

With my hike over, I decided to make some hot tea. My favourite organic Yogi Tea is called Christmas tea. A wonderful blend of herbs and spices like cinnamon, orange, vanilla and star anise. Then some cashew nuts and dried fruit…and then….enjoying the view and the happiest feelings that nature always gives in abundance.

The area that I hiked today is where the village called Vasa Kellakiou is located in Limassol Cyprus.

Michael
Founder of Rejuvenation Hiking in Limassol Cyprus

​Best multitool for hiking and camping in Cyprus: Leatherman Signal Camping Multitool​. The perfect gift to yourself or for that person you know, who loves the outdoors and hiking, camping, nature walking in Cyprus.

Best deal is on Amazon DE with shipping to Cyprus, €143

An incredible canyon hiking experience in Cyprus, Avakas Gorge, Paphos.

One of the most popular hikes in Cyprus for its beautiful rock formations, mountain wildlife and rare plants. Its a wonderful experience off season, during the peak season summer months it can get very crowded.

For the best hiking tours in Cyprus without the crowds of tourists, Rejuvenation Hiking Private Tours is the best place to start.

Incredible sights of rare Cyprus rock formations

Rejuvenation Hiking Tours Cyprus with Russian speaking guides. Nature walks, nature trails of Limassol.

Such a beautiful video and inspiring story, finding peace and happiness alone in nature but never feeling lonely. 

Michael Rivers
Founder, Rejuvenation Hiking, Limassol Cyprus

Proven health benefits of spending time in nature. The easy option and motivation is to join a Rejuvenation Hiking Tour in Limassol Cyprus.

Polar Bottle makes these fantastic lightweight, triple insulated, BPA free, handheld water bottles in various sizes that are ideal for hiking in the Limassol mountains. Cost of the 709 ml size is around €18 on Amazon and worth every scent.

I absolutely love these handheld water bottles, I find this design so incredibly comfortable to hold. These shaped cuts out allow the minimum amount of grip to keep the bottle secure in your hand.

Polar Bottle is not just another plastic sports water bottle, firstly it’s ingeniously triple insulated with an internal reflective foil as the second barrier to keeping your water cool for many hours of summer hiking in Cyprus. From start to finish of my hikes, I know my water will be cool and delicious. 

I often use High5 electrolyte tablets during the summer. It's really convenient to drop one or two of the electrolyte tablets into the bottle for my longer hiking routes.

Polar Bottles are easy to squeeze when you want to drink and easy to shut off the valve during your run with no leaking. I love the versatility of these durable bottles, perfect for hiking, running and cycling.

Maintaining a Polar Bottle is a simple rinse and wash under the tap with a drop of dishwashing liquid and storing the Polar Bottle in your freezer will stop any mould plus the bottle will also be nice and cool for your next hiking adventure,

These bottles may seem a little expensive compared to the regular plastic sports water bottles that you see everywhere in sports shops, but really there is no comparison in my experience. I’ve been using Polar Bottles for more than 10 years now, it’s the only bottle I’ve found comfortable to hold, keeps the water cool, is silent during hiking with no noisy sloshing sound, easy to wash and keep hygienically clean and lasts for many years before needing replacing.

I can highly recommend the Polar bottle as a tough and versatile water bottle for hiking in Cyprus. Available in various sizes, I'd highly recommend the 24oz size which is 709ml.

Article by; 
​Michael Rivers
Founder of Rejuvenation Hiking, Limassol

Using the Garmin Instinct Solar as my everyday fitness tracker for hiking in the Limassol mountains, I really can’t fault this fantastic and very tough smartwatch.

It has one of the biggest and best always on displays of any smartwatch on the market today, getting the data I need at a glance during high intensity workouts and without having to touch the screen is for me, the most important feature of any fitness smartwatch.

The Garmin Instinct Solar has an incredible battery life boosted by a solar charging lens. I typically use my Garmin Instinct Solar in GPS mode for several hours per day, 7 days per week. I have all the battery killing apps running like pulse ox, heart rate monitor, GPS and I wear the watch at night for sleep tracking and I still get 7 to 10 days before having to charge the watch.

It feels light and comfortable on the wrist and the long strap allows the space I need for various sports clothing.

The watch is built to U.S. military standard 810 for thermal, shock and 100m water resistance, and the fibre-reinforced polymer can take quite a beating. I've bashed the watch many times on hard rock surfaces and still not a dent on scratch to be seen. I also fitted an aftermarket 9H screen protector which I’ve been really pleased with, it had no negative effect on the solar charging lens. 

The large always-on 23mm x 23mm monochrome memory-in-pixel display has been a pleasure to use during intense outdoor workouts under bright sunlight. Yes AMOLED touch screens do look really cool, like on the new Venu 2 which is around the same price as the Garmin Instinct Solar, but when I’m working out under intense sunlight with sunglasses on, sweat in my eyes and constantly moving with an elevated heart rate, I really don’t want is to be trying to focus and deal with a touch screen display.

Garmin Instinct Solar for me has the best always on display with no fiddly touchscreen, just 5 large buttons that are intuitive to use. And let’s not forget this fantastic 32mm wide PowerGlass is covered with advanced solar charging technology giving the watch an incredible battery life. When I have busy days with client training sessions, I can easily rack up 7 hours plus of constant GPS usage and still I’m getting 7 days plus before having to charge the watch.

And with its fibre-reinforced polymer case built to military standard 810, 100m water resistance and super light at only 53g. I think the Garmin Instinct Solar offers the best screen display and best rugged build quality of any fitness tracking smartwatch at the mid level price range. Amazon link to where I purchased mine from at the lowest price.

Another great feature with the Garmin Instinct Solar lens is there are now many 3rd party sellers of screen protectors which I highly recommend you get, the last thing you want is to scratch the glass and ruin the look of your watch. The one I’m using is a 9H tempered glass and fits beautifully, it completely disappears once fitted and has no negative effect on the solar charging. 

Article by; 
​Michael Rivers
Founder of Rejuvenation Hiking, Limassol

Because of the variety of terrain and topographical climate with unique agriculture diversification and varied forestry. A number of different wildlife currently exists on the island. The Mouflon is a wild sheep species found only in Cyprus. It is the largest wild mammal that exists here. Fox, hedgehog and bats can all be spotted whilst Cyprus hiking. There are 52 species of butterfly on the island, 9 of which are endemic to Cyprus.

These can be seen from Cyprus’s many walks. There are 52 main hiking trails and 32
designated trails in Cyprus. Broadly there are two types of trail. Circular and Linear. Circular means that the walker returns to the start of the hike; The route is a looping one. Linear simply means one direction. The hiker must return to the start of the route. In Limassol district some of the most popular
hikes are;

• The Treis Eleis Trail. This is 2.5Km and is graded as a 1 out of 3 in terms of difficulty.
• The medieval bridge found at the mill and the bridge of Treis Elies. The trail follows the Treis Elies River, through lush riparian vegetation and orchards with cherry, apple and walnut trees. It also passes by the ruins of Agios Andronicos church.
• Lemithou Community Trail. This is 2KM. The residence of the Leventis family, the Kremmos Gorge, the Agros River and the chapel of St. George. NB: The trail can become circular if the visitor walks back through the Treis Elies-Lemithou main road. It is a winding a beautiful walk.
• Millomeri Waterfall Trail. A linear trail. This is 1.2KM. The trek leads to Millomeri waterfall, passing through rich vegetation. The first part, around half-way in, follows a direction parallel to the Kryos River. The second part leads to an open mountainous area displaying garrigue and maquis vegetation and excellent views to the south.
• Kastrovounos Trail. A linear trail. The trail is located in the forest of Kato Platres, towards the west of the village. From various points along the path the visitor can enjoy views of the surrounding areas of Limassol, Troodos National Forest Park and Pafos Forest. The trail is well lit and is ideal for hiking at night.
• Dymes and Pelendri Trail. A linear trail. An old path that traditionally connected Dymes and Pelendri villages. It runs through orchards, pine forests and past the "Deisi"; locality, also known as the throne of the Virgin Mary. On the trail there is a fountain with drinking water. In August 2007, a fire broke out in the area, burning the vegetation along much of the route.
• The Arsos Trail. A linear trail. The route follows the river from the Athkies; to the Poullin; fountains, passing two other old fountains. It then branches off towards the medieval chapel of Panagia and the traditional oil mill.
• Germasogea Weir Trail. A circular trail. The trail loops around a small peninsula in the weir, to which various fish species have been introduced. Fishing is allowed with permission from the Department of Fisheries. The south route is a small path of 150m long, where the visitor can see and study the native Zoulatzia bush (Bosea cypria). This is a real favourite for tourists.
• Agros Kato Mylos Trail. A circular trail. On this trail one passes orchards with apple, cherry and pear trees, grapevines and rosebushes (Rosa damascena). The renowned Agros rose water is produced from the latter. Wooded areas are also crossed, offering pleasant views of the surrounding area. The last part of the route follows the tarmac road leading to Agros.

As you can see the variety of nature illustrated on the island of Cyprus is quite clearly only matched by the variety ​of hiking trails available.

Article by;
Daniel Sieff
Team member at Rejuvenation Hiking, Limassol Cyprus.