It was never my (conscious) intention to spend Saturday at Larnaca Salt Lake. After last week’s escapades looking for the black flamingo at Akrotiri Salt Lake, I was DONE with salt lakes. We’d planned to visit the Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque and then chill-out on the beach watching the planes landing at Larnaca airport.

That’s what I told myself anyway.

It was neither here nor there that the mosque happens to be right next to the salt lake.

We drove up in our little Toyota, since our Land Rover had taken a turn for the worse the day before. No off-roading for us today – which was just as well SINCE WE WERE ONLY VISITING A MOSQUE AND THE BEACH. Right?

‘Shall we have a quick drive round the lake to get our bearings?’ I said, adding nonchalantly ‘it’s a much better place for Goobie (ahem) to see the flamingos.’

This is totally true. If you want to get a closer look at the flamingos, Larnaca is a much better place to view them than Akrotiri. The lake is right next to the road and there’s a good-sized car park – and an ice-cream van. The road becomes a track if you drive on past the mosque, but our Toyota handled it admirably – going slowly.

The track took us through some pretty green fields until we reached a headland overlooking the lake. We had some Photo-Fun and Goobie got a great view of the thousands of pink flamingos. And since I had nothing else to do, I had a quick look through my camera zoom for a black dot in all the pink. There wasn’t one, so I put my camera away and told myself to LET IT GO.

We drove back to the mosque and parked up.

‘Let’s have a quick photo in front of the mosque before we go in,’ I suggested, snapping away.

And that’s when I saw it. A big black dot on the lake.

‘THE BLACK FLAMINGO!!!!’ I squawked.

Looking back on it, that’s when my sanity started to unravel. And I realise I’d learnt none of my lessons from the Akrotiri debacle.

I persuaded Matt and Goobie to drive a short way up the lake for a better view. It was better than the view I’d had at Akrotiri, but when I looked through my camera viewfinder, I could see a headland on the southern shore that looked much closer. We sped off down the road, re-joining the dual carriageway and going across a roundabout.
‘STOP!!!’ I yelled.

‘We’re not allowed to stop here,’ Matt pointed out.

‘I don’t care!’ And I didn’t. I would have gladly paid a fine. But Matt was having none of it. We agreed that I would hop out to take the photo while he waited with the car. If he was moved on by the police and wasn’t there when I got back then we would meet up at the main entrance to the salt lake a mile away.

I legged it through the bush and finally ended up at the little headland. It even had a lookout post. I could see the black flamingo with the naked eye, but when I looked through the viewfinder, I had a great view. Not the perfect photo I’d imagined, but the best yet. The sun was low in the sky and the light was beautiful.

But then a man appeared in the viewfinder, behind the black flamingo. He was walking his dog on the opposite shore.

Wow, that man has a really close view of the black flamingo from that side of the lake. That perfect photo was still within reach.

And off I dashed, back to the car, with a little voice in my head screaming ‘When is enough, enough?!!’

The car wasn’t there. Matt had been moved on.

And so I ran, in my elderly Uggs, carrying an overweight camera. Round the roundabout, past the hill and back along the dual carriageway. If anyone had noticed, they’d have thought there was an emergency.

There was. The photo I’d been trying to get for the past week was waiting for me on the opposite shore. If I could get to it before the sun set.

The adrenalin made me nauseous but, finally, I got to the main entrance.

Matt wasn’t there.

And this is where I disintegrated into a total loon. I started shouting loudly – to myself.

I won’t repeat what I said.

In a rage I started pacing up and down the dual carriageway, looking for Matt.

You look like a prostitute trying to get business, said a voice in my head.

Don’t flatter yourself, said another vicious voice. You’re in your thirties – NOBODY is going to think that.

Eventually I saw the Toyota appear round the corner. I could have punched it.

Matt stopped the car and I opened the driver’s door.

‘GET OUT! I’M DRIVING!’

He wisely didn’t argue and I sped off before he’d finished closing the passenger door. Thankfully most sane people had gone home to their dinners, so I was able to tear down the road, past the mosque. I reached the track and bumped over all the grooves in the road. I’d already broken a Land Rover in pursuit of this photo, a Toyota was nothing. By this point I was sobbing HYSTERICALLY. I can’t remember when I last cried so loudly.

‘I’ve spent all week trying to get this bloody photo . . . up to my arse in mud . . . Broke the Land Rover . . . And the flamingo is JUST THERE, but I won’t be able to get a shot because it will be DARK!’ Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Goobie was silent and, from the look on Matt’s face, he thought I’d gone totally loopy. Which I had.

I stopped the car and legged it across the fields, as the sun was about to meet the horizon. The grass and crops turned to mud and flamingo feathers, and I’d arrived. On the Opposite Shore.

And there was the Black Flamingo. Closer, though not close enough for the Perfect Photo. And too dark. But at this point, I no longer cared. It was close enough. Finally.

I took out my camera and snapped countless shots of a black flamingo on a pink lake. And when I’d finished taking photos, I sat down and just watched it through the zoom, walking elegantly and serenely across the lake as the sun set behind it. The tranquillity was calming and I could just Be. Watching, appreciating, savouring this one-of-a-kind experience.

I didn’t get the Perfect Photo, but what I experienced felt infinitely more special.