I’d never been to Cyherbia Botanical Park before. So when I heard that they were holding Christmas decoration-making workshops, we booked ourselves in for a visit.

We are spending our first Christmas in Cyprus this year. I’m already missing my friends and family in the UK and our annual festive outings. So I’ve been looking out for Christmassy things to do over here. Christmas decoration-making sounded perfect and something that Goobie would enjoy. I was also curious to visit Cyherbia. I’d heard it had a maze, which I knew Goobie would LOVE-LOVE-LOVE!

Cyherbia is easy to find. It’s near Avgorou, off the A3, just past Dhekelia. It’s well sign-posted. We’d booked onto the first workshop of the day and when we got there the place looked deserted. We headed for a building up a drive, catching glimpses of landscaped gardens through hedgerows. We were convinced we were trespassing in someone’s home, but inside the building was a tearoom and large shop. Tables were set up with materials for making the decorations and we were greeted by Vicky, a friendly Canadian who worked there, and Miranda the owner. I noticed impressive displays and creations made out of plants from the park, celebrating Autumn. The whole place smelled of herbs.

We had a choice of decorations we could make and opted for a Christmas tree table centre-piece. We spent a happy couple of hours gluing pine cones onto a cardboard cone, then pushing moss into the gaps and attaching baubles to finish it off. Goobie was utterly transfixed; using the glue-gun, snipping off loose ends with secateurs, choosing the right-sized pine cones for each layer of the tree. Our creation surprised us. It actually looked really good! And it was so simple to make.

We stopped for a tasty lunch of home-made pumpkin soup and warm, fresh bread. We then moved on to our next creations; two pine cone gnomes. These looked simple and I thought they’d appeal to Goobie, but I found them trickier and there wasn’t as much Goobie could help with. He chose two big pine cones and drew the faces on the wooden heads. But sticking on the scarf and making the hats was fiddly and took longer than I thought. It was getting busy now with lots of people needing to use the three glue guns. Miranda helped us finish off the gnomes, telling us she needed the space. We took our cue and left to explore the park.

Our attention was immediately drawn to a magnificent spider in a bush near the door. Miranda helped us get a closer look. She thought it was a female because of its size.  Possibly an orb weaver.  I attempted to research this online but seeing numerous photos of spiders made me feel a bit sick. This one was a beauty, though.

Next to the tearoom is a look-out tower that gives you a great view of the herb gardens below and the maze in the distance. I wondered what this place looks like in different seasons.

We climbed down from the look-out tower and followed the little pathways through the different gardens. There are nine in total – the Traditional garden, Kitchen garden, Potpourri garden, Relaxation garden, Ladies garden, Pest control garden, Aromatic garden, Medicinal garden and Bath garden. The names give you a clue about what the herbs in each garden are used for.

The Lavender Labyrinth next to the herb gardens must be quite a sight when the lavender is in bloom. We didn’t walk this maze because Goobie was desperate to explore the main labyrinth next door.

The main labyrinth. The only one I’ve been in before was at Longleat Safari Park in the UK. The maze there is so big that Matt and I couldn’t find our way out before closing time and had to be rescued. I loved it. Matt cautioned me not to expect anything like that at Cyherbia. But in actual fact, the maze at Cyherbia is brilliant!! Of course it’s not as big as Longleat, but it’s an impressive size and the hedges are tall so you can’t see over the top of them.

Goobie loved it. He got so excited that he kept running off. All we could hear were the sounds of little feet running on pebbles and we genuinely thought we might lose him. But he’s a notorious cheat and found his way back to us by squeezing through child-sized gaps in the hedges.

Cheat! 

There’s nothing dramatic at the centre of the maze, just a tree, but what you really want to get to is the look-out tower at the side of the maze. It took us a while to find it, but the view is impressive from the top.

While I took a trillion photos, Goobie and Matt re-enacted scenes of Theseus killing the Minotaur in the labyrinth below.

We were in the maze for ages, and it was a tough job persuading Goobie to leave it. Once we were finally out and heading back to the car, we realised there was a whole section of the park we hadn’t looked around – the Woodland Walk. The path through the Woodland Walk is in the shape of Cyprus and lined with Cyprus trees. There are signs at each point telling you where on the island you are.

Halfway round we came across a little cabin that looked like something from a fairy tale. Inside were little tree stump seats and information about the wildlife in the area. This is clearly used for the various themed events that are held at Cyherbia, such as at Halloween.

Further round the Woodland Walk, we nearly walked right past some fairy houses! But once we spotted one, we kept finding more. Little doors in tree trunks, tiny washing lines, tables and chairs. Goobie was enchanted.

We enjoyed our day at Cyherbia. It’s a unique place that’s fun for children and adults. It’s closed now until 1^st April 2017. Over the winter they will be expanding and renovating. We are looking forward to going back at the end of April for their Fairy weekend. I’m going to keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details. I know it involves children and adults dressing up as fairies – I’m sold already!