It’s funny, isn’t it? The things you remember – not to mention all the things that you forget, as time marches on. I, along with my classmates, went to Cyprus as part of our Honours Year “Grande Finale” field trip during the Easter holidays, way back in 1995.
The objective of the week-long trip was to study Ophiolites – a sequence of igneous and metamorphic rocks that had formed due to the process of tectonic expansion (when tectonic plates move away from each other eg Mid-Atlantic Ridge) but had subsequently been thrust up and onto land during a period of compression.
Many a road cutting was inspected, many a field was trampled over and many an old copper mine was viewed from the mine dumps.
Many a monastery was also visited: I think someone in the teaching department was particularly fond of the wine made in this part of the world.
Although we poor students hadn’t the budget for monk’s plonk (I’m possibly being a little harsh – I’ve never tasted the stuff, I just like the look of the words monk and plonk in the same sentence 😉 ) we all did our best to at least look as though we had over indulged on the stuff.
Truth be told, we were probably all still hung over from the night before…(from cheaper plonk)

Pillow basalts with feeder dykes on each side (feeding more basalt extrusions above - now eroded away)
Apart from seeing lots and lots of pillow basalts (so named as they look like pillows, albeit not the comfortable type) with feeder dykes, we also did a spot of taste-testing of our own. Strange as this might sound, rocks that contain a great deal of manganese (such that they have a lovely purplish hue about them) stick to your tongue.
Can you imagine a class-load of students going about searching for the perfect size rock chip to demonstrate this peculiar trait? It’s a wonder I don’t have a photo of this – but then again, we’d have all been giggling into our boots too much to be able to take any photos! Oh, the hilarity of youth!
Another fond memory I have was seeing a goat herder carrying a couple of new-born kids, with the entire herd following on quite happily behind him. I don’t know who was most amused – us at him, or him at us 😉
Great shots Lu, love them!!
Thanks Xandi – it was great going back through the archives and stirring up the memories 🙂
As I was reading your blog and looking at your pictures, I realized that you sound no different than my husband. Checked your personal page, I was right 😉
Hi Malou – Can I hazard a guess that your husband is also linked to Geology in some way?? We are a special breed…
Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment 🙂
Great photos, love the goat herder.
Thanks Debra – he was quite the character 🙂
This had me laughing right out loud, great post!
Thanks Adrian – Glad you enjoyed this!
The monasteries look stunning.
Thank you Cabbie Notes – they are lovely buildings, aren’t they? They were always in such idyllic settings, too 🙂
Nice post! What a great memory and a fun one to share.
Thanks f-stop mama – Yes, I did enjoy going back to these memories – this trip was great fun! It was also our last – I think we were determined to “Go Big” 🙂
Ah for those carefree student days . . . Excellent photographs!
Thank you Lisa – yes, those carefree days of youth may be gone – but even though with age come responsibilities, I’m trying my best to at least pretend to be carefree on the odd occasion!
Great photographer even back in the day! You inspire me to take out my old photographs and turn them into blogs too!!!
Going back in time to sort out and clean up my old photos was the original inspiration for this blog 🙂 Current travels now take precedence, but there’s still plenty oldies and goldies in the archives waiting for their little moment! It’s fun refreshing the memories 🙂
I completely agree with what you said. I am lucky to have started traveling at the age of 10!!! So lots of memories to go back on too!!! Looking forward to more of your blogs!!!
Lu, gotta love a post about a field trip. Haven’t been on one in …ahem… a few years. I’m also glad to see that most attendees, as in my day, were hung over. ~James
I do believe that it is a pre-requisite of al Geo-students to behave thus on field trips. I’ve always considered it to be rather a fine tradition 😉