Coming back from my last holiday in Cyprus recently reminded me of when I went there last October and got a couple of unexpected surprises.
We all hope for sunny weather but sometimes it is not always like that.
One day we got quite a bad storm and this was viewed from the villa we were staying at, looking out to sea.
Wasn’t expecting a twister, fortunately it stayed out to sea just in front of us!
As far as the local creatures are concerned, my wife got a surprise when this butterfly landed on her hand!
Very pretty!
Then again I got a much bigger surprise when I went to open the bedroom window at the villa a bit wider. (It was a single storey villa on a slope, so the master bedroom at the front was like at 1st storey level and the car parking area was down below).
Anyway as I went to open the part opened window a bit further I saw this sort of hairy twig sticking out underneath, carefully opened it further to reveal the fellow below. It took one look at me and launched itself straight into the air off the windowsill.
Scared the shit out of me and the spider didn’t appear too happy either.
I have never exactly liked spiders, but not been too bothered about them, but this was different. At least 3 or 4 inches leg span and 2 to 2 ½ inches body length and very hairy.
It was certainly a Wolf Spider of some sort, would welcome thoughts from anybody on this.
It landed at the side of the car down below and stayed there for a few hours without really moving much, (it did have a long drop!).
Which gave me time to get a few good photos of it!
I reckon by the appearance it was almost certainly a European Tarantula, also by the size of the eyes and the way it jumped so bloody far, also the size of the thing itself was a clue as well.
So glad a saw it and made it "jump", before it came into the bedroom!
)