I can’t believe it’s already Easter! It doesn’t feel like it was a year ago that we spent Easter Day climbing Mount Tripylos in Cedar Valley.

Cedar Valley is in western Troodos and I’d wanted to visit it because of its remoteness and because I’d read that it was beautiful. You’d think that nothing could seem remote on an island half the size of Wales, but try driving through all the folds and peaks of the Troodos mountain range and you’ll see what I mean. The next mountain over may look close, but getting to it involves constant winding roads, snail-pace driving and swerving around rock falls. Really, time slows in western Troodos – it’s like it has its own space-time continuum. I always underestimate how slow-going it can be.

I made this mistake last Easter when we set out for Cedar Valley. We were coming from the east, so the drive took us through Prodromos and onto the E912 past Kykkos monastery. That took an hour and a half. After Kykkos we followed the road left towards Stavros tis Psokas. This part of Troodos remains the most spectacular I’ve seen so far. Just outside the car to the right, the mountain falls away hundreds of metres into deep valleys. It’s a little intimidating.

Half-way to Stavros tis Psokas we spotted a sign pointing left (south) to Cedar Valley. We turned onto a very narrow, twisty road, that felt like it was being held onto the side of the mountain by trees. Apparently Cedar Valley was only 6k away. It took another half an hour to get there. As we got closer we could see more and more of the indigenous Cypriot cedars (Cedrus brevifolia) that the valley is named after.

When we finally arrived, I admit I felt rather underwhelmed – I’d imagined being able to walk among the trees in the valley, but the forest floor was too overgrown. There was a small area for parking with a few benches and one trail that led up the mountain. There was nothing else to do, so we followed it. We passed a sign that told us we were on the E4 – the European Long Distance Path that starts in Gibraltar and travels through Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. Apparently, the summit of Mount Tripylos was just 2.5k away.

‘It’s not far. Let’s go to the top and see whether Easty, the Easter Bunny, has left us anything.’

Ha! I forgot about the whole weird space-time continuum thing. But Goobie’s enthusiasm for chocolate eggs propelled him upwards – until he saw an interesting leaf and forgot about Easty entirely. Five metres further on he spotted an amazing stick that he just couldn’t leave behind. Round the next bend was a fascinating rock that needed investigating. He carried it for 2 metres then decided to chuck it down the hill. The small landslide that the rock caused on its way down was just about the best thing that Goobie had ever seen. And for the next two hours he stopped every few metres to lob another one over the edge.

I got plenty of opportunities to stand and admire the cedars. They were magnificent and the valley looked so much more impressive from up here. It was beautiful.

We inched upwards, convinced that the summit was just around the next bend. I could see dark clouds approaching in the distance. We picked up speed, persuading Goobie to leave off rock-lobbing and look for lizards instead. There were loads and they scurried off fast – which was great because Goobie scurried up the path after them.

‘Surely the summit must be just around the bend?’ I said to Matt. ‘We’ve been walking for ages.’

The summit wasn’t around the next bend, or the ten after that. The dark clouds were nearly over us and Goobie was getting tired.

‘The sign must have been wrong! We’ve definitely walked at least 3k, maybe 5.’

We got to a wide bend that opened out onto a spectacular panoramic view of the mountains. I suggested we stop for a rest and I’d run ahead round the next bend to see how close the summit was. After running round the next three bends, I caught a glimpse of the path snaking round what appeared to be the summit. I wasn’t certain because the path disappeared into a menacing black cloud. I actually felt a bit spooked standing alone on the mountain with that thing in front of me. I legged it back to Goobie and Matt, admitting to myself that our Easter egg hunt wasn’t going to happen. Not on the summit anyway.

‘Let’s do the hunt here, have some food and head back.’ I said. Matt agreed and distracted Goobie while I hid the eggs.

It wasn’t on the actual summit, but it felt pretty cool having an Easter egg hunt so high up, surrounded by endless mountains. We ate proper food and chocolate eggs and breathed it all in.

My mind returned to that black cloud and the dwindling light. Matt was thinking the same. He pointed out that it took 2.5 hours to get here and if it takes 2.5 hours to get back, we will be walking most of the way in the dark.

That’s when the remoteness really hit me, and not in a good way. The car seemed such a long way away and our home on a different planet, beyond never-ending mountain roads. I actually felt a bit scared. I scooped up Goobie and set off down the mountain at a half-run.

25 minutes later we were back at the car. We’d walked 2k, tops. Two kilometres of start-stop-lob, start-stop-stick, start-stop-lizard, start-stop-wee. Not only had I forgotten that Troodos has its own space-time continuum, I’d forgotten that Goobie has too.