The ‘Cathedral’ is carved in the rocks of Wetherlamb, in Little Langdale in the English Lake District. This cast manmade cave is reached by a dark, dripping adit that must surely have become dangerous over the years. The old miners left a massive central column of blue stone to support the vaulted excavation, half the floor of which is occupied by a seeming bottomless sump filled with dark water. The light comes from a great ‘window’ to the right of the pillar and the effect is simply awe-inspiring.

Ayii Sarandi lacks the sheer scale of this, but in a strange bijou way the effect in similar. The cave entrance, beneath a small man-made dome, is walled in, and access is by a bolted wooden door. The cave is large, formed in limestone; natural, sculptured by millennia of weathering into fantastic shapes coloured black, green and grey.

The grey dome above has been built over a natural pot-hole through which light filters down, and again one is filled with that sense of awe in the silence of this secluded place on the crags of Phanos. For this alone the walk here described would be worthwhile, but there is plenty more to enjoy on this two-hour circuit.

Drive out to Protaras, through the ever spreading but colourful tourist development of this golden coast. As you go it will be hard to miss the striking outline if the Church of Prophitis Elias in its limestone crag. Park on the car park for Monte Elias, and why not warm up by climbing the steps? There are 165 of them, if I have not miscounted, (166 if you include the curb step up from the car park).

The views all around the mini conurbation of Protaras are fine. On a clear day you can see beyond Famagusta to the long line of the Karpas. Inland there is the flat top of Phanos looking more impressive than its mere 174 meters, on the limestone crags if which stands Ayii Sarandi.

Return to the car park and follow the sealed road left up the hill for a short distance in the direction of the Monte Elias apartments. Leave this road at the second turning on the right and skirt around a small building development to reach a dirt road beyond. Follow this road up a gentle gradient, through rough terrain with mimosa, eucalypts and carobs, that is sadly in the process of being engulfed in the spreading tentacles of the Protaras tourist development.

Gradually, as you climb, these incursions of ‘civilization’ become less intrusive and you pass into somewhat more bucolic scenery, with windmills and fields of barley. Soon outcrops of limestone with spiny Burnett and blue-spined thistles start to appear. Ahead the tall radio mast on the summit of Phanos acts as a guide and a very rough track can be seen to the right.

This is the summit route, roughly following a line of wooden telegraph poles. It soon deteriorates onto a foot-track and finally, near the top, it expires on a deeply weathered, uneven limestone pavement, inhabited by mimosa, spiny burnett (crown of thorns) and incredibly persistent trailing thorns. You are now committed to a bit of cross-country, but the radio beacon acts as a landmark and the going, tough at first, gets better.

The radio mast is in fact a military enclosure and no photography is permitted in the locality. Although there is no track, the terrain becomes very open and the going is easy, with isolated bushes. The line to follow is to the left of the enclosure, though before reaching it there are food views on the right towards Ayia Napa. Continue across the plateau, keeping the mast on your right, crossing a line of telegraph poles.

A few hundred meters further on you will find a dirt road leading down to the left. Ahead from this point you will see a low wooded escarpment with plastic green houses near its summit and to the left of this the craggy outline of Cape Greco, Follow the trail down towards a wooded valley ignoring any sidetracks. Soon your eye will be attracted by a tiny grey dome built on the edge of the crag to your left. This is the dome of Ayii Sarandi, which can easily be reached by means of a short detour, as shown on the map.

From Ayii Sarandi, return too the main track, follow it down past a large plastic reservoir and some open sheds that form part of an army training area. From here you can see Monte Elias soon to the right and the roads leads to an electricity sub-station that you will have passed on the ascent.

On reaching this go right at a line of wooden pylons to a water tank overlooking Protaras. The track then descends to the left of this past the colourful Monte Elias Apartments and leads directly down to the car park, where an ice-cold beer at the periptiro will probably not go amiss.