THERE were nine of us sharing the table, and the toast was in Greek. ``Yiassas!'' Before us lay a splendid array of dishes, in the tradition of the Cypriot meze, a banquet as Arcadian as its setting, a village taverna in the wild Akamas region of north-western Cyprus.

As much as the lunch, we savoured the moment, a pleasant relief from the pangs of a morning's drive in the back of a Landrover over rough, bone-shaking tracks - pretending perhaps we were younger than we were.

It was all the idea of David Pearlman, an astute American well read on the stones of Cyprus and an expert on the Akamas, who in 1986 had spotted the potential of tours in this remote and beautiful corner of the island.

He founded EXALT (Excursion Alternatives), a Paphos-based agency specialising in motorised rambles off the beaten track. A form of pleasure through-endurance that was limited, perhaps, to the kind of person who shared his own fascination and concern for an increasingly threatened environment.

The morning had been perfect, starting with a drive up the coastline north of Paphos and then, beyond the tarmac, along a dirt road winding above the coves of white, sea-carved marl. Turning inland, we paused on the rim of the Avgas Gorge, a deep rift in the limestone whose eroded walls made crannies for browsing goats and nests for kestrels.

In contrast to its barren summit, a profusion of greenery flourished at the foot of the gorge where the temperature was cooler: oriental plane trees, oleander and cypress. Driving further into the interior we'd found a maquis-land of lentisk, juniper, and pine giving way to stubbly, rock-strewn uplands.

Our lunch was in Drousha, the main village of the region. In an island where the country population is progressively migrating to the towns or to foreign parts, Drousha has survived, thanks to the tenacity of its people and a new awareness on the part of the Cyprus government to the need to promote ``green'' or ``agro'' tourism.

This has taken the form of subsidies for the restoration of village houses in the Akamas, Troodos mountains, and other rural areas and their conversion to holiday accommodation, and for the revival of the villages themselves by the creation of museums, handicraft shops, and tavernas - all, of course, in the local style.

This has been seen as the only alternative to two extremes: decay and exploitation. We saw examples of both. To the north decay was in the villages abandoned as a result of earthquakes, economic failure or, saddest of all, the conflict of 1974, when the Turkish-Cypriot community left their homes for the northern part of the island.

Further north we entered the Akamas Forest, stretching as far as the westernmost tip of the island, Cape Arnauti. The only coastal area of the island which had not been deforested, this sanctuary of pine and evergreens is the garb of the authentic Cyprus. Returning southward along the bump corniche of the west coast to Cape Drepanon, we passed above Lara Bay, focus of conservationists. This is the last breeding ground of the Mediterranean green turtle,.

But the warning signs of development were already there - literally. Half a mile to the south we saw boards which said ``Sunbeds and Umbrellas''.

Further information: the Cyprus Tourism Organisation 213 Regent Street, London, WIR 8DA; Telephone: 0171-734-9822; Sunvil Holidays, Sunvil House, Upper Square, Old Isleworth, TW7 7BJ; Telephone: 0181-568-4499.