diff --git a/.github/workflows/NVHPC.yml b/.github/workflows/NVHPC.yml
index d4c0efbee..4294411b9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/NVHPC.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/NVHPC.yml
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ jobs:
         python${{ env.PYTHON }} -m venv .venv
         source .venv/bin/activate
         # manually add venv dirs to the path and env for later steps
+        ls .venv
+        echo "$(pwd)/venv/bin"
         echo "$(readlink -f ./venv/bin/)" >> $GITHUB_PATH
         echo "$(readlink -f ./venv/bin/) GITHUB_PATH"
         echo "VIRTUAL_ENV=$(readlink -f ./venv/) $GITHUB_ENV"
@@ -190,8 +192,8 @@ jobs:
         -DFLAMEGPU_BUILD_TESTS="${{ env.FLAMEGPU_BUILD_TESTS }}"
         -DFLAMEGPU_BUILD_PYTHON="${{ env.FLAMEGPU_BUILD_PYTHON }}"
         -DPYTHON3_EXACT_VERSION="${{ env.PYTHON }}"
-        -DPython3_ROOT_DIR="venv/bin" 
-        -DPython3_EXECUTABLE="venv/bin/python${{ env.python }}"
+        -DPython3_ROOT_DIR="$(readlink -f venv/bin)" 
+        -DPython3_EXECUTABLE="$(readlink -f venv/bin/python${{ env.PYTHON }})"
         -DFLAMEGPU_VISUALISATION="${{ env.VISUALISATION }}"
         -DFLAMEGPU_ENABLE_NVTX="ON"