Storms and Spring Flowers

Symi in the first two weeks of April was a turbulent place, alternating between strong southerly winds laden with Saharan sand (spiced up with some volcanic ash from Mount Etna’s latest eruptions) and northerly gales that took temperatures back down into single figures for a few days. Blue Star ferries managed to adhere to their scheduled routes but Dodecanese Seaways, with much smaller and lighter craft, had to cancel or reschedule some routes as they cannot run over a Force 6.

It has been a dry spring and it has been more than a month since Symi last had significant rains. The sheep are munching faster than the flowers are growing. The hills and valleys are rapidly reverting to summer brown as you can see from the photographs.

You will notice that I have not mentioned the C word or travel in this blog. This is because the situation is changing hourly these days, with the run up to Greek Easter, and anything I tell you or give you links to is likely to be superceded by something else by the time you read it.