Tag: travel

No Rain on the Horizon

The last time Symi had any significant rain was on 5 March. I am writing this on 14 April and there is still no rain on the horizon. The spring vegetation is already dying back and the ground cracking in many places. Temperatures have been abnormally warm. Great for the Turkish tourists who came over to celebrate Eid and the end of Ramadan but not so great for a region that has experienced the warmest driest winter since records began. There have already been significant wildfires in parts of Greece and farmers in Crete and Southern Rhodes have cut back on their planting of summer crops due to concerns about the lack of water for irrigation.

There are very few tourists actually staying on the island at the moment and the main seasonal hotels will only be opening around the Greek Easter long weekend, at the beginning of May. Rhodes, however, has been busy since the end of March so Yialos has already seen steady day-time trade in the form of tour groups and day-trippers, arriving on the King Saron and the Sebeco. This has given some of the restaurants and cafes in the harbour the impetus to open up, at least for midday trade. The tourist shops likewise. The recent Eid holiday combined with the new express visa system for Turkish tourists wishing to visit selected border islands for 7 days brought some trade but nothing like the prosperous Eid holidays before the pandemic, when the holiday fell during the tourist months of August and July and the Turkish lira was still relatively strong. In those days the megayachts filled the harbour and Pedi and there were big smiles on the faces of many businessmen in Yialos.

Turkish yachts in Yialos on Thursday last week.
The beach at Apostoli’s in Pedi is still a cheerful lineup of wooden caiques.
Not much happening on the jetty in Pedi at the moment as the taxi boats are out of the water, having their bottoms painted.
The beach at Katsaras is still mostly piles of sand and gravel. The staff have started painting the chairs and tables for the taverna and refurbishing the wooden sunbeds. The tamarisk trees have had their annual decapitation. As you can see, the forecourt of the Pedi Beach Hotel on the right, is still devoid of outside furniture as the hotel doesn’t open until 4 May.
The rockface opposite the Asymi Residences hotel in Pedi is a hanging garden of hardy indigenous plants. It might not look like much but there is a feral cat family living in that crevice in the centre of the lower photograph. I only found out because I saw a large ginger cat disappear in there one afternoon. There must be quite a large space in there as the white tip of his tail disappeared completely into the void.
Brave poppies in a carpark in Pedi. The little pocket in which they are growing has probably retained more moisture as it is protected by the concrete.

Wandering in the Wet

A winter wander round Pedi, Symi, in January

The Epiphany on 6 January is a big celebration in Greece. Booths like this, decorated with cypress and palm fronds and crosses of threaded oranges are placed by the water in many places. After a morning church service the priest and congregation gather at the booth. The priest throws a Cross in the water, symbolising the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The local young men then leap into the water to retrieve the Cross. Whoever finds it will be blessed for the year ahead. 

Symi is very quiet. The Twelve Days of Christmas are over and the children are back at school. Their older siblings have departed to universities and colleges in Rhodes, Kos, Athens and Thessalonica. Some of the locals are away, either on holiday or to attend to business and medical things. We don’t have daily ferries at this time of the year so getting things done often necessitates several nights off the island. The Best Western Plaza, which often resembles a Symi colony in the winter, is closed for refurbishment so alternative options are being explored. There are not many hotels open in Rhodes through the winter months and those that are seldom have the kind of restaurant facilities that the Plaza offers.

The Mediterranean does not have much by way of tides. The water levels rise and fall with barometric fluctuations. This time last year a big high pressure system hovered over the Eastern Med for weeks, causing abnormally low water levels. This year we have the opposite situation as successive lows and storm surges are pushing the sea up over the shore. The road around the harbour in Yialos is submerged in many places. Here in Pedi you can see from the photographs that the little jetties are submerged.

La Dolce Vita, the foreign charter boat that gained notoriety as a people-trafficking vessel in the early days of the refugee crisis about a decade ago, sank at her berth alongside the jetty in Pedi at the beginning of November 2023. Initially yellow floats were set up around her as there was a pollution control vessel in Yialos at the time. A week or so later these were recovered but nothing was actually done about raising the boat. In the meantime, with every storm she has settled further under the edge of the jetty and more doors and bulkheads are washing ashore as she breaks up. Quite what the plan is, if any, no one seems to know. Aside from the obvious pollution issues the boat is also a hazard for other ships and small boats using the jetty. As you can see, the angle of the mast cuts right across – a complication for the supply ships that come in every month to bring building materials and need room to swing their cranes.  We shall see…

Have a good weekend.