The Golden Light of Autumn

Symi is bathed in the golden light of autumn as the shadows lengthen and the days grow shorter.  Misty mornings turn into steamy days and the valley is carpeted with fallen leaves.  There is a small possibility that the island may receive some rain in the form of thundershowers in the course of the week but nature is already showing tentative signs of revival.  Wherever there is moisture the moss is slowly turning green and up on the motor road above Yialos the first squills are punching their way through the tarmac and sending up wavering spires on the rocky hillsides. The end of the long summer drought is in sight.  Temperatures  remain in the thirties and the nights are still warm enough for outdoor living.

The Blue Star Diagoras as seen from the entrance of the Symi Spacephone mobile phone shop
one recent Saturday morning.

"Wish me luck as you wave me good bye!"

Down in the harbour, the Blue Star Diagoras is carefully manoeuvring  her way out of Yialos, en route from Pireus to Rhodes.  This is the only car ferry we have at the moment and when her program finishes in a few weeks Symi will be stranded unless the rumoured car ferry acquisition of Dodecanese Seaways becomes fact.  The ANES website is now showing no schedules whatever, only a weather forecast, so the outlook is not promising.  All Symi’s hopes are pinned on Dodecanese Seaways at the moment but their existing fleet is not designed to take more than a few cars and cannot take trucks or large amounts of freight, hence the anxiety about car ferries.  Symi has a permanent all year round population of about 3000 people and they require food, drink and all the other necessities of life. One thing is certain, Symi is rapidly reverting to the quiet island of the Seventies and Eighties.  For more travel news, please read Andy’s travel blog.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana