Snow on Attaviros, Rhodes, January 2017

A first glimpse of the mountain, from a field near Kamiros Skala.

Heading inland towards the village of Kritinia from Kamiros Skala.

No, it is not the Alps!  Attaviros, the highest peak on Rhodes.

Bottleneck at the turn off to the mountain road.

Those who had successfully made it to the top were flaunting snow men on their bonnets as trophies for the trip back down.

All sorts of unlikely vehicles made it up to the top. Basically anything with 4 wheels, including one fellow on a quad bike who was covered in mud from top to toe.  As the road is very narrow with a drainage ditch  on the mountain side and a sheer drop on the other vehicles were having to inch past each other and there was much cautious reversing to whatever scraps of verge there might be.

Suddenly we popped out into the forest reserve with woods on both sides. There were a lot of frozen-looking goats but my attempts at photographing them from a moving vehicle were unsuccessful.

Then we started to climb again. By now it was a dirt road with lots of slush and mud everywhere.  

Looking down in the gathering dusk.

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Some of the wind turbines on the top of Attaviros.

It is not often that there is such sustained snow on Rhodes and kids of all ages were out there, enjoying this novel experience.

A Siberian weather system plunged down into Greece over the weekend, bringing snow to parts of Greece that seldom if ever see the white stuff.  We had to go over to Rhodes on business and took advantage of the Blue Star's new Sunday/Monday route to go over and see for ourselves.

We arrived in Rhodes at midday, checked into the Best Western Plaza and then drove down to Kamiros Skala, the small port that serves Halki, for lunch, before heading up into the mountains on our search for snow.  As you can see, there was quite a lot of it!

More snow fell on Rhodes on Sunday night and on Monday the authorities closed the access road, possibly because they were still digging out Smart cars and other unsuitable vehicles from the mountain top!

Monday morning was free for our business and we then caught the Blue Star again at 4 p.m, arriving back in Symi just after 5 p.m.  We hope that the Blue Star keeps this up through the summer as we have not had an afternoon connection from  Rhodes to Symi on a Monday for many years and it will be a big boost to tourism in the area.

The weather has warmed up very slightly with steady rain all day. The forecast for the rest of the week alternates rain with dry spells and some fairly lowly temperatures, albeit getting up into double digits during the day.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Epiphany 2017

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office during the rain storm on Tuesday afternoon.  If you ever go to the webcam at this time of the year and it isn't working, it is because we have unplugged everything due to stormy weather.  As most of Symi's utility lines are above ground lightning strikes do a lot of damage, travelling down telephone lines as well as along power lines, and sorting out the damage can take weeks on a small island so we have to err on the side of caution.

The view from the Symi Visitor Accommodation office this morning as the crowds gather for the Epiphany celebrations.  Similar booths decorated with oranges are erected at Harani, Pedi and Panormitis.

You can see the oranges and the icon quite clearly here. The priest and the mayor are behind all that foliage.

The priest casts the cross into the water from which it is retrieved by the young boys, hence the lad in the bathing trunks while everyone else is wrapped up against the cold.

Splash!

Heading back to dry land for towels, warm clothes and a year of blessings.

A fire burning near Bozburun on the Turkish coast this morning.

A plume of smoke of a very different sort.  Many Symiots use wood-burners in the winter to keep warm as these are quite economical to run and some versions can even be used for cooking.  We can't buy fancy smoke-less fuel here.  Firewood tends to be whatever is available.  The Minister of the Environment appealed to the population earlier this week to avoid using wood fires as they are causing a smog problem in the larger towns and cities.  Unfortunately he did not make any practical suggestions as to what people can realistically do for alternative heating in austerity Greece.

In the absence of heating it is not just the humans who wrap up warmly at this time of the year.  Even the cats plump out with much thicker coats.

It has been a stormy week in Greece and there is more to come as Storm Ariadne brings bitterly cold air down from Siberia.  Much of Greece will be at freezing or below this weekend and early next week.  Even here on Symi we can expect a high of 6 and a low of 4 tomorrow, Sunday and Monday.  Athens will be colder than London, Paris or Rome this weekend and the Athens municipality has announced that the main metro stations will be open to the homeless to shelter from the extreme temperatures.  No one gets hosed down with cold water in shop fronts here as there is a realisation that homelessness is not a lifestyle choice.

The Blue Star came through as scheduled this morning although those travelled on her from Piraeus reported a bumpy ride due to strong winds in the Aegean.

Have a warm weekend, planning your next Symi holiday with Wendy and myself at Symi Visitor Accommodation.

Regards,
Adriana

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