August 11th 2021
Our stay in Greece has been colored in many ways. We are happy to be safe and at home, as I write; I do not know if this were to be the case had we not made some timely decisions last week.
We made the call to escape inferno’s path last Tuesday. We were vacation on the island of Evia, in Rovies, a quaint village located in the north west corner of the island, with beaches fed by thermal springs. Earlier in the day (before the fire started), we toured a mountainous area with beautiful forest and waterfalls. That area burned less than 12 hours later. One day later, over 160 homes in the Rovies village had been destroyed by the fire.
Our escape was predicated on the knowledge that we could reach a town that had ferry service to the mainland (Aidipsos).
While the Evia fire was one of the worst in Greece, other concurrent fires were raging all over the country. One was in the western area of Athens, that took many days to control. Houses and forests burned. A neighbor’s friend lost several homes in that fire. Smoke from Athens and Evia reached our town of Rafina.
The presence of Antoni and Yianni have made life special this past few weeks. While we have not really vacationed, we will treasure the moments we spent with the children.
19.00 The long-awaited rain seems imminent; sky overcast, with Zeus conducting Orchestra of Lightning…
Odysseus' Quest 