Long hot summer

OK, it was my fault for saying it, it was late starting, but now we have summer.

We had a short visit to the UK at the end of June for a wedding, and as we left the summer kicked in. Temperatures at Kalamata airport at the weekend after we left were reported to be in the high 40's. Since then we've hardly seen a cloud, every day has been at least 33 degrees, with a few just topping 40.

The downside of the sun is of course that everything in the area, and the whole of Greece, has become tinder dry. Since July we have seen 4 fires in our area, one of which burnt for just over a week before it was finally put out. That fire came closest to us, we were able to watch the flames on the mountainsides for two nights. Fire fighting planes and helicopters pass by on a regular basis, seeing the planes scooping water from the sea is spectacular even if it is worrying. Since the beginning of the year, Greece has had over 3,000 fires reported according to one newspaper report. It’s not only Greece that’s having the problem, we see reports from other Mediterranean countries experiencing the same problems. Unfortunately the resources are being stretched, at least one plane has crashed killing the crew.