Earthquake
activity in Greece was back to very low levels in June, certainly very much
less than in May. However, it is worth remembering that earthquakes
never go away, the shaking of the earth simply decreases for a while... 08
Jun: 4.6 Richter Scale, 05.39am. Evia.
Epicentre 75Km NE of Athens.
Link
to Story.
23 Jun: 3.9
Richter Scale, 09.00am. Mandra. Attika.
Epicentre 20Km NW of Athens.
Link
Closed.
25 Jun: 4.6 Richter Scale, 05.49am. Cephalonia.
Undersea epicentre 13Km E of Cephalonia.
Link
to Story.
We apologize for being unable to bring
all the earthquake story links - some past links are no longer
available whilst others are available only for short periods. We
are indicating closed links as quickly as possible. Link
Closed. |
Earthquakes are a common feature of life in Greece and rarely cause any damage.
They are, however, taken seriously, as can be seen from the recent emergency
exercise for rescue workers held in Volos, mainland Geece.
Link
to Story.
The problem is that the earthquakes which do are unpredictable. Recent Greek research has indicated a continued advance in
methods
of prediction.
At least one
professor (Vassilis Papazachos) believes that there will be at least 4 major earthquakes in the future.
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A Little Extra News....
Well, all good things to all men! And women and children first of course....
Especially as we are about to depart once again on one of our pilgrimages to
the UK. Hence the 'women and children first' offering. That is, a
good part of the trip is by boat - Greek car ferry - and although I believe
firmly that our driver, ANEK shipping lines, are probably the safest in
Greece, I do not like the thought of having to clamber into a lifeboat donned
in a fluorescent red dinner Jacket with flashing lights, bells and whistles in
the depths of a dark night. In a force 10, after being run down by an errant
iceberg!
Women and children first then... I mean, it looks along way down to the water
from the boat deck of even the average car ferry.
First a day crossing (first time) from Souda to Piraeus compliments of the
good ship Lato. Then across the top of the Peloponnese (Piraeus-Patra) by car
and a midnight departure for Venice On Lefka Ori. All ANEK Boats which
we know... A week in Venice - where that car park costs nearly as
much as the people (unless I really am the new owner) and where we are meeting
our son and his partner Tracey before departing for a couple of days crossing
Europe. A brief overnight sojourn at Buochs (Lucerne) before braving
again the 17Km St Gothards tunnel. Then on to Metz in France and the Black Cat
restaurant If you are ever in that part of France give it a go- a wee bit
pricey but well worth it.
Calais - Dover and on to Luton en-route to our family home in Lincoln.
Then four weeks pining for Crete before a roughly reversed the procedure
- but this time leaving from Hull on the P&O ferry to Zeebrugge adding
Epinal in France and maybe a different hotel in Switzerland (our favourite at
Buochs being full) and a new stop at Imola in Italy en-route Ancona. The ANEK
Lines Hellenic Spirit back to Patra. Drive to Piraeus Harbour and Lissos
- to which we are firmly attached and an early morning (6.30am) coffee at the Rendezvous
Cafe while the sun rises..... Home again.
It is absolute magic! And, emotionally, that early morning coffee in
Souda is still as moving as the first arrival - getting on for 13 years ago
now. With Christmas to look forward to! Fly to Athens (Agean); Easyjet to
Luton; Christmas and January with family and friends; Easyjet back to Athens
in February and a day or so waving my camera about before a fast trip back
here to Crete by Agean Airlines. I like Agean so much because they are a
superb airline - and because they fly Avro RJ100's..... I grew up not far from
the runway of the Avro works at Woodford in Cheshire. I spent much of my time
wanting to pilot, first Lancasters; then Shackletons; and then the mighty
Vulcan... If you have never seen a Vulcan perform aerobatics over your
back garden (in Lincoln) you have missed something serious in life! The last
flying Vulcan was decommissioned from Waddington - I watched it leave for the
last time...
Reminiscences supreme... Apologies. So what about Cretanvista? No
problem - the whole team will be beavering away. Paul Smith watching the
birds in case they are stolen.... Colin Turvey taking pictures of them for the
insurance company... Ann Lisney attempting to convince herself that my demands
really are unreasonable; Klaus Thill thinking out why my new demand for a
gallery of the photo-book on Chania he has yet to complete is difficult (..he
has yet to compile the book!).. and their partners wondering why I don't pay
so well!! The reason is because money would only make them all unhappy -
so I don't give them any!
And what about Bob Manousakis - the dentist currently displaying my latest
artistic efforts in his Chania surgery? A man of steel nerve. (Or is
that Iron?). Want to see my efforts before he sells the pictures (or donates
them) for the benefit of children here in Chania? Easy, go on, make a
kid smile - have a tooth out!!
Cretanvista, bringing the sunshine - keeping the rain off!..
Kalos Ithate Stin Kriti
WB.
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Site News.
More additions: But not a lot of site
changes this month. Having said that new May diary from Paul Smith
on bird watching went online online early in June; photographs for new
pages in the bird gallery are awaiting addition; new additions pending to the flower
galleries are still in the queue; preparation of the new
Athanasios Sakoulis nature gallery continues; two further copies of Carol Palioudakis to give her CD book about living
in Crete (current issue competition) are on the desk; a new recipe is prepared (and the results
have been eaten)...
So what are we waiting for? The answer to that lies in "A Little Extra
News".... immediately below the Earthquakes report opposite
left.
Books &
Good Reading - Latest Reviews.
New Addition. Our latest book is 'Greek Island Hopping'
by Frewin Poffley. Ann Lisney,
our reviewer does not want to miss the boat and adds this Island Hopping
'bible' to her reviews.
Read the review:-
Greek Island Hopping.
Frewin Poffley. Thomas Cook Publishers.
It is very well worth a look, or perhaps even a buy
if the review appeals. Not from us, but details of suppliers are on each
review.
Tip:
The publisher has a very good current price...
The people behind the books: Every
book review has an introductory paragraph about the author/s. We have decided
to go a little further and where possible, include profiles of not only these
talented authors but also, where we can, of people behind them.
Good examples are 'Patouchas' -
Ioannis Kondylakis (Read
the review) and 'Who Pays The Ferryman' - Michael J. Bird (Read
the review) These profiles will be attached to relevant book
reviews. Watch this space...
Photo Galleries Still
at the MARCH 2006 additions..
Wild Flowers: Stands at 192 different wild flowers. 99% have
been taken right here at the base of the Rodopos peninsula. We are continually
working on these galleries and will soon been adding further pages, including
detailed reference pages and more photos of each specimen. There are now more
than 4,000+ flower photographs in our databases. The galleries will rise to
216 specimens ASAP - an additional 24 are still in the workshop! Detailed
descriptions will follow soon.
Bird Galleries. Gallery Page 3
pending...
The first page of our first purely bird photograph gallery
went on line on 26th March 2006. Colin Turvey (see
February News) has now added a second page and we are now working hard on adding
page 3 - more of Colin's bird
photographs - a big plus for Cretanvista.
And More - Athanasios Sakoulis, who contributed the magnificent gallery from his book
on Cretan wildlife to our site Moments
of Cretan Nature has now contributed 18 pictures of birds
for addition to a gallery. We will attach this to Paul Smith's bird-watching
page in the near future. Something worth waiting for... Just a little
longer, we are very busy right now..
But that isn't all... Anastasios Sakoulis has also
given us permission (and supplied the photographs) to produce a gallery of his
latest book. A book of 20 superb postcards of Cretan wildlife called Naturally...
Crete. Ann Lisney will also be reviewing the book in the near
future. What can I say - another first en-route, watch this space!...
Special Gallery. A first! Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of
Minaturkapellen
auf Krista, a real photo album detailing some of those enigmatic roadside shrines of
Crete. Klaus has supplied photographs for this gallery which is now on-line here at Cretanvista.
There will also be, of course, a review the book...
Insects.. In
prepartion..
We have built up - and are still adding to - an extensive collection of photographs from which
we are producing galleries for our wild life page. The next of these
will be insects - about which we have received few queries, but many of which
are supremely photogenic. We have some beautiful reptiles too...
GENERAL: There are now 13 galleries featuring aspects of Cretan
life, including sunrise and sunset pictures; Souda Bay War Cemetery; and the
gallery of magnificent wild-life pictures by Anastasios Sakoulis,
author of "Stigmotipa Tis Kritikis Freesis" (Moments of Cretan
Nature); our infant gallery about house
renovation; and of course our annual calendar galleries containing 60 or so
pictures of north western Crete about to increase by 12 - for 2005. The 2006
calendar gallery is on-line. LINK.
Visitors...
May saw a slight drop on April's 24,277 visitors to our sites.
14,082 to our British
ISP and 5922 to our Greek ISP. We only count a visitor once in any
month. 'Hits' are something else - from the visitors to our Greek site
alone we generated 43,392 'hits'... The figures are nice - 20,044 - they really
mean that our hard work saw over 646 different people a day knock on our door
- anyone for coffee?!!
What gives us a lot of pleasure is looking at the countries our visitors are
in. Where they are sat while (or stood) looking at our site while we
delivered in excess of 46,468 pages...
52 countries! Whilst Europe and the USA are home to the vast majority of
visitors, we have a small number from more distant locations - India;
Indonesia; Australia, New Zealand; South Africa; Taiwan; South America - Peru;
Columbia; Costa Rica; Mexico; and also from the Russian Federation!
Magic - Peru! Columbia! Costa Rica!
Over 200 Universities also provide visitors....
Every single visitor to our site is precious to us. For the most part we
will never know who you are or what you think of us. Those who ask
questions often provide us with new insights into what people want to see, why
they visit Crete. In some cases why they want to live and work
here. One or two get to meet one of our team - usually Paul Smith - our
intrepid bird watching expert. A popular
person!
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