Allure of hot, remote Greek islands proves deadly for tourists

As we go through Australian winter, with the longed-for “on annual leave” status getting closer in the diary, the excitement of a holiday on a Greek island reaches its peak: the azure sea; the whitewashed facades of the marina-fronted buildings promising ice-cold drinks; the beaches and coves a siren call to all of us used to rain and cloud.

Along with their remote spots, difficult-to-reach coves and stunning headlands, the Greek islands have it all.

Alonnisos island, Sporades, Greece. Greek islands are stunning, but the terrain can be deadly.Credit: iStock

But since the death of the much-loved broadcaster Michael Mosley, who was found on June 9 close to the Agia Marina beach on the island of Symi, five days after initially going for a simple, solo walk from the beach, the news has been filled with tragic stories of more holidaymakers – typically Europeans – dying while attempting to hike in the islands’ extraordinary heat.

Six more died or went missing on the Greek islands in June, all cases attributed to taking risks in a heatwave.

A 67-year-old German man became the latest casualty after he set off alone on a canyon hike on the island of Crete, which had been experiencing temperatures near 45 degrees. A few hours into the walk he’d called his wife to report that he’d been feeling unwell; he was later found dead near a ravine.

Before that, on June 15, the body of a Dutch man, 74, was found dead in a ravine on the eastern island of Samos after being reportedly seen struggling to walk in the heat. A day later, a missing American man was also found dead on the island of Mathraki, near Corfu – the third to lose his life in a week.

Meanwhile, searches are taking place for three tourists: two French women, aged 73 and 64, who are missing on Sikinos, and a retired Los Angeles sheriff deputy, Eric Calibet, 59, with dual French-American citizenship, who was last seen hiking alone on Amorgos.

The area where the body of missing British TV presenter Michael Mosley was found.Credit: AP

“This has always been a problem, especially with tourists who arrive in the islands for the first time,” says Konstantina Dimoglidou, a spokesperson for the Greek police. “What happened was that due to the heatwave, all cases occurred almost simultaneously in a matter of days, while most other years they would be spread over the summer. Rescuers who were looking for Mosley told me that the thermometer in the place where he was found was at 46 degrees at some point.”

In recent weeks, Greece has experienced two back-to-back heatwaves, with temperatures reaching beyond 40 degrees. Schools shut down and the culture ministry was forced to close the Acropolis and other archaeological sites to visitors. Red Cross volunteers handed out thousands of free bottles of water and Athens’ town hall has set up cooling stations. But paths on the islands, by their very nature wild and uncontrolled, remained completely unregulated.

Authorities typically issue warnings to older locals to stay indoors and to keep hydrated, and yet warnings are not issued to tourists about the dangers of hiking.

For locals who live on the islands, the recent deaths are tragic but also, they say, sadly avoidable. Mosley’s death has trained a spotlight on hiking in the islands, but lost and often ill-equipped tourists have always been a problem there. Usually, tourists are found in time or re-orientate themselves before their energetic intentions become tragic. Sometimes they are never found.

The weather in all such cases of tourist hikers getting lost is always hot – often tourists are seen on trails without hats, which baffles locals – but this year, say experts and locals, it is the combination of unusual heat and hiking that has proved especially deadly.

One local on the island of Antiparos, who did not wish to be named, said: “It is usually OK to hike on the islands in June, but this year we have seen an unusual and prolonged heatwave. I believe that when Michael Mosley went missing, for instance, rescuers were looking for him in 40 degrees. It is just uncharacteristically hot.”

The woman, from England, now lives in Athens but travels to Antiparos regularly. She adds that very few tourists realise that many of the islands, particularly towards southern Greece, have their own micro-climate.

There is often little shade and no trees. Sometimes the much-longed-for breeze on a Greek island can lead to dangerous decision making: it masks the heat, tricking tourists into thinking activity such as hiking is safer than it actually is.

Walking on the islands is often tempting because the views are so exceptional and because often the smallest, craggiest paths can lead to the best coves or views. But the local woman cautions that those small paths are often confusing and once lost on them, it can be difficult for a walker to get back on the right route, as was the case with Mosley: “I do think the rescue teams try their best, but these hikers are often lost in very remote areas, or on donkey trails where there are just monasteries and abandoned farms.

“There is also often no phone signal and they are incredibly tough conditions in which to search for someone. I have hiked before in June, early in the morning and with a group, but really people should not hike alone when it is this hot.”

Another local, who lives in Parga, a coastal town off the Ionian sea on mainland Greece, adds: “It has of course been hotter than ever. But I think this is cumulative. We’ve had so many forest fires in recent years, they have destroyed any greenery and made the islands more prone to being bone dry and also flooding.

“It is very dangerous to hike out here in the summer. None of these missing people are Greek. The locals know of the dangers, but we don’t really understand why others don’t see it.

“Of course, it should also be noted that the number of tourists who came to Greece last year was well over 30 million. So although the deaths are tragic they are a tiny number.”

The meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos told the TV channel ERT: “This heatwave will go down in history. In the 20th century, we never had one before June 19.”

This month’s searches are in stark contrast to the attempt, five years ago, to find John Tossell, a 78-year-old from Bridgend, Wales, who went missing on a walk while on holiday in Zakynthos.

In a case that echoes Mosley’s to the point of being chilling, the last confirmed sighting of him was captured on CCTV footage, in his case passing a hotel, heading out of town towards Vassilikos. The Greek authorities called off the search after five days, forcing his daughter Katy to launch her own fundraising campaign.

Tossell’s son, Gary, has since said he was disappointed by the rescue team’s efforts back then: “They just went out walking. It was like a walk in the park for them. There was no intensity to their efforts. They said a team was coming from Athens with dogs and specialists but for some reason that got turned off at the last minute. After five days they stopped entirely. They said he must have left the island but he had €10 ($16) and a bottle of water.”

Katy Tossell raised £7000 ($13,300) herself, which she used to bring a Welsh rescue team to Zakynthos to keep looking, but they too called off the search after seven days and the family have yet to find answers.

Mosley’s case, on the other hand, attracted international media coverage. He was a high-profile UK television personality. Could this be why the search was so different from that for John Tossell? Or perhaps the Greek authorities had learned a lesson from too many near fatalities?

“When I read the story, it’s like a cut and paste of my father,” Tossell’s son Gary told Sky News after Mosley’s disappearance. “He went for a walk and he vanished into thin air. It’s the same story but a different person.” John Tossell’s family suspect foul play. Though he was 10 years older than Mosley and could have died of natural causes, they remain mystified as to why his body has never been found.

In Mosley’s case, the search involved patrol boats, divers, helicopters, firefighters, police, drones and a sniffer dog, and yet it still took five days before the body of the 67-year-old was discovered. The search operation in Samos for the 74-year-old Dutch national was also extensive: a rescue team, four drones, a sniffer dog brought from Athens and an EU border agency helicopter.

Dimitris Katatzis, who headed that team, described a common hazard that mirrored Mosley’s error: “walkers veering off track”. Mosley died within hours of setting off, on the very first day he went missing.

The Telegraph, London

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