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| Antikythera red map pin, North Cyprus blue map pin |
J reminds me of our first flirtation with the thought of Mediterranean living. Many years ago. Thirty? Bought a weekly Telegraph at the 7-11 in Dryden and spotted a seductive piece describing a Greek government scheme for allowing suitable applicants to live rent free on uninhabited islands. Preference given to those with plans for green agricultural projects. Sounded idyllic. Come up with an idea for growing multicoloured carrots or whatever, and arrive with a trunkload of books. Paradise.
Don’t remember giving thought to much else - although in all fairness we didn’t apply, didn’t even check the validity dates on our passports. Not disturbed by considerations like the quality of shelter. Build our own? Would there be trees? And food. Apart from the multicoloured carrots that is. Gardening pretty hard work if it’s providing your only source of sustenance. Would take quite a chunk of time away from that trunk of books. Had vague images of sitting in the sun reading and sipping wine. And most Greek islands run to a rough local wine. Not classic vintage but authentic - for what that’s worth. But wait. That would be INHABITED islands. Wine to be purchased from local villagers. This was to be - in fact the whole point was - an uninhabited island. Would there be wild grapes. Enough experience with wine making not to have high expectations.
Had not at that point spent a winter in the Mediterranean. It is not all created equal. Roughly speaking, the farther east you go the warmer the average winter temperature. No matter how far east you go January is unlikely to be sleeping on the beach weather. Furthermore rainfall is unequally distributed. Cyprus and Crete are similar in size but in Crete the average high temperature in December is 18, in January 11. Rainfall in December is 197 mm, in January 160 mm. By comparison, Cyprus average highs are 18.9 in December and 17.1 in January. December rainfall averages 95 mm and January 80 mm. About twice as much winter rain in Crete.
Still theoretically possible to move to a Greek island without paying. Actually somewhat better terms than those on offer some thirty years ago, though much more prudent from the Greek government’s point of view. The island of Antikythera, south of mainland Greece and a little northwest of Crete, is in fact paying families to move there. New residents can be given a home, a piece of land, and €500 ($740.84 CAD, £415.57) a month for the first three years. Access to electricity, basic plumbing, limited water supply and even internet (not a factor to be considered thirty years ago - hence the trunk of books). They are, however, looking for families with three or more children and hoping to increase skilled labour in the population.
An attractive enough proposition in its own way. But happy to have chosen winters in North Cyprus.
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