Stuck in Rhodes

[TooTrusting]

I was just east of Gennadi, 5 minutes away, at Atlantica Dreams resort (Tui). All day yesterday there was a steady stream of evacuated guests from other hotels arriving.
The fire seemed to die down at around 3pm. But by 7 it was raging again.
We were told one of us needed to stay up all night to listen gif the evacuation siren.
There were hundreds of evacuees there by then.
Just before 10pm we were evacuated. We walked to the road where there was a coach and some cattle trucks. It was chaos and hard not to be separated from my DCs (23, 19, 17 & 17). We had no idea where we were going. I had to calm and keep company 2 distraught children (circa 14 and 8) who had got separated from their parents. I lost a shoe and one DC their phone. We had to jettison the one small cabin size suitcase we had brought our essentials in.
Our truck broke down and we walked about a mile, again not knowing where we were going, and were eventually directed onto Gennadi beach. There were around 2000 people there all crammed together. Small boats, capacity around 10, went back and forth between ferry boats and the shore. There was no Dunkirk spirit. People were tired, upset and frightened. Some had not slept for 2 nights.

It took 4 hours until we finally managed to get on one at around 2. It was bedlam with everyone shoving and barging. I was separated from the DCs several times. Nobody knew where we were going.

We were on the ferry around 4 hours before arriving in Rhodes Town at c6.30am. We sailed through ash clouds and people had towels tied round their faces. People were taken off in different buses. We ended up in a school with 150 others. But there was nothing there for us, no beds, mats, washing facilities or food and it was boiling hot.
There was no list so the authorities have no idea who has gone where. It is a total lie for Tui to say they have re accommodated everyone. They have not. They have no idea where I am and until their phone lines open I cannot contact them either. The only info we have been given is an FCO number for advice on travel and consular assistance (which we don't need).
Luckily I have 24 hour insurance access and when I'd re charged my phone was able to establish I am covered (was worried it would be an "act of God"). I have booked a hotel for 1 night, after a long search. I've just arrived - it's chaos with everyone sleeping on the floor.
Just before we left the school a band of volunteers arrived laden with food and one of them thinks our hotel may have been burned down and we are unlikely to get back to try to retrieve our stuff. She says Gennadi is mostly gone.

We leave on Wednesday. We can't check in here til 2 and need to go and buy clothes and essentials. All we have is what we are standing in.

In all honesty I don't think you can generalise with sweeping statements around sailing yachts... Yes they are less damaging than a motor yacht. And a simple wooden traditional yacht with simple sails and no engine would be very low impact. (Assuming they don't put any waste, human or otherwise into the ocean...)

But a lot of yachts are just floating caravans with a heavy carbon footprint in their production and that's before you think about the amount of time many amateur sailors run their engines. Not awful but not exactly eco-halo territory either.

You're certainly right about the production, and I'm no fan of the identikit white shiny ones you see around the Solent marinas etc, but a well made fibre glass yacht could and should last for decades. And, while you do get nervous day sailors doing a bit too much motoring, you certainly wouldn't be able to get to Australia or South America doing that- you'd run out of fuel!

@Fallenangelofthenorth

For those unfamiliar with boats they come in different sizes and shapes. A yacht is a different type of boat to a cruise ship:

I understand there are different types of yacht but @PrincessofWellies also spent 11 weeks earlier this year on a cruise ship sailing around south America and antarctica to see the penguins. This was a cruise ship with onboard swimming pools and Jacuzzis. And then went on to lecture OP for her flight to Greece

@TooTrusting OMG! You have all been through such a trauma so please be prepared for the possibility of anxiety, panic & PTSD fall out once you get back to the UK. You may feel survivor guilt too. All is totally normal after a traumatic event but if you are struggling please reach out for support ❤

Glad to hear the town where your hotel is seems to be ok & hopefully that will be the continuing news from there.
I haven’t heard of any human lives being lost, yet, but I haven’t really watch the news since last week just heard snippets on the radio. Lots of pets, animals, property, memories & possessions will have been lost & that will be so hard for so many.
You are allowed to be upset about losing stuff too.
I hate waste of any kind & my adhd, OCD & anxiety would be battling with each-other & picking at me so badly over leaving anything behind but this was an emergency situation & you had no choice.
Hope you get back to the hotel to get your things but if not remember you are insured; hopefully that will help settle any panic or anxiety around that.

Please keep us updated & let us know how you get on/you get back to the UK safely.

This sort of thing will totally be a more frequent occurrence & people need to have a plan if they go somewhere that normal has fires.

X Safe journey home X

I meant lower cost houses.

Jeez. No new clothes, no travelling, no meat and the rest - what a life! Might as well feck the planet up real quick and be done with it, because all the joy is being sucked out of it anyway!

Reported for being incoherent and full of it

Whynot join the fight for a basic income, better working rights and lower houses so people do not need to fly off and pollute theplanet.

That's all good but why do you think these will stop people travelling and polluting the planet? If anything more disposable income will mean more travel?

As for the island, it is devastating that people are losing their livelihoods. It's not a simple situation though. They built hotels, they encouraged an industry which creates pollution and contributed to the very climate change they are now suffering from. It's not only the tourists who are to blame.

Well said!

Wrong thread

Back to competitive suffering it seems
Yes, sorry, this is all my own fault and I'm so selfish for being upset at my own situation and don't feel at all sorry for the people who have it much tougher.
Have you actually read my posts? Thought not 🙄

Yachts are single hulled sailing boats. Anything without sails is not a "yacht".

As such they are more environmentally friendly than pretty much any form of long distance transport.

Air Travel is absolutely booming so I think most people will disagree with you and enjoy their one holiday of the year. We’ve had several years of holidaying in the UK, people have had the chance to experience holidays here and would prefer to fly abroad than sit in a soggy caravan in Devon or rammed traffic in Cornwall! Sadly for the OP she got caught in a natural disaster (which have always occured in this part of the World). Tourists/locals are not to blame, its just a very sad situation.

A sensible person on the news last night said school holidays should be looked at again as its never made sense to have 6 weeks off in the hottest part of the year (in fact it doesn’t make sense to have 6 weeks together at any part of the year from a childcare perspective). Holidays broken up throughout the year, perhaps longer at Easter and October would give more time to travel in slightly less hot months.

Sorry to read all this and cant believe some are using this to get on their soap boxes. I have been following the news and hope you and everyone else is safe.

@WestwardHo1 better tell these people they've got it wrong

I have absolutely no idea how your post relates to mine.

If I remember rightly, that poster had been in a yacht AND a cruise ship (for 11 weeks apparently).

A sensible person on the news last night said school holidays should be looked at again as its never made sense to have 6 weeks off in the hottest part of the year (in fact it doesn’t make sense to have 6 weeks together at any part of the year from a childcare perspective). Holidays broken up throughout the year, perhaps longer at Easter and October would give more time to travel in slightly less hot months.

Not sure it’s sensible from a climate change perspective. School summer holidays prevent people travelling. It’s often too busy or too expensive. And hot obviously. For those reason it’s typically one holiday abroad and maybe some domestic time away for most people with kids. For people without kids they avoid the summer holidays for much the same reasons.
Breaking up the school holidays means more opportunities to fly away somewhere. Adding to the damage.

From a climate change perspective it doesn't make any difference whether you travel at Easter or in August.
From a cost perspective school holidays will always be more expensive than non school holidays whatever time of year - look at October/February pricing for school holiday/non school holiday weeks.

I'm so sorry for the suffering and trauma you have suffered in having your holiday ruined.

Meanwhile in other news a Greek fire fighting plane has crashed with two people on board:

cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/xU4Estol

Some may say it shouldn't be about "competitive suffering" whereas others might view it as putting your own personal suffering into perspective.

@Isitautumnyet23 there’s a simple historical reason for 6 weeks off school in the summer - harvest. Either for children to help gathering it in or to allow families to move around as seasonal workers. Obviously that has now been supplanted by technology but the “tradition” persists.

I remember a friend of mine (late 90s) going to a school that experimented with holidays and rather than doing the 6 weeks school/half term/6 weeks school/2 weeks off format they did 8 weeks in school followed by 2 weeks off and then 4 weeks in the summer. They worked backwards from Christmas, so it meant returning to school in late August, but it seemed to work well.

That's terrible. Until today there have been no deaths.
Why on earth do you think I need my suffering put into perspective? I haven't moaned at all. I've acknowledged that none of this is remotely catastrophic for me and that it has been for others. I purposely put this in AMA because I thought people may want information - the clear intention has been to give an account through my eyes. Not to wave a "look at me aren't I tragic" flag. Ffs.