Mooching

Spent the day mooching around the harbour area seeing if much had changed from last year and stocking up on essentials. We generally tend to avoid the harbour area during the day as a couple of boat-loads of day trippers from Rhodes (or 'Rhodents', as they are sometimes referred to) arrive making the place quite busy. Although the businesses welcome them many bring their packed lunches from their all-inclusive resorts on Rhodes so do little to help the island economy.

Although Symi depends on the tourist trade for its income it is far from being a 'resort'. There are beaches and tavernas but no wide sandy beaches with watersports and little to keep families with young children occupied but in many ways it is all the better for that. The old town where we always stay at the top of the 380-odd steps of the Kali Strata is very much a Greek village with hardly a nod to tourism, so you really are living in with the local residents rather than in a tourist enclave. This afternoon I had a wander down through the village and on the way spotted this horse. It's smaller and thinner than those at home but not skinny and clearly well looked after; it will be a working horse so it will be in its owners best interests to look after it.

(Due to the strong light and contrast I had to add quite a bit of HDR treatment to this to bring out the detail in the shadows so it looks a little bit odd in places!)