Any signs that the season is drawing towards a close? Not yet. Traditionally, the season ends in October when charter flights start to wind down, although over in Rhodes, we’ve seen cruise ships coming in during the winter months. This doesn’t mean the tourist places there are all open between November and February. It means that when word of a ship gets around, some places in the Old Town reopen like pop-up shops, grab the visitors for the morning, and then go back to sleep. Not many, but we’ve seen it through the winter. A bright, sunny, but clear and cool day in the early spring is a perfect time to visit Rhodes and wander the cobbled streets of the Old Town with views across to Turkey from the higher parts, or the moat. There are only a few cafes and similar open, and none of that hawking you in for a boot of beer. But that’s in Rhodes.

Here on Symi, I guess we can say that the season begins to wind down proper from mid-October when, usually, the taxi boats stop running, and the more hard-to-access beaches start to close. I’ve always been told that the taxi boats have six-month licenses that run between May and October, which makes sense. There’s very little demand after that time, and no point buying an all-year license for hardly any work. The beach tavernas, too, aren’t profitable when there are no tourists, or only a few visitors, and sunbathing in December, though possible, is not always much fun. As Dickens wrote in Great Expectations: It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. That starts to happen here about now, and runs on until the weather changes its mind in spring.

There is one thing I wonder about. What happens to all those sunbeds in the winter? Do they pop off for a week’s cruise around the Med? Perhaps they stow away in the guise of on-board facilities, looking like an innocent deck lounger, but actually enjoying some time off (save for the occasional over-fed rump of a passenger taking advantage). Maybe they just get put in the closed taverna and left to recuperate for five months.

Anyway, back to: Any signs that the season is drawing towards a close? Well, yes and no. Yes, in that the weather is starting to change. A cooler breeze (with, apparently, strong winds this Thursday), shorter days, and exhausted waiters, chefs, and anyone else who has been working 16 + hour days since May with no day off. Up here, the evenings are still busy — there was a queue at Georgio’s the other evening — and reports tell me the bars are still doing good evening business. Everything remains open up here and down in town (I will be there later and can check, but it’s still too early to call it a day). So, yes, the season is approaching its end, but I’d say we’ve got another three, nearly four, weeks to go before we see a shutdown. All the same, we’re seeing visitors going for earlier dinners, some days are spent away from the beaches, there is more people-watching in cafes, it’s good walking weather, and now we have bicycles for hire, you can always go cycling. They, of course, add to the still-available cars, mopeds of all breeds, quad bikes, electric bubbles, minibuses, boats and, possibly, scooters that are almost legion, and filling the road as much as vague day trippers do after stepping off a boat.

So, it’s not over yet, but for those who have been working from nine in the morning until well after midnight, the end is in sight.