At this moment a member of our Athos group 2011 is back on the Holy Mountain and spends his first night in a monastery.

At the moment there is a big difference in the weather situation compared with last year: in stead of sunny skies and sunshine, in the coming days Athos will be covered with clouds and it will rain a lot. For all pilgrims who like to hike on Athos this rainfall radar might be helpfull: meteothes.gr, although the radar does not give the current situation, but of a few hours later.

This is the situation this afternoon at 15.16 h.

A rainshower just passed the centre part of Athos. At 12 o’clock the winds were so heavy, that the boat to Ag. Anna did not sail. It spoiled the itinerary of my friend Jitze, who planned to go there and walk the next day to Lavra. This seems to be a structural thing when travelling on Athos. You can arrange your plans as good as possible in advance, but almost every trip will turn out quit different and plans have be ajusted! So no Skiti Anna on the first day, but probably Iviron for Jitze.

More about the current weather on Athos: see our link to the Vatopedi weather station in the right column.

Wim, 14/9