Wild Fire

The view from our balcony crosses the bay and then the small range of mountains and hills that spread to the south coast just about ten kilometers away here at the narrow eastern edge of the island.
Like all of Greece, Crete suffers from forest fires and here in the Sitia area, home of the finest olive oil in the world, those forests are not natural but groves of olive trees, many over a thousand years old, some over two thousand.
So when we get a fire, it's not just pine trees and scrub, it's history and livelihood and family traditions dating back to the Minoans who lived here and exported olive oil to the Egyptians 1800 years before christ.
The picture from our balcony on this windy night shows how quickly these fires can spread. The picture was taken just 5 minutes after we first spotted the glow of a fire. In five minutes it had become a wildfire, rushing through the groves, throwing flames 30 meters and more into the night sky. There'll be some tears tonight.
Interestingly, the speed at which people are becoming enlightened as to the true way of the world is just about to start emulating this fire. The spark of truth has just caught the tinder, there are millions of torch bearers touching flame to matchwood right now, and the wind's getting up..........some pretty sick history, extremely rich and powerful livelihoods and some devilish family traditions face final and welcome obliteration as this wildfire spreads.
We just have to be very careful and look for the booby traps when they've gone.