Sun, sand, good food and naked dip on Greek paradise
WE’RE all dreaming about post-lockdown holidays to get us through the dreary days of quarantine — and Kathryn Thomas is no different.
The former No Frontiers presenter has travelled to dozens of countries and every continent sampling the world’s best holiday destinations. So where is the first destination the cultured star would want to fly to once the travel ban is lifted?
Kathryn is feeling “cautiously optimistic” and making plans for September: “I have a long love affair with Greece. I try to go back once a year, it is where I feel like I’m home.
Especially a beautiful island called Skopelos.”
The destination is famed for its turquoise water and vibrant greenery familiar from the movie Mamma Mia! and Kathryn says it is one of few special places to have stolen her heart.
“It’s the Greek island way of life. The calm, the quiet, the smells... I feel like I am in a different timezone and you can’t rush or be busy. The only thing you can be busy with is eating stuffed vine leaves and tzatziki, tasting calamari by the sea, getting on a moped, touring around, finding deserted beaches, throwing off the clothes, swimming naked, getting back on [the moped] and doing it all over again.”
Kathryn said she has been experiencing holiday ‘FOMO’ (Fear Of Missing Out) while scrolling through old photos, but adds: “I understand there are much more important things going on at the moment and I don’t know what way the world will look then.
“I just hope we are in a position to do it.”
This week, the presenter is back fronting Operation Transformation — Keeping Well Apart, which has been tailored for these challenging times.
Kathryn, who has moved her Pure Results business online where she presents live classes, says the team takes responsibility for the upset caused over the initial title ‘Operation Covid Nation’.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t upset. We got it wrong and that is the bottom line. I think people weren’t fully aware of what the show was and that was a communication downfall on our part but people get what we are trying to do now. We are trying to shine a light,” she says.
“For me the most apparent thing that has come from filming the show is people trying to juggle kids and work and then on the other side — the sheer loneliness some people are going through.”
‘Operation Transformation — Keeping Well Apart’, RTE 1, Wednesday, 9.35pm