How Dr Clare Bailey must endlessly replay her last goodbye to her husband, when Dr Michael Mosley raised his arm aloft then strode on his merry way… only to vanish into this air, writes IAN GALLAGHER

Dr. Clare Bailey was concise and to the point. She noted that it had been three days since her husband – the Mail columnist and TV doctor Michael Mosley – “left the beach to go for a walk. The longest and most unbearable days for myself and my children.’

Words that were all the more powerful because they were simple and without exaggerations. Not that anyone would have blamed her for falling into sentimentality. Not in her state of mind.

As it was, the word “excruciating” symbolized the pain and offered a glimpse into Dr. Bailey’s nightmarish new reality. One moment her husband was by her side on a charming Greek island and everything was right in their world. Then suddenly he was gone.

How must that feel after almost forty years of marriage?

They have had a true partnership, combining a loving relationship with overlapping work commitments. Earlier this year they embarked on a joint theater tour and previously worked together on, among other things, their famous 5:2 diet.

Dr. Clare Bailey and her husband Dr Michael Mosley who went missing on the Greek island of Symi

Police believe Dr Mosley was seen on CCTV in the town of Pedi before making a wrong turn along a path heading north on the island of Symi

What pain, what memories must have floated past Dr. Bailey’s mind over the past few days.

And how she must have replayed their last farewell endlessly, when her husband, a slightly fluffy, bespectacled man of 67, loved by millions, raised his arm and walked purposefully on a cheerful path – only to seemingly disappear into thin air. .

By all accounts he was in good spirits. Perhaps they were lifted by his first glimpse of Symi the day before he went missing.

Viewed from the ferry, the ash-gray mountains suddenly reveal a fascinating vista: a picturesque harbor with colorful neoclassical houses. The next day a boat trip to a hidden beach, a spot for sunbathing, a dip in refreshing clear water. Everyone would have cheered him further.

Certainly, after telling his wife that he would walk to their accommodation instead of returning with her and another couple in the boat, he certainly seemed happy.

A witness to his walk through Pedi, a fishing village, said he “seemed to have a cheerful appearance.”

The English holidaymaker added: ‘I recognized him from the CCTV footage as someone walking right past me.

‘What must have stayed with me was his umbrella, which I later saw on camera images in the media. Because it was so unbearably hot on Wednesday, he used it as a parasol. Yeah, he strolled along, seemed fine.”

The house where Doctor Mosley and his wife stayed

Firefighters take part in a search and rescue operation for Michael on the Greek island

Rescue teams are increasingly concerned about Dr. Mosley, as temperatures have been unbearable at times in recent days and a heat warning has been issued by local authorities

Mysteries like these have a habit of bringing out small details that sometimes take on disproportionate significance. Vital clues that turn into red herrings. What should we make of the reports that Dr. Mosley, after making his way through Pedi’s marina, and after the last CCTV sighting of him, was seen without his purple brolly?

This apparently happened just as he was about to climb a mountain trail under an unforgiving sun. But there’s a lot about this case that doesn’t add up. Last but not least, why should we tackle the Vroulias Mountains at all?

One theory is that he missed the road to the town of Symi and thought he might get back on track over the mountains. If he had continued in the same direction, why was he not seen near Agia Marina, where he could have bought more water?

“If he had been here, we would have seen him,” said a waiter at Agia.

And how treacherous this mountain route actually is. It is undeniably difficult underfoot. Sharp rocks protrude from the unyielding ground, sprouting little other than thistles and stunted shrubs. More likely, the danger lies not in the route itself, but in the heat.

A general view of Agia Marina, at the end of the treacherous route

A sign for the Sinterklaas beach. Dr. Mosley left the beach for Pedi on Wednesday

Agia Marina near Pedi, where police think he went

“We’ve walked across it several times and it’s not treacherous at all,” said a 70-year-old woman called Sue from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. As she acknowledged, she spoke like an experienced hiker. “But it’s not a difficult route,” she insisted. “Which makes his disappearance all the more mysterious.”

Meanwhile, Symi’s sympathetic mayor, Eleftherios Papakalodouka, remains convinced that the answers lie in the mountains.

‘We are searching an area of ​​about 6.5 km and it is very difficult to get through. There are only rocks, no shade, no trees. You can’t survive in 47 degree heat.’

He said Dr Bailey has liaised with authorities and helped police identify her husband on CCTV. “Until they find him, it’s agony,” he added.

When asked how long the search would last, the mayor said, “There’s no chance we’ll call off the search, but I think it will end sometime today.”

Dr. Bailey’s fears must have been assuaged, if only marginally, by the arrival on the island of the couple’s adult children. At least two of the siblings joined the search party, retracing part of the route their father reportedly took up a mountain.

Dr Mosley’s wife, Dr Clare Bailey (pictured together), a GP and columnist for the Mail, raised the alarm after her husband of almost 40 years failed to return from a walk

Dr. Michael Mosley, left, pictured with his wife Dr Clare Mosley at their home in Buckinghamshire

Later, their mother would end her statement with a firm promise. “We will not lose hope.” It was a sentiment echoed by a firefighter who trudged forlornly to Pedi Marina after a day of searching the mountainside.

“We Greeks believe in miracles,” he said. “Please don’t think it’s over yet.”

It seemed to inspire and energize the Greek search and rescue teams. Soon, a red helicopter began circling endlessly around the rocky headland where authorities believe it was lumbering.

Unsurprisingly, this caused a burst of speculation. Were they looking for a network of caves known as The Abyss, which are located under a rock near Agia beach?

Another wave of excitement. The helicopter was now hovering low. Had he been found? But once again it all came to nothing.

None of the rescuers had a firm idea of ​​what happened to Dr. Mosley might have happened. His wife said the search was ‘still ongoing’ and thanked the people of Symi, the Greek authorities and the British Consulate, who were all working ‘tirelessly’ to help find her husband.

Most of all, local residents are baffled as to why Dr. Mosley has not yet been found.

“Everyone thought this would be resolved within hours,” said the owner of a taxi company in Symi Town. ‘The longer it goes on, the stranger the theories. They start with people who don’t know any better.’

In a café at the nearby harbor, some Red Cross volunteers enjoyed a cold drink after their shift.

‘We really thought we were going to find him when we saw the site. Nothing can be hidden there. It’s like he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Either he surprised us all and somehow managed to reach another part of the island. But without being seen? There is no point.’

One of the theories privately shared by Greek authorities is that Dr. Mosley experienced some sort of episode or medical catastrophe caused by the intense heat.

But it still doesn’t explain why he hasn’t been found.

In 2019, Dr Mosley wrote about a holiday with his wife in Cornwall when a dip in the icy sea temporarily erased his memory and landed him in hospital.

“I had no obvious signs of physical or facial weakness, nor was my speech slurred – both telltale signs of a TIA (transient ischemic attack) and a stroke,” he said. ‘I was lucid and the only thing that was clearly wrong with me was the fact that I had no memory of how I got there, or what happened to me.

Surprised, the junior doctor went out to pick up an older colleague. He did another exam and told me the good news that whatever was wrong with me, I had not had a stroke or seizure.

‘Instead, he said that I had almost certainly experienced something called transient global amnesia, and that this was caused by swimming in cold water.

“He said it was like a migraine attack, and although my memory was severely affected, he expected it to return to normal within 24 hours.”

He added: ‘Obviously I’m glad my memory loss wasn’t more severe. And despite this experience, I won’t let it stop me from swimming in cold water in the future.’

Finally, in what now seems like a poignant look back, he added, “But I’ll make sure that when I do, I always have someone with me.”