Blissful sleep from 03:50 after I awoke to find there was still some night left. The absence of moon does not appear to have affected the doggy ability to get up to go out for a walk. It is new moon today. No cars in the beach car park but it was Sunday morning so I guessed there might be people about. The Parrot Fish Men with the little boy got barked at on a couple of occasions but they seem to just ignore the dogs to get on with their fishing. Boris was uninterested in his ball today and spent a lot of time wandering around not doing a lot. When locked-onto his ball, Boris is easy to manage. Otherwise he tends to wander off, get himself lost, then panic because he can’t find everyone else. I was trying to keep a good distance from the fishermen to as not to annoy them unduly when I spotted a woman on Grammeno Beach with a dog. She decided that where I was looked more interesting, so started heading towards the Promontory. We were nearing the end of the walk so I tried to round up the dogs however Princess spotted the woman and her dog in the distance and decided to go an investigate. Some of the others went with her but I reacquired the remainder, finally recapturing them all. We had our biscuits and then started to head back across towards Grammeno Beach. The woman and her dog were on the large beach on the Promontory as I marched them by. Suddenly Pea stopped in his tracks for what can only be described as a gastric emergency. I was right behind him so my leg and foot received some of the results of his exploding bottom event. All in a day’s work for the seasoned dog owner. Probably something he ate.
I’ve been fiddling with the EG server to try to find why it falls over about once every twenty-four hours. I installed updates last Sunday and the problem started shortly after. Hopefully uninstalling the updates will end the ad hoc restarts.
Janne is working on his rear decking extension proving entertainment for the dogs in the SDC. This decking extension will provide a continuous walk round from the caravan door to the bathroom at the rear. Very handy in the winter when it’s raining and windy. Walking on the gravel must be less than exciting at night in those conditions.
My trip to the loo confirmed that many of those who arrived on Friday afternoon and Saturday are here only for the weekend. The group in the large middle section were packing up this morning, the others as I write.
More washing is hanging out to dry including a fleece which hopefully I will be able to now put away with the others until the end of October. I’m working my way through a collection of grotty dog blankets as they are in dire need of a wash but are not required at this time of year.
Millie, disobeyed orders regarding barking and running towards the main gate, is not incarcerated in her house. Oskar is still a liberty in the main compound and behaving nicely. Other than making off with one of my shoes and leaving a little pile of chewed plastic on the decking.
Dave has spent all day in the storeroom and showed no interest at coming to the SDC. Having Dave in the main compound is not a good idea as he blunders into Boris’ sphere of control setting off a chain-reaction of offensive behaviour from Luis and Fido. He’s happy in the storeroom where Mikhalis and any other passer, talks to him or strokes him. Dave had a posse of small children who regularly came to pet him and be with him last year. They sat on the step and prattled away in Greek to him. Perhaps he could hear more at that point in time however I’m not certain of his grasp of Greek.
Janne is still screwing pieces of timber together to form the base for his decking. He has not adopted Greek methods of construction:
- nothing must be level
- it fits where it touches
- why bother with screws where nails will do
- complete the job as quickly as possible
- finish is unimportant
- it can be done again next year
Mikhalis has just parked his pickup in the little ‘garage’ he has created for himself under the tree opposite the storeroom. He assures me the fridge, which has been abandoned there since last October, ‘will be going soon‘.
Dogs bark in the distance as Janne bashes lengths of metal into the ground to support the base for his decking. There appears not to be any activity in the stony beach kantina so far even though the sheep appear to be no longer occupying the field. Once I know that the fence onto the road will be removed for the duration, I will finish off my secret access from the SDC. Walking across the beach in the morning can be a little difficult. Only Pea insists on trying to do a poo before we leave the camping and Fido usually manages to get out a ‘stealth poo’ just after we leave the gate. This means that I have to surreptitiously bury and cover over the poo as I walk the dogs back following the outbound route in reverse. Walking in a leisurely fashion across the field gives those who can’t wait, the opportunity to download in a location which is unlikely to trouble others. The poo quickly dries out and is then broken up by the elements assisted by the insects.
I note also that a small car drove into the beach car park just after we arrived on the promontory. Soon after a motorcycle followed. A little suspicious at 05:20 on a Sunday morning methinks. There were a number of strange goings-on last year during the day. A couple of conspicuously dressed young men appeared to be loitering with intent. I later learned that people found items missing when they returned from the sea. A man on a quad bike made occasional visits to a ‘secret cache’ by the rocks. I reported the matter to Antonis who contacted Stellios and the man was not seen again. Another excitement involving a fight between two Albanians or Bulgarians over a mobile. One had taken it from the other then threw it in the sea. The police arrived and both were carted away. No such excitement has occurred so far this year other than the events of this morning. Innocent dog-walkers get to see lots of interesting things including the occasional dead body.
Sigi arrived with a carrier containing jars of jam as compensation for my help with their computers. We have agreed that I will visit their shop in autumn as I need some more jeans and other stuff. I’d rather buy from them and know what I’m getting. We are also going to have a conversation about their website which shows her hulking boys as small children and dates back to 2009. Quaint but not terribly professional. I’m sure we could update it.
Heike informs me, and Sigi told me, that a woman appeared in Heike’s shop in a state of distress, with a dog she had found tied up out in the mountains. The woman wanted Heike to look after the dog but said she couldn’t take it herself. PAWS has no facility to house lots of dogs so the dog was released near Paleochora for someone else to find and adopt as there are plenty of tourists. Soon after, the woman contacted Heike to say that she would take the dog and she was coming to collect it. The woman was told they didn’t have the dog anymore but she might wish to adopt another. Sigi and Heike were in the garden sometime later and in walked the same dog. The German woman was contacted, the dog was detained and will now be rehomed in Germany. So they all lived happily ever after.
Heike asked if another dog called Goofy could be transported to UK with Millie and Heidi. She then told me that the woman who wanted the dog hadn’t come back to her so not to worry. I now understand that someone else is keen to adopt another dog so, as Heike said “we’re back in the game”. Animal adoptions seem to be quite good at present.
It was 30C by 10:00 with today’s high of nearly 33C. The forecast predicts temperatures of 37C on Friday and Saturday. That should be hot enough for the tourists!
Mikhalis’ brother tells me that we will make a start on the bar camera installation tomorrow morning…
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