Luis shattered my blissful slumbers with some wailing around 03:30! I didn’t get to bed until after midnight following an evening of taking down the awning and tent. I was not pleased that Luis decided to wake me up so even took the trouble to get from my bed to tell him so in words even Luis would not fail to understand.
I got up at 04:45 to walk the dogs in the hope that most of the FreeLoaders on the Promontory had packed up their tents and gone home. There was a vehicle parked in the Grammeno Beach car park which I was unable to accurately distinguish due to the feeble light from the final quarter moon. It turned out to be Kostas’ 4×4 so I was able to let all but Obi and Princess off the lead once I’d arrived at the end of the Promontory.
Luis and Fido chased their respective balls although all of the flashing balls have now either expired or been lost. It would appear that tennis balls are not that easy to spot in the dark as Luis seemed to spend a lot of time simply locating the ball. I have some smaller flashing balls however these are quite feeble and liable to be destroyed reasonably quickly. Their destruction is not that important but I’m concerned that the batteries and electrical parts may be consumed in the process. I have just visited Amazon and ordered some new balls which do not contain batteries but glow from being left in bright light. These are non-toxic and contain no moving parts. Bargain!
The French group have probably gone to Samaria Gorge today as they were nowhere to be seen when I went off for my run at 06:40. Their possessions have been placed around a tree and partially covered by some green wind barrier fabric. Sophie went to Samaria on the bus, however, we have since received a visit from an independent travel company leaving brochures for their service which leaves a little later. I don’t know which service the group used.
Antonis and helper met me as I cycled out of town. They arrived later and we took down the actual awning cassette from the side of the van which Antonis put up almost exactly two years ago. He had attached it very strongly to the van then filled any gaps with PVC foam which I had then overpainted with waterproof paint. The awning survived two years of constant use although the fabric is now torn in places and has a few holes where it rubs against poles or knobs. The winding gear is broken which is why I had to resort to using an adjustable wrench.
The cost of the awning was around £1,200 and it would be £520 to replace the winder (£65) and the fabric. Over two years it works out at £1.65 per day which is not bad. With a new winder, the awning would provide shade, however, there would be leaks when it rains. The new solution should last at least ten years, will not flap and creak, will keep in the heat in winter whilst keeping cooler in the summer. It also covers the van so should take the worst of the weather in winter and reflect the sun in summer.
I am camped out in the former Boris enclosure as this is the part of the compound with the most shade. The alternatives are to work in the van with a fan on or sit on the decking in the sun (not an option). The dogs are still all confined to the SDC but have misters on to reduce the temperature under the trees. At this time of the day, the sunlight goes under the trees and the dogs generally migrate to the shade which is now in front of the van.
With the help of Antonis, I intend to move the houses in the SDC down to back on to Janne and Erica as this will make things easier when there are customers close to the north boundary. I have yet to decide what I am going to do with the former Boris residence and compound. I shall keep the residence as a large dog house in case I should require a large dog house at some point viz Extra-Dog. That said, I have no intention of acquiring a larger dog, just keeping my options open. I may put Fido, Princess and Pea in the compound at night to see if they can co-exist nicely and not bark.
A little snippet from the Grammeno weather website:
“Temperature as high as 48.0°C (118.4°F) was measured in Athens, Greece on Jul 10, 1977, currently the officially highest ever recorded temperature in Europe.”
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