It might have rained

The rain began around 02:30 and then eased off, as I thought, at about 06:30, so I took the opportunity to take the dogs. We’d not been out long when the rain started again and I’d completed only a couple of circuits of the Promontory. I persevered a little longer but looking at the mountains, I could see huge banks of black, rainy, clouds. We arrived back at the camping dampish and all the dogs were keen to get into the van as it wasn’t very warm. The rain continued for the rest of the morning so we were content to remain inside. By this time, I’d not had much exercise nor did I feel like running as it was extremely windy and wet. I thought we’d make it up on the evening walk.

Around midday the electricity went off and on a couple of times then finally went off for good. I took the precaution of preparing my food to put into the Instant Pot later in the hope there would be power later to cook it.

In the early afternoon, I received a visit from Nikola and Linda. She mentioned the previous day that Sascha was taking the car back to the airport and intended returning to Paleochora by bus. Linda amused the dogs and vice-versa while the rain continued to bash down on the roof. I’d hoped it might dry up and be sunny but nothing was further from reality.

I sent a message to Antonis asking if he had any news on the power outage. He replied that he might use the opportunity for a sleep and suggested I prepare for a dark evening. He later told me the power was out in the entire area and didn’t expect it to return. Shortly after, it came back on. This was purely to lull us into a false sense of security as it went off again an hour or so later.

Nikola received a message from Sascha telling her he was stuck in Chania as there had been a land slip on the road to Paleochora and there was no traffic allowed to go that way. Other roads were impassable through flooding or demolished bridges. He made arrangements to stay in Chania. Nikola and Linda left soon after.

The rain showed no sign of letting up so I took the dogs back into the van where we could sit in comparative comfort. There was no electricity or Internet connection but I managed to get the MeteoBridge to connect to my phone so that it would continue to send data to the various websites as well as keep a record of the conditions. The remaining van battery was not keeping up so I turned off all the lights and the blower for the heating. I thought it better to keep the weather records going as long as possible as I knew the battery would never last the night anyway.

I cooked my supper on the gas and sat in the warm darkness with a head torch to light my way. Not unromantic in its own way. The heating works without the fan but is not so efficient.

There was little point in staying up late so I bunged all the pans into the sink and prepared to retire to my pit. The rain was still pouring down and the wind still howling as I went for a final trip to the loo. The Meteobridge was still sending data despite the fact that the 12 Volt van battery was now down to only 8 Volts. I wondered how long it would last but left my phone on so that it could keep sending data. My phone, laptop and watch were left plugged-in in case the power should be fixed during the night.

At this point, I went to bed to listen to the sound of the rain outside.