I was awake before my 04:15 alarm but there was no desire for a run as it was still raining hard. Καλή had reported however I had to send her away as I was not up for running in the rain then carting a load of wet shoes and clothes with me. I packed up the remainder of my kit, said goodbye to Eleanor and set off for Gatwick.
I arrived in very good time to drop the car and was greeted by name by an older man who was responsible for checking the vehicles as they are returned. He was friendly and chatty, despite the pouring rain, so I felt he made the day just that little bit more enjoyable. As enjoyable as it can be when you drive to an airport first thing in the morning in the pouring rain. I now had to walk over to North Terminal catching the monorail on the way. The security check was relatively painless even though I was packing a laptop, two hard disks, a satellite box and a load of cables and other gadgets. I put all the ‘noisy’ items together in one bag and the clothes in the other.
Boarding began as I arrived at the gate but as a Speedy Boarder, I just passed ahead of everyone else. It was an A321 so a larger plane but with more passengers than others in the EasyJet fleet. The seat next to me was empty as were several others I could see. We departed a little late but arrived thirty minutes ahead of schedule. There was a ‘Brexit’ queue for passport control despite there being three people checking. It seemed longer than previous trips.
I picked up the car and drove to Paleochora. I was amazed at the amount of damage to the mountains and the roads seeing it from the other direction. There is little money to keep the roads in repair in normal times. The extent of the present damage is going to place more serious calls upon the already depleted budget. Let alone rebuilding bridges swept away during the March rains.
I went shopping in Petrakis to buy some fruit for breakfast. The other is for another visit. Maria accosted me as I entered the camping so I stopped to chat briefly and be given the parcels waiting at reception. Steffi was sitting reading in the sun so I chatted briefly to her before taking the shopping and parcels down and greeting the dogs. For some reason, they were very pleased to see me. I went back for my cases before going down to see Ursula and Tony. We drank tea and chatted however Oskar was quite vocal so I took my leave and we went our separate ways. I suggested to Ursula that she might like some time off having been responsible for all my dogs for nearly two weeks!
I was later collared by Maria as Georgia’s WiFi isn’t working. I think the problem is a broken cable between the bathroom block and Georgia’s house. The cables had a bit of a thrashing during the winter and there are a lot of trees. It might be an idea to thread the cable through some irrigation pipe to prevent it being destroyed by tree branches.
I said a brief hello to an older German couple who visit the camping regularly before taking the dogs for a rather belated walk. It was getting dark by now so only Fido had a glowing ball to chase. The passage through the field was marred by nasty seeds which get into some of the dogs’ fur and feet as well as into my socks. The seeds are very irritating.
My food is cooking in the Instant Pot. My bags are not yet unpacked but I’m now two hours ahead of local time as I managed to adjust to UK time during my visit. I will have something to eat then probably fall into bed.
Leave a Reply