One of the staff has a dog which ‘somehow’ seems allowed to wander the camping at will. It’s a very nice dog but it sends Luis into an advanced state of excitement which leads to him being tied up for the evening. Good for me as he’s going to most likely end up there anyway so might as well get it out of the way sooner rather than later. The others have enjoyed a dose of the water jet so will undoubtably spend the next hour drying off. My own personal water canon for dog control. I don’t have pepper spray like the CRS in Paris so just content myself with water. But then I don’t have Climate Protesters blocking the roads either. I’d be giving them all a cup of tea anyway.
I resorted to a sheet and a blanket last night as the nighttime temperatures dipped down to a glacial 23℃. Together with the wind, this felt quite chilly. The Early Walk was bracing, all relative, you understand, as I wore a polo shirt rather than a T-shirt. I needed that extra thickness. The reduced temperature induced Luis to be almost eager when completing his sole ~1km circuit of the Promontory. In fact, come to think about it, the distance was probably more than 1km as it included the rocks at the end which is in addition to the normal route. Exercise by Stealth! I released all of the dogs except Obi, who, as you know, has proved to be totally reliable when it comes to not returning at the end of the walk. He is usually to be found wandering the camping, talking to the customers or barking at Georgia’s dogs. Not that there are too many customers in the camping on a Monday morning, but that’s not the point.
Obi now has a competitor in the form of Skinny. He was doing well until recently but has defaulted twice at the end of the walk. Yesterday he had no choice as he was chained to me but he disappeared on Saturday and again this morning. Not that it’s hard to find him as he comes trotting up to me as I run westwards on the outbound leg of my Kountoura circuit. If he wished for lengthier freedom, he has only to intercept me on the return leg. Anyhow, I put him on the lead, which I have about my person, and we carry on for the remainder of the course. On a human level, you might deduce that Skinny defaults the walk in order to guarantee an extra outing of 4.7km on my run. Lovely as he is, I’m not sure Skinny has the intellectual capabilities to think that logically. Perhaps I’m doing him a disservice? Tomorrow, he shall be fastened to me for the entire walk but will then be allowed to accompany me on my run. He could come for a swim in the sea after, too, if he chose, as there are very few customers active at that time who are likely to complain about a dog on the beach or bathing in the sea. It’s the same sea they are bathing in from the Small Beach anyway.
The sea seemed cooler today so I didn’t hang around longer than necessary having complete my ablution and swim. The wind wasn’t making as many waves as yesterday but I could see that the sea had been coming a bit from the west by the way the sand had built up on the shore. Once out of the sea, I didn’t hang around long as the wind felt chilly. I went back, made some tea and put on my breakfast porridge. Incidentally, I didn’t see myself continuing with porridge once the weather warmed up but I find I still like it in the mornings and it fills me up until the middle of the afternoon.
The day has been quiet other than a little mewing from the kitten which appears to have been left behind. He wouldn’t starve to death as I had put food in his bowl when I went to check on the cats as I set off for my run. Later on, I thought at one point he might actually come over to me to be petted. He is the least brave of the three and we have a little way yet to go. When playing with a piece of string, he’ll ignore my touches but will soon back away if not distracted.
Skinny has managed to snag his wire on the steps so is sitting patiently about a meter away from me hoping I might leap to my feet to feed him and the others. He is learning well, as he sat very patiently last night, watching attentively, as I munched on some dried banana flakes. His diligence was rewarded when I gave him a couple of pieces as I got up out of my chair to put the packet away. It is unfortunate that he has to be kept on a line but he still seems attracted to scaling the fence. Probably just because it’s there. After all, if he wished to run away, why would he find me a little while later to give himself up? Or maybe I’m rewarding him with too much credit.
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