I awoke at 03:00 as I was hot and sweaty. The temperature during the night never dropped lower than 26.8℃. I used to use the fan to keep the mosquitoes away when it was warm enough. Since acquiring my mosquito tent, all the mosquitoes have disappeared so I’m able to sleep through the night unimpeded by mozzies. The fan is on 24/7 and now resides on the shelf in front of the cupboard and is directed towards the rear bench seat of the van so that there is plenty of air circulation when the dogs are inside. Consequently, when I was too hot, I felt it easier to take myself to the rear bench seat rather than bring the fan to my sleeping area. I fell back to sleep with most of the dogs on the floor except for Luis who was snuggling up to my feet and panting. The alarm was the next thing to disturb my day.
I dragged on some shorts and a T-shirt then went outside to collect Skinny and Isabella who’d stayed inside until I got up at 03:00. It was still hot but fortunately, there was a gently northerly breeze as we walked up the road towards the beach car park. There were two vehicles however we didn’t encounter any FreeLoaders during our time on the Promontory. I parked, Luis, Oskar and Charlie and took the others on a couple of laps. They were not in a hurry this morning so it took a while. Kostas was out collecting salt and left about the same time as we did. The other morning, he was leaving as we arrived at around 04:50: he must have been there very early!
The second walk left at 06:10 with Charlie and Obi as Isabella’s little playmates. They were released as soon as we got to the water’s edge as there was no one about. After a few minutes, Plus-One trotted along but was greeted with a little aggression by Charlie and pushed back into the sea. He seems happy enough in the sea so no harm down. Onwards to Plakaki beach where a woman was on the beach collecting something gastronomically marine-related no doubt. She seemed to know Plus-One who she called to her. We continued along as far as we could go then started back. Progress was not rapid as it was hot but we made it back in reasonable time. I can report that Charlie’s hearing is much improved when he’s wearing a training collar. Whenever I reinforce my request with a little nick from the collar, he suddenly hears much better and comes running. He was all set for a little diversion onto Alonáki Beach as we got back but I soon put him straight and he was first in the compound. Tomorrow, Luis and Oskar will accompany the bigger dogs so that Oskar and Charlie go alternate days and Luis, Fido and Obi every three days as they are generally less athletic and older than the Fluffy Brothers.
I was hot and sticky following the walk so departed with convention and went down to the sea for a swim before venturing into Paleochora to Petrakis. I might have got away without going but managed to find plenty of food to buy anyway. With the warmer weather, I’m going to have more summery meals so have bought some olives, tomatoes and cucumbers to make a nice change. Together with the beetroot I cooked earlier and the potatoes and carrot cooling in the pot, I think there will be more than enough for this evening. I also purchased a catering-sized plastic jar of pickled gherkins. I had to just try a couple when I got back even though it was before breakfast!
There were a couple of fairly simple support jobs in the morning then some tinkering with DKIM, SPF and DMARC settings in the Inter Sport DNS server. It’s now time to change the DMARC policy so that all the mail flows nicely into people’s inboxes and not into their junk mail.
Other tasks included messing with the camping’s WiFi LAN settings as I noticed more customers arriving so wanted to be sure they could all connect to the system as expected. Setting up the system is one thing but optimising everything is a matter of time and effort changing as the demands of the users dictate. Everyone has loads of gadgets and I notice some naughty users have been using the guest network for more than just checking their emails and updating their FaceBook or whatever. They will be dealt with in due course.
I wrote yesterday that it was the second hottest day of the year. This is no longer the case as today is the second hottest day since 16 May when it was 38.8℃. Today has been much cooler with a max temperature of 38.7℃ so could have been the hottest day with just a little more effort!
Since 18 December, when I received my bike, I’ve ridden over 2,000km (1,2427 miles). Considering during lockdown it wasn’t quite so easy to ride and, at one point, I was riding round and round the camping as I couldn’t go out on the roads. Once the road into Paleochora is complete, it will be much easier to go in so I will be more inclined to ride there. At present it’s still very rough in places with machines to dodge so a chore.
As today was day two of Doggy Dinners, I had half of yesterday’s in the fridge to give them as I cook a fresh batch alternate days. They have been fed and are beginning to enjoy the comparative coolness now that the sun has gone down behind the storeroom. The fan/cooler has been running on the medium setting since this morning and Isabella has been quite a fan of the fan.
I shall go grab a shower then have some food myself.
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