Kostas passed us as we walked out along the Promontory causing some slight excitement to the large dogs. I advised them to moderate their tone. Kostas was already busy with his salt when we reached the end just after 05:00. There was a breeze so no mosquitoes and slightly cooler. Obi, Skinny, Isabella and I completed two laps, gathered up the others and headed back to the camping. I left Obi, Fido and Oskar attached to the fence putting Luis and Charlie into a couple of the vacant doggy houses as that is where Charlie prefers to be and Luis has no option.
Fido, Oskar and Isabella were given collars, Skinny was on the long line and Obi was free. I’m not sure that the other collar is waterproof and he invariably goes for a swim as in proper swimming around and not paddling. Fido tries to slope off or dilly-dally at the end so a collar concentrates his mind. The FreeLoaders from the previous day had left only the scent of their existence and very little rubbish for the dogs to rifle through. A surprised fisherman found himself face-to-face with five dogs as he was minding his own business around 06:45 on the rocks at the end of the walk. Even Oskar, who would normally descend into paroxysms of barking simply stood nicely. We left quickly so as not to break the spell and headed back the way we’d come. Obi came to me after Plakaki and I attached him so he would walk back with Skinny. There was no need to attach Fido due to the collar’s behavioural enhancement effect.
There were some squally gusts as I walked down to the sea around 07:45. I would have had it to myself as Maria is in Chania but some bloke stood at the water’s edge, walked in to his waist then walked out again. Hardly a swim by anyone’s standards! I splashed around for ten minutes or so then went up for a hot shower. I met Bona, the Albanian cleaner as I emerged from the shower cubicle. I assured her it was clean and required no intervention on her part. We then got into a deep conversation about what it’s like in the UK explaining why the weather and climate are so much more pleasant in Crete. She told me she’d watched TV shows of large English houses with fine lawns: the lawns in particular, impressed her. Albania is a beautiful country but has little else to offer which is presumably why so many Albanians migrate to Greece. Climatically Greece is more comfortable than Albania and more economically stable too, thanks to EU membership which Albania is hoping to eventually acquire.
By this time it was 08:50 when I’m usually returning from Petrakis. I got on my bike and set off for Paleochora. The new legislation mandating mask wearing has had some effect as even Antonis, the father was wearing one! Yiannis, the son was not and I didn’t see any customers with one either. The official stats quote 37 recorded infections on Crete. Yiannus checked me out which was a drawn-out process due to problems with the card machine. The cable connecting it to the network is a little dodgy so he had to fiddle around to get it to work. I was able to check the transaction had completed via my online banking app so left.
I threaded my way through the roadworks which Yiannis assured me would be complete by the end of the month! I commented that seeing is believing. There is a lot of activity at present and they might get much of the road surface completed but sections of cycleway are yet to be constructed or completed with holes awaiting drainage access chambers. As for lighting and other roadside furniture…
I let out the dogs and fed them before preparing my own breakfast which I was looking forward to having eaten earlier the day before. I made a brief call and remote session to LBS to sort out a printing problem by which time my food was ready. I ate and then may have drifted off a while, unbelievable as that might be. Other than a couple of emails and a support call and remote session with Louise at EG the day passed uneventfully. It was quite hot with a maximum of 36.2℃ at 15:00 and a minimum of 22.2℃ at 02:35. The temperature was already 25℃ as we walked across the field at 04:45!
The dogs have had the second part of yesterday’s Doggy Dinners. Isabella and Skinny are playing nicely although I suspect she’s more interested in chewing on one of my old walking shoes than playing. Obi is looking on and wagging his tail.
Tomorrow is forecast to be very windy with gusts over 90km/h in exposed locations. That will probably translate to around 70km/h at Grammeno which is windy enough for the tent dwellers in the camping. Walking through this morning I remarked that all of the static vans are presently let as well as most of the small cabins. There are some tents dotted about and a couple of motorhomes. For the present situation, it seems quite reasonable. CBV has two cars parked outside so it’s likely two villas are let. I mentioned to Antonis there had been a huge pickup together with some monstrous jetski at the villas a couple of weeks back. Apparently, the visitor is the owner of some very successful businesses on the other side of the island. In order to be alone, he rented all three villas but inhabited only one! Naturally, I would do likewise…
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