Something woke me around 01:30 so I was pleased to look at the time to see how much longer I had in bed. Maybe it was the baby nearby? I finally woke at 04:00 so accepted I was unlikely to sleep longer and got up to get the dogs ready for their walk.
It’s new moon tomorrow so there is little light when we’re out, until dawn breaks. The woman with the dogs was still camped out on the Promontory, at least the dogs were anyway, as I didn’t hear the woman telling them to be quiet. There was very little barking as I took the precaution of a wider course seeing the number of vehicles parked in the car park as we approached.
I left the others in the usual spot then took the Three. We ventured across the Big Beach a couple of times but without moonlight, it’s a little obvious if one is shining a torch around in the early morning looking for tents. Also, I didn’t want to set off the other dogs nearer the entrance as we were soon to come back that way.
Eventually, we avoided the dogs by passing quietly and cautiously via a circuitous route back out onto the beach road and towards the river bed walk. VGD was less animated than the previous day and Luis only barked at him a very little. Toad that he is! Fido had the additional collar to prevent him from going off on little side expeditions. He followed along obediently as no one told him the collar was not switched on and I had no control over it anyway.
There was a welcome breeze blowing down the valley which made up to the closeness of the Promontory Walk. The humidity was up around 65% which for Crete is quite high when the temperature is taken into consideration.
On the way back down via the river bed, we crossed paths with BullDozer Man who was struggling down the steep sides of the river carrying two large containers of diesel to feed the beast. I continued on through with just a brief good morning exchange.
Obi, Charlie and Isabella enjoyed a flop in the water but Fido and Luis didn’t seem too keen so we continued along the shoreline back to the camping.
Luis and I went down to the sea for his daily bottom therapy and I left him attached to some rocks with his collar on but switched off. I thought it a little unfair to turn it on considering he’d just come out of the sea so would be superconductive! With the remote collars I can compensate by applying a very short press but the automatic one doesn’t have a program for seawater immersion.
I went off to swim leaving Luis to his own devices. My tethering was defective as it was not long before Luis was wandering around on his own. He didn’t go far but I headed back to the shore as I was nearly done anyway. Together, we wandered up through the camping glancing at the British motorhome parked near to the beach.
I took a shower then headed off to Krios as I’d not been out there for a few days. Gregor had found an abandoned chair which he kindly offered to me but I declined as I tend to spend much of the day sitting so a little standing is a good thing. A small boy came over to check out my bike but soon tired of a couple of old fogeys nearby. Gregor and I chatted a while, I petted his crazy dogs before going back to my own. The bike battery was very low so I was wondering if I might be on my own for the last part of the journey. I was careful with the power so was able to make it back without a problem. It was too hot to be riding a heavy bike without assistance.
All was particularly calm for the next hour or so as both Luis and Oskar were wearing collars. I made my own breakfast then served the dogs. I then sat down and fell asleep for quite a while for some unexplained reason. I woke up to find my breakfast had been ready for some time and was sitting in The Pot keeping warm for me.
With breakfast out of the way, I got on with the remainder of the day which was warm and quite humid. There were a couple of support events, emails and a restart of the EG web server. Nothing too demanding though. I took the collars off Luis and Oskar and it wasn’t too long before they found themselves locked in the SDC. They will never learn. They’d worn collars long enough and they were reasonable in the SDC anyway.
I ordered some electric fence kit for the anti-Skinny evasion project. I finally concluded that a traditional electric fence would be the most effective solution. He’ll probably only need to touch it a few times and he’ll get the message but it will keep him in all the time without him having to wear a collar. His line is very restricting and I nearly sent myself flying off the decking recently tripping over the thing. I can avoid any potential cat problems by routing the fence around the outside of the cat enclosure as Skinny’s not allowed in there anyway.
The neighbours came back briefly making a load of racket. I expect they will be staying until the end of the week. They’ve not moved their tents away so must seem content to have dogs snuffling at the fence and me getting up early to take them for walks. We don’t come back until after 07:30 which I consider a perfectly reasonable time to be up and about.
I’ve cooked a couple of beetroot with will go nicely with some tomatoes, cucumber and olives as I really can’t be bothered to do anything more demanding when it’s hot.
It’s all very calm and quiet as both Charlie and Isabella are wearing collars and Oskar is attached to a rope. Only the noise of the cooling fan breaks the silence. They’re sleeping off their suppers anyway.
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