My evening entertainment, for anyone who might be interested, consisted of an episode of Spooks where the final member of the original cast has been killed off. I’m guessing it’s because they’ve gone on to greater things. My next was an episode of The Waltons which is always a relaxing way to close the day following exciting spy drama.
My slumbers were disrupted by Luis barking at some cats fighting. Bleary-eyed, I rummaged for the anti-bark collar, went into the van and attached it to Luis. Peace continued until morning.
The departure was a bit of a mess. The easy part was getting Isabella and Obi attached to the fence opposite the field gate. I went back to the van to collect Luis, Fido, Skinny and Oskar who’d chosen to inhabit the inaccessible area in front of the dashboard. All but Oskar were good to go but he was having none of it. I wasn’t about to crawl under the bed to accost him so decided to leave him behind. I took the others and closed the gate on the van.
Having sorted those out, it was the turn of Charlie to play hide-and-seek. He’s closeted himself in one of the houses and wasn’t about to come out. I closed the door and left him to consider his fate.
We set off across the field and were walking up the road when I heard crying noises wafting across the field. The choices were: Take the dogs onto the Promontory, walk back and grab the other two, Tie them to the fence by the road and grab the other two or take them all back and grab the other two. In the end, I settled for a hybrid solution tying Isabella, Skinny and Obi to CBV’s fence and going back with Luis and Fido. I extracted Oskar and Charlie and we had a second attempt at going to the Promontory picking up the larger dogs en route.
We heard no barking but then we approached very diligently. The dogs, and woman, may well still be there as there is a goodly number of cars in the car park. I left the Four and took the Three for a couple of rounds of the Promontory including the Big Beach which appeared to be unencumbered by FreeLoaders. Considering the number of cars, I don’t know where they all are. Not that it bothers me so long as I don’t fall over them in the dark. My hope is that soon they’ll all clear off leaving the Promontory in the hands of its rightful owners.
The walk up the river bed was fairly straightforward except that Oskar and Charlie needed their collars to be put on which prolonged the process of letting them go. After a while, BullDozerMan drove past and parked up his van. His manoeuvres were prevented by the dogs who casually wandered in front of his reversing vehicle. He patiently waited for us to get by before continuing. We went further up than usual and further down the track before joining the river bed. I expected the bulldozer to be in operation so didn’t want to have to clamber out of the river and then back into the river.
As we approached the road bridge I could see that the left-hand portal where the river flows under had been cleared of debris. This made the passage beneath the road far easier as there was no scrambling up the loose rocks. All except Luis who chose the right-hand portal which has yet to be cleared. I could hear his little legs as he scrabbled up and over the obstacle. We returned to the camping along the water’s edge with some dogs going for a swim.
With the dogs stashed in the right locations, I wandered down to he sea for a swim. I ended up swimming to the small island again so was in the water for longer than I’d expected. Even though the water is warm it begins to feel cooler after a while. I was glad of a warm hosepipe shower when I went back to the compound.
The dogs were released and the daily breakfast activities took place.
I’ve been quite busy again as the EG website has been under attack and Jean, Simon’s wife, took delivery of her new laptop which required intervention by me. It was a tedious process.
Sascha came down to say he, Steffi and Zora had arrived so we walked up to his caravan so I could say hello. We chatted a while and updated them with all the latest Grammeno news. Sascha is going to construct some facilities before moving their van to its new location but they have a month’s holiday so plenty of time.
The dogs were reasonably patient during my absence and Sascha was surprised not to hear Luis singing until he learned that Luis was wearing the bark collar. Fido took up where Luis left off so we were not without a chorus. Luis begins almost immediately however Fido can usually survive longer before feeling deserted.
I suspect the reason why Oskar and Charlie are reluctant to come out in the mornings is probably due to Isabella’s overenthusiastic playfulness. She devotes her unwelcome ebullience primarily toward Charlie. I ask her to be gentle but that’s not really in her vocabulary. Once most of the nearby punters have left I’ll probably revert to leaving the Four in the camping after the first walk and take only Skinny, Obi and Isabella. Or I may just take one or two alternate days. It was their reluctance to be left behind which has lead to the present system. Fido and Luis come along at present but I suspect that’s more because they feel they have to than their desire for exercise. I reckon a couple of trips around the Promontory and back to the van for a snooze would do it for them.
I have some potatoes keeping warm in the Pot so I shall indulge myself with some tomatoes and olives!
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