Dampness

There was more rain during the evening so I needed to rearrange some items out on the decking although it was too late for some as they were already wet. Altogether, the total rain for the day was 45.6mm which is a significant amount when there hasn’t been any since 31 May.

The exhaustion of all that rain caused me to retire early and be asleep before 21:30. I’d watched an episode of Shetland but the rain rattling the metal roof together with the Scottish accents had made it difficult to follow the story.

There was considerable wind when the alarm sounded at 04:30 although I was already awake and waiting for it. It was much cooler as the rain had reduced the temperature and the wind, together with evaporation had had an impact.

We were off before 05:00 and made good progress as it was cooler. The first part on the Promontory was soon completed and we set off for the not-quite-so-dried-up riverbed. I could see the water before we descended the slope down to the river so did an about-turn retracing our steps to take a track up to the main road and along that way to the riverside track.

VGD was unimpressed with the weather as he was curled up in a tight ball. He didn’t move a lot so we carried on our way. There were a few drops of rain as we forged ahead against the wind but it came to nothing so we were able to make it back to the road bridge without excessive dampness. There was a little water under the bridge however the end of the river near the sea was cut off by water. We found a way around, something I didn’t feel like attempting in the darkness earlier. Luis and Isabella simply ploughed their way through the water as I picked my route via some rocks as I didn’t fancy wet feet and boots.

No one was on the beach but we rescued a chair and umbrella likely to be blown away from one of the Italian motorhomes on Alonáki Beach. In all, there were five motorhomes this morning, two Italians, two Germans and a Dutchman.

I put the dogs in the van then took my bike for a quick spin up through the greenhouses to Krios where I immediately turned round and rode back to Grammeno. It was still very blowy and I had trouble making progress against the wind occasionally.

After a quick wander around the camping to see how many punters were about, I let out the dogs and made my breakfast. I guess I must have fed them at some point or they would have reminded me.

Other than the initial activity, the day has been relatively calm not counting the wind. I expect we’re experiencing the remains of the cyclone which quite seriously affected the Ionian islands and parts of the Peloponnese. Other than 0.2mm early morning, there has been no more rain today.

My most consuming activity was preparing the Doggy Dinners which involved going over to the freezer in the central kitchen to retrieve a chicken portion. There, I met an Indian woman who now lives in Wales with her English husband and child. They came out with Michael O’Leary’s Ryan Air from Bristol. A good thing as it seems that WheezyJet has given up on Chania for the time being. I understand they have friends in Chania and Athens. They are glad the rain only lasted less than a day and hope the wind will soon disappear. Tomorrow might start off a little breezy however the forecast appears to be stable for the next few days.

The remainder of the spinach I purchased on my last supermarket trip awaits me as does the last of the cauliflower. Together with some tomatoes, olives and cucumber, that should do it. Skinny and Isabella have just seen off the cob from my corn which I consumed their eyes glued to me.

I received an eBay notification informing me of a SportDog collar for sale. It turned out to be the same chap as a couple of days ago as he discovered he had two. Despite saying he only posts to UK I’ve managed to get him to send it direct to me. We don’t have one remote collar per dog yet…

Time for food!