Vegged out

It was one of those mornings when I didn’t really feel much like getting up however once vertical, life took on a different perspective in more ways than one. I was not alone, as Skinny and Isabella went out of the van door almost quietly and it was only a little later that Isabella started her usual pre-walk ritual of nibbling the others. Charlie is her favourite although Obi is too.

When trying to get Charlie into his collar, which is not easy in the first place, as he wriggles, Isabella trying to bite his neck is unhelpful. She and Luis are playing vigorously together at present. The largest and smallest dog – an interesting concept. Luis is making the most noise as their playfulness is quite energetic. Considering Luis is usually such a miserable little toad!

Our Early Walk was quite dark at the outset as we were on the beach around 06:15 then marching up the Promontory towards the moonlit sea. All were present and correct so we made our way across the rocks and back towards Alonáki and then to Plakaki.

It was much lighter by this time so I was even able to make out Skinny when he was quite a long way up the beach. On the return run, Isabella had been chasing birds, aided and abetted by Skinny. Small birds tease them by flying across the beach to the sea and then along the coast about 20m from the water’s edge. At one point, Isabella and Skinny raced along the water’s edge back as far as where the river crosses the beach. Obi and Charlie gave chase until they worked out what all of the excitement wasn’t. They keep me entertained…

I went to Krios arriving at the same time as Gregory and his dogs. This was because I stopped to chat with Antonis and his partner before they left for Chania to take Sophie for a routine checkup. It was a lot more pleasant sitting by the sea than on previous days as it was warmer, less windy and also sunny. The sky was a little cloudy as we approached Krios but it soon cleared.

Gregory went to chat to a German couple who’ve been at Krios for a couple of days in their motorhome. He told me that they exchanged their catamaran, which they travelled all over the world in, for the motorhome. They come from Berlin.

I left to go back to Grammeno and to get things in motion. I knew that Mikhalis would come to the camping at some point so that I could set up his WiFi.

I fed the dogs and then myself. I had no particular project in mind but have been working on a way to get the daily server backup to send me an email giving an idea of its status. At present, the backup completes successfully every other day for some reason. It just fails to backup the system sometimes.

Mikhalis arrived in his truck so we adjourned to his little shed near his greenhouses. His Man Shed is made from the same type of panel as my awning roof so built to resemble a storeroom but the reality is different. It has a large refrigerator, a TV, DVD, couch and a work surface. There are some tools however these are merely to show that it’s a storeroom. Now he has reliable WiFi within thanks to the WiFi repeater which has been installed today. Previously, the WiFi was very slow and unreliable.

Mikhalis took me up to a site which has been created out of the sheer face which dominates the area. He tells me he’s going to create a better ‘shed’ up there. The view is terrific and the location is perfect as Houmas restaurant is just across the road. In the longterm, I would have reservations about the stability of the land above, which is liable to be washed down following extraordinarily heavy winter rains. Maybe I’m too cautious.

I returned to the camping laden with vegetables since I preferred this in lieu of payment. He has some garden space where he’s grown spinach and other green vegetables as well as some excellent beetroot with leaves and stalks as good as the actual beet. They may have benefitted from a little more water.

The remainder of the day was taken up with preparing my produce and sitting on my decking in the sun and falling asleep.

The evening walk slotted in nicely between a guy with a Shepherd and a couple who arrived just as we entered the Promontory. Their car had gone when we came back so perhaps they chickened out and went elsewhere. It was good to be able to walk without needing a coat!