I didn’t see the pretty BMW SUV parked in the beach car park so it was only the sound of Oskar barking in the distance that alerted me to the possible presence of alien bodies. I quickly sent a message to Oskar requesting him to desist which he was kind enough to do. Indeed, he appeared moments later as perhaps the lure of a couple of doggy biscuits had got the better of him.
All bar Charlie appeared at the first biscuit base but he was nearby anyway. The one-minute shower at 05:00 had slightly dampened the sand so there was slightly less dust than usual. There were some clouds over to the east so it might have been slightly darker than other mornings.
All dogs reported at the rocks so we were soon on the way back towards the car park where there was further minor barking. The guy with the motorcycle who comes from Paleochora to dive and hunt fish here was just getting ready to embark into the water. We wished each other a good morning and I still hadn’t noticed the BMW.
It was only on the return journey from Plakaki that I could see a couple of small tents nestled amongst the bushes on the east side of the Promontory not far from the car park. As I approached I then saw the pretty BMW parked next to the bushes. The inhabitants of the tents were first welcomed to the day by the brief shower at 05:00, by Oskar at 05:20 and then us saying good morning around 05:40. At least they’ve had a sunny day though.
I got on with the Doggy Dinners having made myself a cup of tea. They were soon in the Pot cooking and I was on my way out on my bike to ride the road via Panorama to Sarakina. It was windless and clear although Gavdos was more than a little hazy in the distance. I went right to the top which involves a little huffing and puffing on the last section. My aim is to raise my heart rate over 130 at least once per day. This requires either running or riding up a hill.
I had a little swim for fifteen minutes then returned to the van around 09:15 to release and feed the dogs. The DDs were cooked but still under pressure so I made use of the time by mucking out the van.
I’d put a couple of dog blankets on the floor during the winter months. It’s more pleasant sitting in the van with something fluffy beneath one’s feet on a cold evening. The blankets are now superfluous as it was much too hot last night so the dogs prefer to lie on the floor covering as it’s cooler. I’d ignored Luis’ request to go outside at bedtime as he has a habit of only coming back when it suits him. I’m not up for searching for a small brown dog in the darkness and it’s annoying. There had been a wee-event in the night which had conveniently dried up by morning. I felt that this might be the ideal time to remove the blankets and have a superficial cleanup inside. This involved sweeping to remove the worst of it followed by the vacuum cleaner and then the mop! The floor feels completely different however I realise that situation will last less than twelve hours.
I got on with processing the DDs then considered the possibility of putting together some of the cabbage, carrot and potato grated mixture I’ve made a couple of times in the past. I’ve made some changes and don’t use eggs but flax eggs instead. I find the flax eggs are much better if made up in advance and put into the fridge for an hour or so. I’ve also come up with a better way of conserving the results by cutting up the mixture on its grease proof paper, rolling it up before putting it in a storage box in the fridge. The flax eggs don’t seem to make such a good job of binding the mixture so the paper keeps it together and stops it turning into a heap.
As for the remainder of the day, it passed without incident. Michalis was painting wooden table tops outside the workshop but there seemed to be little other activity. Not that I was wandering around the camping other than to get vegetables from the large fridge in the customer kitchen for DDs and my other culinary activities.
I spent a little of my day learning how to use my iPad/Magic keyboard combination as it doesn’t work in exactly the same way as the Mac with OSX. I read today that soon we shall have browser extensions on IOS. This should make things better as there are some really useful extensions which I used all the time on the Mac.
Another sunset is just around the corner, the dogs are fed so I shall do likewise.
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