I woke up in my chair at 02:15 and went to bed to discover it wasn’t possible to sleep as it was so warm. I returned to the company of Skinny and Isabella still lying under or next to the chair. I turned down the fan a little, sat down and was soon asleep.
We were out a little earlier as we got going ahead of time and there were not so many of the usual holdups. It seemed quite dark so I even resorted to putting on my head torch as we crossed the rocks so as not to find myself sprawling in an indelicate heap surrounded by inquisitive dogs.
As we set off towards Plakaki, we encountered a lone sun bed sleeper and his dog. Neither had stirred as we walked past on they way to the Promontory however I found myself being warned off by a ferocious-sounding small dog. My dogs seemed oblivious to all of this so we continued on without incident. Both man and dog had taken themselves and their car elsewhere when we returned.
It was quite hard going to Plakaki as a warm wind blew down from a northerly direction. The dogs were making reasonable progress and, as expected, Isabella was romping around being her usual bouncy self. But then she’s still young and crazy whilst most of the others are older. We completed our second Promontory tour which included a rest at the highest point to admire the sea. I suspect we were all quite glad to be back at the camping. I left the dogs for a lengthy swim from Grammeno Beach.
Considering the time of the day, the beach and the sea were quite busy. A man was running, dogs were running and playing, people were swimming or preparing to do so. Others were loafing and watching. I swam out a long way and slowly swam back again. I’d already decided a trip anywhere on a bike would have been too far, so contented myself with a longer swim. I divided it into two workouts to discover the return trip was shorter than the outbound. Not really groundbreaking news I suppose.
It was only 08:15 when I arrived back at the van but I released and fed the dogs so that we could get on with our day before it was too hot to do anything. I made tea and got on with the Doggy Dinners before sitting down for a rest and to read my mail. My time in the water had lowered my temperature considerably so it was a while before I began to notice how hot it was. It was 37C at 04:50!
Michael contacted me to ask how he could view the booking calendar from his phone so I walked up to the reception to set up his laptop to talk to the Internet via the 3G on his phone. There was a rumour that the Internet problem would be fixed by 12:00 so I hung around enjoying the air con. Maria was still feeling poorly but able to work from her boudoir in the sick bay a couple of doors down. With me in the reception, Michael was free to leave things unlocked to go to her and achieve other important tasks. Without [broadband] Internet access it would be harder for me to do things and anyway, it was hot but cooler in the reception.
I was entertained by a customer who complained that his air con had stopped working. Michaelis investigated to discover the inside target temperature had been set to the minimum of 16C, some 27C lower than the outside. As a consequence, the entire AC had iced up trying to cool the inside to the desired temperature. A more realistic target temperature would have been 32C still 10C cooler than outside and attainable and more economical. In the interest of the environment, AC companies are urged to set the minimum selectable temperature to 26C which is already more than adequate on the hottest of summer days in a hot climate such as Greece.
I went back to the dogs to find them huddled around the cooler trying not to cook. The DD’s were sitting in the pot but I felt they might wait until later when perhaps the day might be cooler.
The remainder of the afternoon passed unremarkably culminating in me springing to my feet to finish processing the DDs and to put on some rice. I used the opportunity to encourage Luis, Oskar and Fido inside to avoid any evening barking incidents. The family with the very young child is still nestled close to my fence. But at least it is their choice and they have the option to relocate if they desire.
I suspect most of us will sleep outside again tonight
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