Progress?

Now that the nights are cooler, I get woken up by Fido needing to go for a wee around 02:00. I don’t want a mass-exodus so don’t encourage them to go out at bedtime. Luis would just love the opportunity to find something to bark at. Things are easier now as the noisy group which spent last night in the large rental tent left this morning. They were chatting and carrying on at silly hours in the night partially due to the strong wind. The tree branches near the van bash on the metal roof which disturbs me a little but insufficiently to get the ladder, trim them back and dispose of the branches.

We were out at 05:35 and today I was wearing a polo shirt which stayed upon my body for the duration. No cars in the beach car park but a couple of 4×4 pickups in the corner at the end of Grammeno Beach. Our walks were generally without excitement however the lovely Stellios was around as we were walking back at the end. He always treats the place as if he’s the feudal landowner and called out to me as I passed. His gripe is that I walk the dogs on the Promontory which he seems to think is his divine right to control. Nevertheless, I changed the conversation to talk about the new toilets which were locked all through last winter. The car park is often used by motorhomes some of which stay for several days. This means they are either going to partake of wild-toileting or empty their chemical loo somewhere. I discussed the idea of leaving me the key to the toilets so that I could open them during the day so as to discourage the unpleasant habits I mentioned. Stellios said that the council sends a truck to empty the septic tank during the summer months only. I suggested he might arrange for the tank to be emptied right at the end of the season and hope it doesn’t get full during the winter. He seemed amenable to the idea so we’ll see how things go.

It was still very windy so I took a ride right to the top of the mountain where it was even more windy. I came back via Paleochora and the puppies of which there are still none. There is a timid female which has been living rough for some while. She doesn’t come anywhere near me and runs away when approached by anyone, making it somewhat difficult to re home her I should imagine. I’ve taken to giving her the few remaining biscuits from the Early Walk, two at a time on my hand. I have no further demands, make no attempt to go near her or touch her. We are making progress as now she comes towards me wagging her tail. I hold out a hand with a couple of biscuits and she gently takes them from me until they are all gone. She’s still very wary and rushes off if there’s any disturbance.

It was so windy, I didn’t feel up for swimming but returned to the camping to feed the dogs. My ride up the mountain had closed my Move circle anyway.

The day has been uneventful other than a support email from Inter Sport in Lewes from their telecom provider. I’ve kept myself amused with a number of small activities including charging dog collars and other batteries. The cunning device which protects my battery bank from misfortune had the cable which connects to the computer which logs the activity disconnected. Consequently, no voltage readings have been made for a few days but all working again now.

I had a little patrol of the camping to discover it’s quite a bit emptier after the weekend. The nearest tent north of me is the rental tent. I see someone was erecting a tent further away but the areas is much clearer than for a long time. There are fewer tents at the front of the camping near the beach and only a couple in the central location near Ξ1-2. It looks as though the season has taken a dive. It will be interesting to see what the weekend brings.

Greek Travel Pages warn of difficult times to come in the autumn. As things stand, three-quarters of Crete are painted red. Most of the infections are at the north but that’s the first point of contact for most visitors. Any hopes of extending the season are, I suspect, forlorn. There is likely to be a dramatic increase in infections once Greeks return from travelling. We appear to be entering the Fourth Wave of the pandemic.