Road Closed

05:15 arrived unexpectedly for me but the dogs were soon moving around and sitting by the door. No point in delaying so I opened the door and let them out.

It was 05:35 as we walked through the gate on a mild, yet cloudy Monday morning devoid of most stars with Venus doing her best. The car from yesterday, which was parked behind some bushes, was there again but had disappeared by the time we walked past for the last time.

We made good time around the Promontory and onto the beach. I was trying to keep an eye on the sky just in case some rain might creep up on us unexpectedly. I’ve taken to adding another doggy marshalling point where Grammeno Beach and the Promontory join forces. There’s another biscuit opportunity which encourages better cohesion.

We crossed the rocks again then returned to the camping where I made tea, fed cats and ground flax seeds for the banana bread later. I sat and reorganised my brain and have now finished my pain management meditation plan which contains some useful tools for dealing with chronic and temporary situations.

Isabella, her ball and I went for another walk around the Promontory where I listened to a couple of podcasts of which one was an interview with Jacob Reece-Mogg. He still seems a committed fan of Boris. Quite to my surprise, he and I have one thing in common, the mutual detest of overworked, popular phrases used to replace shorter and more accurate expressions. He equipped his department with a list of banned phrases which include: ’going/moving forward’, ’put in place’ (which particularly annoys me), ‘[no longer] fit for purpose’ and so on.

I released and fed the dogs then made the banana bread before eating some. Unlike yesterday morning, there was little sun. Indeed, only 2.54kWh of electricity was produced during the entire day of which much of that was taken up baking the banana bread.

I went for a wander around the camping where I discovered the water leak behind Z 4/5 was worsening so I contacted Tony and we went to take a look. He told me that he was expecting Georgia at any time as she was at KakoPetros the last time they’d spoken. He had to collect her from the other side of the rockfall as the road was closed with a policeman on duty.

We looked at the underground leak as well as the walls of the Common Room where plenty of dampness has penetrated the wall and is most likely responsible for the electricity tripping out when it feels the urge. It appears that Xanthippos’ bricklaying skills are not what they might be. ‘Monkeys and peanuts’ springs to mind. Georgia ordered auxiliary materials so that Tony could point the joints in the blocks left open by the intrepid braklayer.

Georgia seemed pleased to receive the money and customer invoices from December and January. I sloped off as I had things to do including a chat with Andrea and Sportdog. The latter are now sending the remote I actually need as well as an additional three beacon lights which are being sent free. They have kindly supplied me a postage-paid return label for the other handset which is generous considering the error was mine and would have cost me something like €20 to return with tracking.

I wanted to go into Paleochora on my bike but met Karl who told me the road was still closed. I continued to the site of the rockfall to see that there is a great deal more debris on the road than Sunday with a large truck blocking the the road surrounded by a copious quantity of onlookers. A man with a scooter was struggling to get under the plastic rope tied across the road and footpath/cycleway so I held it up for him then proceeded on my way to Petrakis where I bought some groceries.

There appeared to be more onlookers when I returned to the rockfall however there was still no work going on. I simply went into ‘Greek Mode’, rode up to the plastic rope, went under it and continued on my way. After all, these things apply to everyone else! I received a message from Georgia telling me the road would be closed [to traffic] from 09:30-14:30 UFN.

Back at the ranch, I prepared the food and tried to catch up as time had escaped me or should I say ’moved on’. Today seemed noticeably lighter later considering the overcast sky.