Quite Warm

It was a cooler night. Sasha was in and Maya was out but with a collar. She seems to be getting the hang of the collar and becoming more responsive. I awoke before the alarm so got going and outside where it was cooler than in.

The moon is on its last couple of days so provides little light. Tomorrow, we’ll be out well before it rises and then a New Moon.

We beat Kostas to it but he came the opposite direction over the rocks which caused some barking mostly on the parts of Sasha and Maya. Sadly, Maya has had a negative effect on Sasha’s behaviour and she is becoming louder and more teenager-like. Things between Maya and Isabella have been a little less tense but Maya still winds Isabella up.

We made it to Azzuro under cover of darkness but it was beginning to get light as we came back. There were lots of vans along the top of the beach, probably more than for quite a while as we approach the middle of July. More Greeks but I saw German, Austrian, Netherlands and Italian.

On the way to Azurro the second time, I went into the sea and was joined by Sasha who probably came to retrieve me. Maya was quite concerned as I swam out from the shore and Isabella gazed on from a prone position. The boys wandered off towards a man approaching from Azurro. Just my luck to have someone appear from nowhere at six in the morning. He has dogs so we had a good conversation and off he went. We carried on to the end and then intercepted Luis for his daily dunking. Then back to the camping.

I wore different shorts but still no t-shirt out with the girls. Isabella let me throw the ball into the sea for her only once. Enough for me anyway. I had a paddle and got my shorts wet in the waves. I was pleased to get back for a cup of tea even though I’d had a drink between walks.

By 07:30 it was already 36ºC so I put the floor fan on and made some tea before exercising my brain. I then rode to Anatoli where my bike thermometer was saying it was 38ºC for most of the way. I stopped for a quick swim on the way back. I was not alone…

The dogs didn’t seem in a rush for food so I made tea and eventually fed them. I moved my chair to the centre of the awning area where it’s cooler and fell asleep: the remainder of the morning passed me by.

I’ve fixed up a VPN from Haywards-Heath to Lewes and started to install a new computer for Stephen at LBS so not idled all my day away. I researched Nitrogen (N2) discovering the gas is not expensive but the cylinders are. Refundable but still a significant cost compared to LPG (Heating Gas) where the cylinder deposit is 25€ for a 20kg gas payload. The N2 cylinder is around 120€ for the same payload. The actual gas is about 1€/kg so cheap compared to LPG. If you buy a 1 litre disposable of N2 it’s 22€! I’ve also found cheap regulators too. Sadly, the only place I could find selling the disposable cylinders is out of stock.

The day cooled down about 12:15 but then went back to 40ºC after five. It would be nice if the evening is cool and then the night. According to the news on DW, in an interview with a correspondent in Athens, these temperatures are about normal over the course of time. The difference is that they are likely to be more sustained recurring over several weeks rather than just a few days. Very good news for the AC industry! The Parthenon will remain closed in the middle of the day until things cool down. Not just to protect the visitors but also for the comfort of the staff who have to work there every day.

It’s quite pleasant as it’s now down to a mere 37,8ºC. Time for some food which I won’t bother to heat up.