A group of French arrived around 20:00 from Elafonissi. They phoned from reception to ask if the camping was open so I quickly showed them to a place by the beach where they could erect their two tents and left them to it as Hercule was waiting as was my supper.
Hercule kept me amused with multiple murders carried out by a couple. It was a stormy, dark night at Halloween when a young girl was murdered with her head in the apple bobbing bowl. Poirot was called to investigate and prevailed where the cocky local detectives failed. They became more desperate as the number of murders increased. A cocktail of YouTube and then to bed.
I was pleased to find there was no wind when I came out to put on my boots which are beginning to show signs of distress. The sky was clear and the stars shone brightly. The moon will not be apparent until the morning of 23 April which is a little way away.
Both walks concluded successfully so I set off on my bike for Paleochora and a visit to Anatoli for bread. I came straight back, now with two charged batteries as the original one had failed to take a charge the last time I put them on. It has now been fully charged and allowed to balance for a few hours. Balancing is important to ensure the cells are at similar voltages so prevent individual cells from being stressed causing premature failure of the battery.
The puppy, which has until recently been tied up in the garden, was running around in the road as I passed one of the houses on my way back. Fearing it might get injured or worse, I encouraged it back towards the gate until the owner appeared to take charge of it. They have a larger, more mature, black dog which barks each time I ride past but is completely soppy. Not forgetting the other dog which races out to be petted most times when I ride along the cycleway.
I went straight to the beach area as I saw the French, who arrived as darkness was falling, had left their car in a motorhome slot overnight. I told them to put it in the car park and have since put a camper in that place. I chatted to Patrick, Jessica’s husband and then they went off to have breakfast accompanied by their neighbour, Ella.
As I pushed my bike up the hill I noticed the front tyre was extremely soft so guessed the drawing pin I picked up a few days ago had allowed enough air to leak that the tyre was deflating.
I fed dogs and made tea then sat down after I’d washed up. I received a message from the Czech couple who contacted me when they arrived on Crete, to say they’d be arriving today and hoped to camp in the spot they had last time. They were lucky as it was vacant although encumbered by some of Chasmo’s diving gear which we moved out of their way.
At the same time, another couple arrived in a camper which is now next to the tent area not far from the small gate. Patrick is in Ξ1 so I’m mindful of the fact that he might like a view of the sea and not someone’s van. I now only park vans facing the sea and not parallel anymore as we’re using those cabins more.
I spent a little time with Nutmeg making investments in an attempt to prevent my money from disappearing as the result of inflation. I’d held off doing this before through lack of valid UK ID but I didn’t actually need any. I’m happy to let the brokers manage the portfolio as I don’t really know what I’m doing and Nutmeg calculates the tax and fees for you.
There was a support call from Inter Sport about emails as the Exchange certificates are still not working properly. I managed to work around the problem and will update the server on Sunday to see where that leads us.
Following a little light relaxation in the sun, I set about buying a new front tyre for my bike. The stock tyres are good but also expensive whilst being very chunky and noisy. I searched around to find a company supplying 26”x4” fat bike tyres but most had chunky treads. I finally bought two spare inner tubes and a less-chunky tyre to put on the front. Most of the weight is at the back so I’ll keep the remaining chunky tyre for there. The back wears much more quickly than the front as that’s where the drive is. Whilst in the mood, I repaired the puncture acquired by Jamie on his last evening at Grammeno and replaced the tyre with one I had hanging around which is in much better condition. We now have two functioning loner bikes for customers to use.
The sun is behind the building so time to feed the dogs and sort out something for myself. Manos tells me he’s making black-eyed bean salad tomorrow as he doesn’t like to eat meat all of the time. Good for me!
