Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but when we are staying on a campsite for a few days there are times when there is very little of interest to report. So today I’m making up for it with a blog where nothing much happens, spread over two days.
I won’t labour the point the that Camping Desimi Beach is an idyllic spot at this time of year and it is for this reason that much of the last two days have been spent idly staring out to sea or reading.
Since we arrived there has been an Austrian family fairly near to us with three children under five, as you can imagine the parents have not been having a totally relaxing time. But yesterday a German couple arrived, and parked adjacent to them and out popped two children of the same age group. It took the children all of 10 minutes to make friends and form a little gang. Two of the older children are even spending time looking after the two babies. I remember from our time as parents, it makes the holiday so much more relaxing if your children have others to play with.
Our English neighbour demonstrated yesterday how to make friends with people who have no language in common. They sat with their next door neighbours, a Czech Couple, and drank copious quantities of each others spirits while trying to tell jokes to each other in mutually incomprehensible languages. Despite the lack of a common language they seemed to have a whale of a time, with a session that lasted the best part of 3 hours. They parted the best of friends.
Our campsite is set in a small bay with headlands on either side. Sarah has walked many of the tracks on both headlands and we have both been out on longish walks, attempting to get to the top of each. Yesterday our efforts were eventually thwarted when our way was blocked by a flock of sheep and three large sheep dogs. I think the sheep dogs here are the sort that are brought up with the flock so they identify the sheep as part of their pack and will defend the sheep against all comers. We decided that if we didn’t have our own dogs with us we would have proceeded, but we didn’t fancy Melek’s chances against one of the massive sheep dogs, although Melek would have been game for it!
Today we have been more successful and reached the pinnacle of the headland on the other side of the bay and were able to look down on the little beach and Basil hiding behind a tree.
At about 5 am this morning we could both hear a commotion going on at the front of the motorhome. Something was scrabbling about in an unusual fashion. I got up and found Mabel had, in the dark, managed to climb on the dashboard where she was proceeding to be sick, including on my new binoculars, which luckily are waterproof. I coaxed her down and she went back to bed none the worse for her experience. It does beg, however, the question why she had gone on the dashboard, which she has never done before at night and has only ever done when we have left her alone in Basil. She is getting on in years. Perhaps she was a little confused.
The last two days has also been useful to do some planning for our time on the Peloponnese. We explored this part of Greece fairly thoroughly two years ago but I’ve found a few things which we have not visited before. It is Easter in Greece next weekend and I think we are going to try to stay at Kotoni, where we spent Easter in 2017. It is a lovely little village; there is a night time Easter parade from the Orthodox Church and the traditional Easter lamb is roasted on a spit over charcoal at just about every Taverna in town.
Tomorrow we leave Camping Desimi Beach and head for the Peloponnese. First thing on the agenda is a rack and pinion railway. As you can imagine Melek is very excited!