We decided to have a relaxing day today to get into the Greek way of life with a walk into the local village later. However, we got so relaxed that we never did make it to the village. The building work on the café behind us gave us lots of entertainment with the arrival of the mixer lorry and the pouring of the concrete being the highlight. We chatted at great length with the two American ladies, Pat and Sandy who were very easy-going and conversation flowed effortlessly. We invited them over for a drink later and then got down to the job of more relaxing.
After a Greek salad for lunch, I spent quite some time getting my blog up to date on the laptop. Then we sat down in the sun to plan the next few days before we were due to meet up with Glenn and Venice. After that, we sat and studied the sea. The mountains over the other side of the Gulf of Corinth were very misty but we watched the 1cm waves lapping against the shore. The sea was as flat as glass with no breeze to disturb it but when a distant ship passed on its way to the Corinth Canal, the waves increased dramatically to 2cm. Perhaps, by observing the ships and the wave height, I could work out how long it took for the wake of the ships to reach the shore? On the other hand, I could just sit and relax – I chose the latter. This really is a hard life!
Pat and Sandy joined us and I served them with a lovely chilled Italian white wine that turned out to be red – I was obviously too relaxed and I hadn't even had a drink at that stage! For the second year, Pat and Sandy had flown from the USA with their two cats, bought a secondhand motorhome in Holland and driven down to Greece. Preparations also involved a 2,000 mile drive across America to leave their two dogs for six months with a very good friend. Last year they drove down through Albania, which sounded like a great adventure but this year they caught the ferry from Venice to Patras. With the Dollar so weak and the price of oil so high, they had found everything much more expensive this year. The motorhome purchase was an intriguing arrangement where the company guaranteed to purchase the vehicle back at an agreed percentage of the purchase price depending on the time that they kept it (65% after six months, 60% after twelve months etc.). The water pump stopped working yesterday and I suggested that it might be a fuse. However, without any vehicle manual, they had no idea where the fuses were. We set out with a torch, disturbed the cats and eventually found the fuses cunningly hidden behind a flap in the glove box. Sure enough a 10 amp fuse had blown but it was a different design to the spares that I had, so Pat and Sandy will buy some spares tomorrow and we hope that that cures the problem.
On the way back to Henrietta Jane and I stopped to look at that view across the Gulf whilst we waited for Pat and Sandy. The sea was still like a millpond and then I thought that I saw a dolphin. I rushed back to van to get the binoculars and as we watched we saw more and more dolphins leaping as they made their way across the Gulf – magical. After the entertainment had finished, we all moved back to Henrietta and a evening of very pleasant conversation followed.
Photos: Our pitch at Camping Akrata Beach; Pat and Sandy enjoying their unusual Italian white wine.
After a Greek salad for lunch, I spent quite some time getting my blog up to date on the laptop. Then we sat down in the sun to plan the next few days before we were due to meet up with Glenn and Venice. After that, we sat and studied the sea. The mountains over the other side of the Gulf of Corinth were very misty but we watched the 1cm waves lapping against the shore. The sea was as flat as glass with no breeze to disturb it but when a distant ship passed on its way to the Corinth Canal, the waves increased dramatically to 2cm. Perhaps, by observing the ships and the wave height, I could work out how long it took for the wake of the ships to reach the shore? On the other hand, I could just sit and relax – I chose the latter. This really is a hard life!
Pat and Sandy joined us and I served them with a lovely chilled Italian white wine that turned out to be red – I was obviously too relaxed and I hadn't even had a drink at that stage! For the second year, Pat and Sandy had flown from the USA with their two cats, bought a secondhand motorhome in Holland and driven down to Greece. Preparations also involved a 2,000 mile drive across America to leave their two dogs for six months with a very good friend. Last year they drove down through Albania, which sounded like a great adventure but this year they caught the ferry from Venice to Patras. With the Dollar so weak and the price of oil so high, they had found everything much more expensive this year. The motorhome purchase was an intriguing arrangement where the company guaranteed to purchase the vehicle back at an agreed percentage of the purchase price depending on the time that they kept it (65% after six months, 60% after twelve months etc.). The water pump stopped working yesterday and I suggested that it might be a fuse. However, without any vehicle manual, they had no idea where the fuses were. We set out with a torch, disturbed the cats and eventually found the fuses cunningly hidden behind a flap in the glove box. Sure enough a 10 amp fuse had blown but it was a different design to the spares that I had, so Pat and Sandy will buy some spares tomorrow and we hope that that cures the problem.
On the way back to Henrietta Jane and I stopped to look at that view across the Gulf whilst we waited for Pat and Sandy. The sea was still like a millpond and then I thought that I saw a dolphin. I rushed back to van to get the binoculars and as we watched we saw more and more dolphins leaping as they made their way across the Gulf – magical. After the entertainment had finished, we all moved back to Henrietta and a evening of very pleasant conversation followed.
Photos: Our pitch at Camping Akrata Beach; Pat and Sandy enjoying their unusual Italian white wine.
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