Wednesday 23rd April 2008

We decided to stay another day at Tolo and started by having breakfast outside. We had been doing this ever since the weather became hot and today was going to be very warm, at 08:30 it was over 20°C and very pleasant sat in the sun. Over the last two days we had been watching a pair of tits ferrying supplies of wriggling bugs to their nest in the olive tree next to our pitch. Surprisingly, the nest was very low, less than a metre above ground but it was deep in a natural cleft in the tree. When the parents were away, I went up to the tree and could hear the extremely faint chirping of at least three tiny chicks. They must have been very young but were well protected – I couldn't see them and the gap was so small that even a cat's paw wouldn't fit in. This was fortunate because there were at least four campsite cats and one was almost invariably sat by the motorhome, hoping that we would feed it. Today there were no cats, so I set up the camera on a tripod at a distance from the tree and waited. Keeping very still, my patience was rewarded when the parents returned. Although originally concerned that the scene had changed, they soon returned to their normal routine and posed nicely at the entrance to the nest.
When we walked into Tolo yesterday it was quite hazy in the distance but today was much clearer. We were heading for an Internet café with Wifi. We had spent a hour on the Internet at the campsite yesterday but were unable to get the laptop to recognise their wireless network and had to use their computer. This has happened once before on the Odyssey and must be due to some incompatibility between the laptop wireless adaptor and the wireless router. However, trying to have a technical discussion about wireless protocols with a Greek in a campsite is a non-starter, so it will have to remain a mystery. We got to the Internet café only to find that it was closed for another hour and a half but we had other things to do and had promised ourselves an ice cream from the scrumptious collection offered at a shop at the other end of the main street. On the way we discovered another Internet café that was open – no Wifi but we were able to plug the laptop into their network. We updated the virus protection and Microsoft security patches, downloaded many BBC podcasts and wrote lots of emails. Two and a half hours later, we were dying for an ice cream and the 'cream and sour cherry' did not disappoint!
Back to Henrietta then for homemade 'Soutzoukakia Smyrneika' (spicy sausages from Smyrna) a lovely dish made from minced beef, breadcrumbs, a beaten egg, garlic and cumin, rolled into sausage shapes and baked in a hot oven (or fried, if preferred). They are served with a thick tomato sauce and we had them with rice and fresh flat green beans.
Photos: Our pitch at Tolo with the Tit's olive tree in the foreground; The Tit at the entrance to its nest that is deep down inside the hole.