Day 99: Wednesday 25 June – Another Lazy Day In Aginara Apart From A Trip To The Supermarket, by Ken

We woke to the sound of the alarm in my iPhone telling us it was 05:00. It was still dark, but we dressed and headed down to the beach to see if we could see the loggerhead turtles. It was very dark down there with just a hint of grey in the east signalling dawn was on its way. After sitting for half an hour there was no sign of a turtle and it was still dark. We went back to Mabel.

On checking my email Opus was asking if I would be interested in a Project Director role on a road job in Malaysia later this year or a Technical Director role on the next NZ road PPP north of Auckland that is getting under way next year. I declined Malaysia but said I was very interested in the NZ job and asked if they could look into finding accommodation for Jane and Ziggy in Auckland. Jane isn’t convinced that is what she wants to do, but we thought it worth asking the question.

At 08:00 the Greek Airforce repeated their morning wake up call and ensured no-one in the camping ground was still sleeping as two fighters took off from a nearby airbase, climbing out over the camping ground. I’m not sure what the aircraft were, but they made a hell of a noise.

Mabel’s mat was looking very grubby with mud stains from thunderstorms in Italy and black splodges from the sticky fruit of the tree Mabel was parked under. We took the mat down to the sea and gave it a good wash, before laying it out on the beach to dry. We noticed the fruit seemed to have started dissolving the mat’s fibres and we decided to stow it away when we got back to Mabel.

Housework

After making more use of the camping ground’s wi-fi to blog, plan and Facebook we took Smarty on her first outing in Greece under her own power. Google Earth showed that Paralia, a small village was on the coast nearby. We drove there in search of a supermarket, it didn’t have one, in fact it had no shops at all, but it did have a small picturesque harbour. We decided to retrace the route we had taken on Monday having passed through towns with supermarkets. We found just what we were looking for 10km away in Kapadistriou, parked in the street behind other cars and went in to get our supplies. Ironically, Campari had been very difficult to find in Italy and we had been buying lookalikes (Martini make one these days) to make our Camperdoodles. But here in a small town in Greece they had stocks of the stuff on the shelves. We had been enjoying a Camperdoodle for dinner and bought a bottle of Campari so we could continue the tradition. We also added food to our basket and were checking out brushes for sweeping Mabel’s mat when an assistant called inquisitively to Jane “Smart car”? Jane nodded, the assistant said “Police”. I left the shopping and went outside to see what the matter was, the assistant said sorry about three times as I passed. The cop explained in good English that we couldn’t park there. There were no signs or road markings and lots of parked cars. I asked how I would know that. He didn’t reply. I suspected he could speak enough English to get his message across, but didn’t understand what I was saying. I moved Smarty around the corner wondering why the cop hadn’t been more concerned about Smarty sporting different number plates back and front – she had Myrtles on the back! Back inside the supermarket the assistant kept apologising to me – as if it was her fault.

Paralia Harbour

Water Melons Seen In A Field By Jane

It was lunchtime by the time we got back to Camping Aginara. Jane made a Greek Salad  which we ate in the shade of Myrtle’s awning. It was very hot, much hotter than yesterday and the perspiration was pouring off us. We decided our shopping trip was more than enough exertion for one day. We spent the afternoon on the beach in the shade of our umbrella. Jane had an occasional swim to cool off, I sweated it out.

After Camperdoodles we walked up to the taverna. This time they didn’t forget our starter of a ‘stew’ of potatoes, courgettes and tomatoes which was very good and eaten with very tasty bread. They were out of mousaka, my first choice, so my main was spicy meatball, salad and fries. Jane had pork souflaki. Both were very good. As on the previous two nights our bill came with two complimentary glasses of ouzu.