Food for thought

The Dog Palace lady as some might remember  broke her foot a few weeks after I had my accident. She has made a good recovery too, and sees a physio here on the island. Given I wasn’t able to see mine and walk a lot and do my exercises, why not meet him? He used to work in Athens, working for the Olympic football team. He is a very interesting fellow. He loves the island. But like me he loves it even more now. He doesn’t mind the tourists, but it’s a better place when they aren’t here! He talks while he manipulates my leg with his strong hands about the challenges of people like himself being able to afford accommodation, a story I know well. He charges twenty euros for an hour, some of that time with me hooked up to this little machine that resembles a mobile phone, with two patches that tingle my leg gently while we talk. The things he gets me to do are very similar to what my UK physio asks me to do. He thinks I should try and go swimming, that would be good for it he says. 

In Kato Hora ( the lower bit of Hora) there really isn’t much going on. Which is a pity. But there was when I lived here a sandwich bar that never seemed to be open, then it was run by a young man who would be seen walking his dog down to the port once a day. But it’s under new owners and run by a brother/sister I think. I went there in the company of my American friend, the Dog Palace owner and her daughter. Esteemed company. How the Greek tongues would have wagged. They do light plates and drinks and we had a lovely night. They also sell some household items, so you can buy your washing powder after you have had your dinner.

When I walked from the car park to the hotel the guy who runs the butchers had just turned up outside his shop and had a pallet load of produce on the doorstep courtesy of the recent ferry arrival. When I walked  past in the morning  it was all gone. Packed away late at night.

It’s nearly time to go home, but I have a few days left. The Dog Palace lady is have a sort of impromptu party on the Sunday. I am making a Lemon Drizzle cake for it. Meanwhile on Saturday, I went up the dog palace and did some walking. As usual something always happens, never dull moment! The first walk is with Aloni, and Rita, as Chocca decided she wasn’t coming. The first drama, is Rita doesn’t like cars. That’s why she is on the lead. There aren’t many on this track. But Aloni he is usually ok. An electric supplier van had just visited the radio transmitter, my phone signal was down, I guess he was fixing that. So as he went past us Aloni gave chase for a while and I hung on to Rita. Aloni often goes well ahead of us, and he did this time. So he went past the turn to the usual church we visit. Then he left the track and went across country. He was having a whale of a time. When we caught up with him he came to us and then started to go home. During that time he stood on a rock, and I got this lovely photo of him. 

Next was Scoopie and Freya. Scoopie also goes charging off which he did. When we got to the church turn, he had carried on. Freya was looking a little tired so we stopped and waited for Scoopie to reapppear which he duly did. This is him, later on in the day.

Next was two more of the Dog Palace lady’s own dogs. One of them can often go for a short distance then he turns back. When we got to the main track, it looked like this was his intention. Then I offered going down towards the coast instead of the usual way. Bingo, he was hooked. I have sort of shied away from going this way because I felt it was very steep. But it’s not too bad. It’s a lovely track, and a lot of the shrubs and herbs that grow on the mountains, they are lush now and almost growing beyond the skeletons of last years growth that has been dried to matchsticks by the heat of last years summer. We past one church on the left and continued to Thekla which is built high up on a hill. I decided to go up on the path to visit the church, it’s been a while since I did so. The next beach along is the one we went to yesterday. 

Up at the church level it was very windy but I got a nice shot of the dogs looking out with their ears being blown about by the wind. We then went down and returned by the outward path. By now I had done the same distance as yesterday. 

The last walk is for the guest dog from a taverna. He is not much of a walker and in fact he went off piste completely and we went into one of the fields, well they are fields because they are marked out by dry stone walls, but there isn’t anything actually being grown. We went to the furthest point of the field and in the distance I reckon I saw Mega Livadi. I am fairly sure because the remains of the loading bridge was visible on the left hand side of the beach. We then had lunch and relaxed a bit before doing a few more dog chores. It’s not been as warm as yesterday, more comfortable for walking but spectacular as always here. As usual I was the centre of attention in the bed. 

At the end of the day another friend invited me for a meal at his house which was very kind. He has this great view of Livadi.