The "Fifteenth Effect" is still with us!

"Eleni, let's take the small car down to Paleo! Fetch the two dogs, five inflatables,
funny chairs, flimsy umbrellas, two cool-boxes and that new shelter
we don't know how to erect!"

Whilst Catholics name 15th August as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Orthodoxy it is her Dormition. If this point of faith is of interest click here! Greyrocks simply uses the nomenclature to describe the desire for a long sleep that covers the "worst" of the period in a Greek tourist town! For 2021 the period began on Thursday12th and is still ongoing today! The number of Greek visitors has gone through the roof! There are the day-trippers from within the island, who are mostly here at the weekend, but also a huge number from the mainland! Of course, local businesses badly need the custom after last year and many cancellations by other Europeans and the Brits, but those to whom Greyrocks speaks will through gritted teeth complain about the stereotype of "rude, impatient and demanding"! For us the complaints revolve around appalling parking habits (cones and wheelie skips blatantly moved) and shouting. We have also been eating earlier each evening to avoid the rush! Tempers all round get yet more frayed with the weather, which has not been the best: first the tail end of the heatwave, and now some dramatic wind! Roll on, September!

On Monday we had respite! Philip had a hire car and offered to take us on his annual daytrip to Sougia. Greyrocks remembers walking there (!!) many years ago, and we may have done it by boat but -again- a long time ago! We went via Azogires with only a wave to the Alfa, made a viewing stop at a high point and glided into the village, which has been considerably "gentrified" from our memory of it. There we pottered about and had a nice lunch, then returned via Kandanos,  passing the Temenia factory

Just for interest here are the average wind speeds and size and time of each day's greatest gust for the period 12th to 22nd August (in km/hr):