Woodlands Farm and Stationary

21/07-28/07/22

Maddy didn’t come down to see us as her boyfriend had caught Covid.  So far, touch wood quickly, we’ve not had it and did not want to risk ourselves or passing it to parents and other family who are immune suppressed.  Sad not to see her, but better safe than sorry.

On Saturday, Stella’s new owners drove down to collect her.  They kindly took us out to lunch to say thank you.  What blew us away was on top of that, they arrived with 3 large boxes.  1. Filled with toys, cool mats and treats for CO2.  2.  Filled with yummies from Waitrose … things we may not get easily in Crete.  3.  Filled with booze!  Incredibly generous.  Just as well they did come for her as J was getting attached … on being asked he had said he would keep her.  So much for our no more dogs rule!  Feck, incidentally, was collected as we arrived in the UK on the M25 … not the live carriageway, of course, but at the services.

Watching for deer.

Card from Stella’s owners.

J got his 4th booster.  We ate with the Aged Ps.  BBQ at my sister’s.  And David and Karen (also part of our Turkey lockdown family) came over and stayed 3 nights:  walked, ate at a nice restaurant in Chichester and generally drank too much.  David is the man who ‘has a glue for that’ so he helped with a few maintenance jobs too :).

                                         Hundreds of deer in the woods.

Another K9 Odyssey

28/-7-04/08/22

We will be leaving Jez in the UK, but will need to get back to Crete by road as we have CO2 to take with us.  So I flew to Chania to fetch the Greek car and the camping kit.  Thank you to the train strikes  (NOT), J had to drive me even though there’s a perfectly good direct 1 hour train service from Chichester to Gatwick.  I had 4 nights in our Crete house to clean and shut it up for being empty.  Friends had used the house and left just before I arrived and there was just a bit of laundry to finish off. I got to see Gillian, Karl and June and Nicky and Rob.  I’d thought I would have had an empty suitcase coming over.  Paid for when I planned to fly back on my own after returning the van solo to the UK in Sept.  No refund on cases … so I’d offered to bring back anything for friends.  I did some ordering and shopping for us too.  So much so that my case was overweight with HP sauce, stain spray, Worcester sauce etc!  Had to borrow a small cabin bag from the Aged P’s!!!

Cretan Animal Protection had two smallish dogs for me to bring over.  Both absolute sweeties.

Johnny who had cruised from house to house for left overs.  Had been fostered by a family who all cried when he was collected.  

Little Alma.  Had been rescued from a couple who were alcohol and drug addicts.  They used to batter her.  When she was removed from their ‘care’ she had to spend weeks in vet hospital.  So nervous that cowered initially, but got used to us and is a real poppet.  Loves cuddles.  She’s available for adoption if anyone reading this is interested.

Gillian had been thinking about coming back to the UK to see her mother and sisters in and around Portsmouth and friends. She suggested joining me on the road trip.  Excellent … spent a lunch with her booking her onto the crossings.

First ferry.  First Campari.  Daytime crossing from Chania to Pireaus.

First ferry for dogs.

Overnight at an AirBnB.  A wander with wine and beer, followed by a few red wines on our balcony.  Bit later to bed than panned!!!

Coffee stop required after leaving our basic accommodation.

Ferry No.2  No cabins to be had.  We bought airplane seats at the port.  I paid EUR20, Gillian EUR9!!!  Why????  She’s a certain age! LOL

Ferry No.2.  Campari No. 2.

Picnic lunch.  Dogs had been refusing their dog food (kibble supplied by Cretan Animal Protection) so I mixed out left over salmon and sardines with it … which they sucked off and left the biscuits.

Pre supper drinks!

Dogs starting to vomit bile and slime as soooo hungry.  They woofed up bread, ham and cheese!

They also woofed up half a burger each!  The other half was given to Johnny’s new owners in case he refused to eat what they had bought.

DFDS Calais.  Got here in under 22 hours from Ancona.  Both drove and stopped a couple of times for a nap.  

White cliffs of Dover.  Always think first time visitors must be disappointed.  No Campari, but Gillian did force down a glass of white!