Bombs Away! (Rhodes)

 

30th Sept 2019 (Rhodes)

We’re just off the South Western tip of Rhodes, anchored in sand along a long sweeping (nearly) deserted beach backed by dunes - a good spot.

Other than the now normal aches and pains, everybody reported a good nights sleep - a miracle as the other two can’t seem to follow the simple ‘keep your eyes closed’ instructions.

Martin kindly made breakfast - fruit muesli and yogurt. 

We took the tender over to the beach, Chez opting to stay on board and continue with her current Stephen King book, ‘Institute’ which she’s whipping through and very much enjoying.

Martin and I strolled the beach, good sand, which is rare, but dotted with sun bleached human trash - which sadly isn’t. We played a bit of catch, with him copping an absolute beauty to the ballbag, sending him fetal to the floor. I found this a little funnier than he did.

We scouted the beach for a good spot for a sundowner beach fire later - but it was not to be:

We were hailed by two guys in a small motor boat:

‘You must leave, the army will make shooting’. 

We’d seen some military vehicles behind the dunes from the boat. 

Rapidly headed back to the boat in the tender - Chez had already been visited by the same guys so was close to being ready to go - we decided to head further South toward our home of Crete, but after lifting the anchor, and heading off in that direction the motor boat returned, and with some frantic waving, signalled that we’d need to go back North. 

No great problem, and after 20mins of motoring we re-anchored next to some Germans in the ‘Girt3000’ boat which keeps on cropping up (suspect there may be more than one). 

Chez made us some lunch, then all enjoyed a lazy afternoon. Chez looking at hotels for our next Amsterdam trip, and Martin and I siesta-ing. The afternoon was punctuated at intervals by the advertised artillery fire from the beach and accompanying splashes and impressive booms from far out to sea - wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of one of those ( we’d watched Guns of Navarone a couple of nights ago, which incidentally was filmed in Rhodes). 

Dined at the local fish taverna, as the sun set. The waiter giving us a tour of the wide variety of fresh fish on offer before we opted for a selection of appetisers and some beers. Martin said it was the best calamari he’d ever had.

Back to the boat in the tender as light faded, then watched Oceans 12 (give it a miss, it’s awful) before heading off to bed - Martin used the toilet before getting his head down, with Chez and I playing ‘beat the intro’ Disco hits through the door as he did so. 

Staying around here for another day to hopefully have the sundowner beach camp fire the army made us cancel today.

Edit: The beach bbq / fire is now not to be, consulted the local fisherman this morning: they advised that the ‘shootings’ will likely continue for another few days, and we should head off pre-dawn to avoid being blown out of the water.