Loggos holiday 5

Back at the villa after our crack of dawn saunter down to Loggos, we decided to take things easy and have a well-earned rest day. So we did nothing but laze around. Well, I lazed around either side of an afternoon siesta while Georgie did some washing, tidying, showering, tea-making and dolloping of aprés-sun cream on her sunburnt legs and arms, and Don fiddled for hours on her tweeting and messaging mobile phone thingy.

A week's holiday is really quite short so it's tempting to go here there and everywhere every day, so by the time the holiday's over you're exhausted and you need another one to recover. Far better to have a day off, as we did. Besides, the girls were practically immobilised by the previous day's sunburn so we couldn't have gone out anyway. Well, not in the daytime. We did manage a little soirée saunter down to Loggos in the cool of the evening though.

Er, the 'cool' of the evening is perhaps somewhat misleading. After sundown it was still damned hot. So hot in fact that a cold shower was called for after the late night stagger up the rocky path back to the villa. Shower done, it was sorely tempting to open the doors and windows in the hope of letting in a cooling breeze. But, as there wasn't one, the only thing to be let in would be squadrons of blood-sucking mosquitoes and carnivorous flies. So we had to kip in stifling heat with doors and windows firmly shut. Okay for Georgie and moi 'cos we had the luxury of an air conditioning unit, but must have been hell for poor wee Don kipping on the lounge divan. Still, she survived.

Early start next day (Saturday), our third day with a boat. Pottered out of the harbour at about 10ish with swimming togs, towels, snorkeling gear, various bakery goodies and newly purchased sun tan cream (factor 50 - Georgie was taking no chances). Headed south to Anti-Paxos for another raid of Voutoumi beach, hopefully before the crowds arrived. Wasn't too crowded so we slung anchor, had a few swims and a couple of time-consuming battles with unco-operative beach brollies (damned things kept falling over - my brolly man saw me struggling and cussing, so kindly assisted by positioning large rocks around its base, thereby making one newly qualified OAP extremely happy) before hitting the beach bar for a welcome beer.

Beer done and beach overcrowded, we weighed anchor and headed round to the quieter west side of the island in search of a sheltered cove. Found one, dropped anchor and enjoyed a very pleasant swim or three in crystal clear waters. Munched a ham roll as I peered over the side of the boat, transfixed by the clarity of the green sea, the rocks about twelve feet below and the wobbly patterns of sunlight flickering on the seabed. Thus occupied, one loses all sense of time. Maybe an hour passed. Or maybe two. Either way, it was suddenly time to head back.

Arrived back at Loggos harbour entrance with time to spare (hire boats have to be back by 6.30pm), so we carried straight on and stopped at another quiet cove (Glyfada beach?). Dropped anchor again (by this time we were getting the hang of the routine), had a very pleasant swim, did a bit of snorkeling and had a brief chat with Georgie about how wonderful the holiday had been. Reassuring to know she was enjoying it, despite the sunburn. Now we had just one day left. Amazing how time flies. One minute the holiday's ahead of you and the next it's almost over. Ah well, c'est la vie.