A couple of years ago the local authority added a few hundred tons of sand to the seafront in an effort to slow down the erosion of the stone ‘promenade’ from here at the Waikiki Bar (above) all the way southwards to the L’Angolo restaurant. The idea was to create a bit of a beach to prevent the sea from battering the promenade during the winter months, since there has been quite a bit of damage over the years and it’ll cost millions to fully repair it. During the first summer that this new ‘beach’ existed the sand caused the bar owners and restaurateurs all along the front a fair bit of bother because, when there was a breeze, you could sit at one of the tables on the waterfront and get sandblasted. The sand would get into everything, your food, your drinks, it would cover the newly laid tablecloths, crockery and cutlery – in short it was a blooming nightmare on windy days.

For a while the sand stayed put, but with each passing winter the sea has taken away more and more of it, until now when the sea is once again lapping at several hundred metres of the quayside, or promenade, once again. For a couple of years the Waikiki had a beach that was twice as wide as it had been for ages below its boardwalk section, enabling the owners to place a few more umbrellas there for customers to use while taking a dip. As of now though, after the wildest winter in living memory, most of the beach below the Waikiki is gone again, as you can see in the photo at the top. I say the ‘wildest winter’ because that’s what it’s been for most of Europe, although in fact we here have got off lightly by comparison to many other places.

I reported in this post though, about how our good friend Yianni had suffered when a few tons of sand were deposited all over his taverna’s beachside terrace, and it meant that he couldn’t open for what turned out to be a couple of weeks. There are no guarantees that it won’t happen again, but he’s had to do a massive clear-up in order to be able to get some income coming in, since he is normally open all winter long. Fortunately, although there has been some rough weather and high seas since it happened, the wind’s direction has been kinder to that stretch of beach and they haven’t had a repeat of that awful Thursday a couple of weeks ago, although they have come close once or twice. In fact, The Konaki is now open and we’re going there for lunch this coming Sunday, all being well. I took this shot below a couple of days ago, and Yianni’s sandbags are clearly visible as he attempts to limit any further damage…

On a slightly lighter note, one of the wonderful things about this time of the year is just how green the countryside becomes, something that summer visitors seldom get to see. Here are three shots taken just near the village during a walk this week…

Our house is visible in the centre photo. If you can see the canopy over a veranda just above and behind the white house almost in the centre of the shot, that’s our place (you can, of course, click on the photos for a larger view). The white house is actually the home of Maria and her son Dimitri, who left a plastic bag full to bursting outside our door again yesterday (we found it when we came home from shopping in town), full of peppers and cucumbers from their ‘horafia.’

If doorways could talk, eh? Here’s one in Ierapetra Old Town that I liked the look of as we walked past it…

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