Ok it’s hot. Unbeknown to us southern Europe has been under what is known as a heat dome for the last 2 weeks. In non-meteorological terms this means it’s scorchio with temperatures +40 degrees. There are some horrific wildfires raging in other parts of the country which helps keep any inconvenience it is causing us into perspective.

Our first couple of days were spent in Chania getting into the swing of being abroad again. We hadn’t really noticed the full extent of the heat as, being pale skinned Brits we were avoiding the midday sun anyway. That said, it was a bit too hot to explore Chania town so we spent our time hanging out on a couple of local beaches building sand castles, playing in the sea and eating at some amazing fish tavernas.

Acclimatised (or so we thought) we decided to head over the mountains to Paleochora on the south side of the island. On opening the car doors we were met with a furnace. I’ve worked in the Namibian desert and have traversed part of the southern Sahara but it was rarely as fierce as this. So we quickly scurried into the holiday apartment that was to be refuge for the next couple of days to work out a game plan.

Paleochora is billed in our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook as being a pretty and laid back port town with plenty of good beaches. The only problem being that the furnace had us hiding inside for 6 hours each day. That said, when we did venture out the guidebook was right. Sandy beaches with mountainous backdrops, crystal clear water, bougainvillea covered walls, tavernas spilling out onto shaded alleyways. Bliss – as long as you don’t mind living in an oven!

Over the last year in London, when the various lockdowns allowed, I’ve been taking James swimming almost every weekend in an attempt to build on the good work of Lisa and Di Di teaching him to swim during our time living in Hastings. Jimbo took to the sea in Crete without hesitation and has become a proper little fish. I couldn’t be a prouder dad being able to take him 50m or so out to sea looking for fish, diving down 3-4m together to take a closer look at sea grass and urchins.

A few days in, the heat dome was forecast to stay until the weekend so we decided to retreat to the mountains to hopefully find some cooler air…