There really is no rush around here to get going in the mornings, so a gentle transition from bed to balcony seems to be providing a good start to Greek life.

But today, we did venture away from the rooftop, to have a reconnaissance of the Manikia climbing area – it’s the reason we are staying in this areas of Greece after all! Clare is still not up to climbing fitness yet, but we both fancied seeing what was up the valley. First impressions are that it’s a pretty amazing place, with a line of 200m high limestone cliffs above the valley, with barely any established climbs on!

The development of the area as a climbing venue only really started a few years ago, and each sector is neatly sign posted and the trails marked with little red arrows.

Even though it’s winter, there was still a bit of colour by the paths and a few teams of climbing pairs on the rock.

I walked up to the base of a few cliffs that we’d ear marked as good looking places for us to climb. Although we didn’t climb any routes, there seemed to be plenty of bolts and the rock felt nice and sharp.

As well as single pitch venues, we scoped out some of the longer multi-pitch routes, which look great.

It was really peaceful up in the mountains, and the silence was almost a little eerie as we took a short walk from the car. There’s a canyon and waterfall down in the valley to explore, but that will have to wait until energy levels are back to normal.

In the late afternoon I did a bit of shopping in the village. There are three different butcher shops, all making big sausages. The fruits of their labour are hanging in the windows, drying out.

In the supermarket, we had a good laugh with the translation app on my phone. We had to weight the fruit and veg, and collect a price sticker. This bit I had worked out, but identifying the individual item on the list was more challenging. Most things made sense, but we were left wondering about item number 80001046, which translated as ‘Crazy Old People’! Ha ha! I’ll take half a kilo worth please!…