I woke for sunrise, but didn't get up - it looked cloudy anyway. A very mixed day - bit of rain and cloud around. Not sure whether to go snorkelling. We two intrepid explorers might not be able to cope with a touch of bad weather!
Breakfast of muesli, fruit, toast and jam. After breakfast, Roy went for his second Thai massage while I sunbathed. Ailsa and Justin, who we met at Selous, passed by our beach banda. They stopped for a chat and were telling me that their second safari in Ruaha was not as luxurious as Selous - and they still didn't see leopard!
We decided to try the snorkelling and left at 12.45. We'd been told it would take about 2 hours but it was already 1.30 before we left the beach! (The trip started at Breezes hotel next door to us).
We motored out by boat to a reef just off the beach past Sultan's Palace hotel. The water was clear and warm and the coral reef was beautiful. Depth varied - some places the reef was only 4ft below us, other times really deep. I saw a trigger fish and lots of small colourful reef fish. I was most impressed by the coral itself - the first time we'd seen so much of it up close. The sea was pretty choppy and so we were getting a bit seasick, just snorkelling! Strangely enough, it was smoother back in the boat so we got back in.
Disaster struck when the waterproof casing on my digital camera leaked. The camera is ruined. I'm scared that the data card is also ruined and my hundreds of holiday pics on there are gone....
I later tried the card in Kathleen's camera and luckily the pics are all still there. Phew. And the seal leaked because I hadn't fitted it properly... my own fault.
Both felt a bit rough as we waited for the divers to get back on the boat - why do divers always have to faff about so much? It's like they have to prove that they're superior to us mere snorkellers! Finally we set off but not straight back to Breezes. Because of the tides, we had to go in the opposite direction and moor up off the beach, where they'd made a shallow "path" in the sea. The idea was that you walk out of the sea on it and off the beach in to a bus. The path was both dangerously slippy and dotted with sea urchins! Sea urchins also surrounded the path so we didn't dare fall off it - especially as we had bare feet! Finally we reached the beach - there were hundreds of steps to climb up to get off it, and at the top - the Breezes dala dala. Oh joy - one small bus and 30 of us to pack in to it! Some people had to sit on top. Once we got moving we were hit by clouds of dust coming in off the road and swirling round the bus.
Back at Breezes at 20 to 4 - slightly later than expected! Chef had done us coconut prawns and mayo dip, followed by grilled red snapper with salad. Both delicious and very light. Probably the least we've eaten all holiday. We did manage to polish off the coconut from within the shell that held the prawns!
After lunch we went for a walk, up past the Sultan's palace almost to where we'd been snorkelling. The next morning, we followed our own footsteps along the same stretch of beach. After our walk we had sundowners and drank them in the jacuzzi. Calamari canapes were superb. I've never had squid before that wasn't like rubber bands. We got ready for dinner and had a drink before going in to eat. We ate: parmesan crostini with proscuitto; goat cheese salad; lobster "malhale" for Jan. Instead of lobster, Roy had beef curry with spiced couscous. This was followed by a fabulous chocolate souffle and coffee and amarula.
A live Taarab band of about 12 musicians played throughout dinner tonight - it's kind of like an arabian jazz/blues sound - really good.
Early to bed - I'm really tired tonight so we went in about 10.
