... and relax

I wake early and sit on our terrace with a coffee, watching tiny birds sip nectar from the flowers and listening to the sound of the fishing boats passing by. Breakfast is tightly wrapped in cling film to thwart the many flies and wasps – more than we’ve seen all week. Coffee is the most disappointing thing at this lodge, being drip rather than push, and the cooked breakfast includes chewy tinned mushrooms but the proper bacon compensates. Having overhead the manager telling somebody that putting bananas out sometimes tempts the bush babies to visit, I take a couple back to the room.

We spend the day in and around the pool, watching the boats go by and reading. The wind gets stronger in the afternoon so we retreat to the scuba training pool which is more sheltered. We find out that there has been a room allocation mix-up. We were supposed to get the rooms occupied by Mervyn and Chloe, because of our extra night’s stay, and have been asked to move tomorrow. Since those room are right on the water’s edge we don’t make too much fuss.

We’ve booked a table for 10 so that we can all eat together tonight as the Batleys and Georges both leave tomorrow – the former to another resort and the latter home. We have an extra night and most of an extra day thanks to Charlie’s efforts – and a £100 saving too! It will be sad to see the others go when we’ve shared so many amazing experiences together.

It’s relatively late (10.15!) when we walk back to our cabin and above us the Milky Way is clearly visible along with the most and brightest stars I can recall seeing. Alex observes that the scale of the universe messes with his head when it can be seen that clearly, and I’m inclined to agree.