Learning to cope with the wildlife

And so we settled into our new accommodation and a very laid back daily routine.

Dear Richard woke me every morning with a cup of tea, bless him, he still wakes up early and doing this is definitely his way of getting me out of bed!!! Not that I minded when I knew that the sun would be shining, the sky would be blue and there was nothing pressing to be getting on with.

We wandered down to the beach for our breakfast, which was always the same...........not sure if I am going to be able to cope with eggs and fruit for three weeks, even if the way the eggs are cooked can be varied......for the moment its fine..... but I know there will come a time when Sausage and bacon cravings become an issue...........

The view, unlike the breakfast menu, changed every day. Boats came in and boats went out. By the time we arrived and sat down, the dive trips were well underway, we could see the boats on the horizon, anchored off the opposite island, all very close together.........I can only imagine the scene under the water............it must have been like Paddington station in the rush hour, as each boat carried a minimum of five people and there must have been around 10 boats all bobbing up and down in the tiny patch of sea allocated to them. I wondered what the sea creatures made of the crowds who showed up every morning.........if they had off days when they really couldn’t be asked with it all and hid until everyone had gone..........if I was a turtle I would have stayed well away, but thats the contrary in me!!!! Having never dived I have no idea of the magic that lies beneath the waves........

As Gili is an island, boats are integral to its survival. Supplies come in and rubbish and other things go out every day. We watched the boats being unloaded and marvelled at how many crates of beer one man could carry.........if the tide was out the cargo would have to be carried in from the deeper water off shore. Gas bottles, water, fruit and veg all made their way through the shallow water.

The boats also carried tourists across to other islands or out on day trips..........it was a source of constant amusement for us to watch passengers arriving at the beach when the tide was out...........this meant that they had to walk out to the boat

across the coral which ran along the beach and out for quite a distance from the shore. Some were sensible and wore shoes for walking on rocks, others pitched up in shoes which were not meant to get wet and so had to remove them. Bless them, they all started confidently enough, only to realise after a short while that they were in real danger of cutting their feet to ribbons and so began to do what we came to call the coral hobble..............neither of us tried at any point to walk out to the sea so I can only imagine how painful that was.

One morning a group turned up for a trip and the tide was way out..........one of the group, a youngish bloke was very smartly dressed in shorts, t shirt, sandals and a very trendy hat. He was carrying a rucksack and started out across the coral , taking off his sandals to prevent them getting wet. As he progressed towards the boat it was obvious that his feet were really hurting, he got slower and slower until he had fallen way behind the rest of the group.......eventually in desperation he put his shoes on, but then the water got deeper.........we could see the rest of the group waist deep as they attempted to get onto the boat..........he struggled gamely on, holding his rucksack over his head until the water became so deep that he had to swim.............and so he made it to the boat.........everything was soaking wet, but he was still sporting the hat..........I am ashamed to say that we laughed for quite a long time at his discomfort!!!!

After breakfast we would make our way back to our room and gear up for some sunbathing. Dear Richard preferred the beach whilst I liked the pool.........it was mostly empty during the morning while other guests went out ........probably on the dive or excursion boats........and so I could do a few lengths............well,we were doing FA all day so I felt a little exercise was called for!!...........

After a couple of hours in the sun, Dear Richard would appear and have a swim himself.........we had to time our dips carefully as a Russian family who were staying in the “Hotel” would all come out at around 1.30 and take over the entire pool. They had a very sweet baby and an older boy who would lark about with Dad, while Mum played with his little brother. After about 45 minutes they would leave, but by then other guests would be arriving and so we generally vacated the area and went for a lie down in the blissfully cool, air conditioned room we now called home. Obviously as we had been out we would have a cup of tea, and maybe a biscuit if there were any kicking about. We would also take the opportunity to do a bit of planning for Australia........still almost three weeks away I know, but we had no idea what to do or where to go as yet!!!

At some point in the afternoon our thoughts turned to dinner, which meant having a shower, which involved leaving the comfort ...........well I say comfort..........what I really mean is the air con..........of our room, and stepping out into the humid air, which was so thick that you could cut through it...........of the open air shower!! I had come to loathe this part of our tropical experience......firstly because...........and I understand that we are in a third world country and so hygiene isn’t going to be the same................it is never clean. That said, our “room hadn't been cleaned at all since day 2 when we had clean sheets............bottles of water and toilet rolls were left outside every morning, but inside hadn’t been touched!!!!! Which meant that the toilet facilities had also avoided a sweep or mop or bit of bleach down the loo...........I suppose bleach wouldn’t be good for the island so I can forgive that, but it was all looking a bit grubby now and so one was a little disinclined to be using it.......except that one had too and so I was putting on a brave face and moaning about it a lot!!!

Showers done, it was time to spray every exposed part of our bodies with anti biting bastards lotion as they are many and clearly very hungry and I for one didn't fancy dengue fever this early in our trip. By the time we were ready to venture out in search of food it was dark, and so we wandered down to the track and made our way through the smoke to one of the restaurants along the beach front. An earlier meeting in the pool with a nice couple from Doncaster had given us a couple of options which involved a slightly longer walk along the track and so we set off, torch in hand to seek them out. Which was fine except that a large part of it was completely dark and even having the torch didn’t really help.

Beyond the darkness was another line of restaurants, tonight we decided on Spanish Tapas.......I know bizarre ......but as it turned out it was really good, and very cheap.

Needless to say after a few beers and some vodka the walk home was interesting to say the least, especially when we got to the dark bit.......but we made it .......although I did question whether we were taking the long way home at one point as it seemed to be taking much longer !!!

We got ready for bed , the f**k you bird woke up and serenaded us for about five minutes, and were just about to climb under the mosquito net when I noticed some ants in the corner of the room by the wardrobe. Dear Richard, gallant as ever, heaved himself off the bed and grabbed the anti mossie spray..........well it was all that we had at the time, totally ineffective against ants, all it did was piss them off big time............and by the way they were big bastards, like the ones on the beach.........anyway, instead of dying they went straight into defence mode which meant that hundreds............well actually thousands of them left their nest in order to beat off the attacker......they were everywhere, up the walls, on the floor, under the bed,

All we could do was use the tea towel flick to kill them, it took ages before they stopped pouring out of the wall, and even longer before we had killed all the ones climbing up the walls..............eventually we got under the mosquito net, by this time it was about 2am...........but neither of us could sleep as there were still stragglers roaming the room, and so we sat up in bed, watching and flicking them off the netting until we were so tired that we had to turn the light off and hope for the best.

I am beginning to think that spending time in tropical areas was possibly not the best idea we have ever had...........at the moment Europe is looking very attractive..........the jury is out !!!!