... and the tales ...

... resume (along with more piccies *lol*)

21st February - dolphin safari, jetty and massage!

Our first full day at Fundu Lagoon and it started with a dolphin safari. A dolphin safari with no dolphins! They chose not to come and play and we could have had a lay in *lol* We had to meet at Jetty Bar at 7:30am so duly complied. Piled onto (nearly literally!) little boat and off we went. Sea was slightly choppy and we were getting a little wet but nothing a mac couldn't sort out. Trouble was, it was also a little cloudy (although still hot, hot, hot!) and the dolphins don't come out to play when cloudy. Anyways, a few spins backwards and forwards near Misali Island, killed nearly an hour and back to resort no closer to seeing dolphins than when we left and a little bit wetter than when we started however - it was a brilliant boat ride (there will be a theme as the stories progress *hehe*).

Breakfast followed and by then we were hungry! Fresh, fresh fruit and full English - or Pemban version of full English .... Room being changed so had to find somewhere to chill and the obvious place to us was - jetty bar! Not, I hasten to add, for the booze but for somewhere comfy to chill and read, with refreshment on hand but, more importantly, shade and a cooling breeze. It was also the place to watch the world go by as life seemed to be centred around the jetty.

Villagers returning from a shopping trip

Our new room (OK, tent!  Haven't I mentioned this was a camping holiday?) was closer to the main area, dining room, reception, main bar and jetty bar but wasn't quite as nice as the room we'd had for that first night however ... it suited our needs, as we thought at the time. If only we'd known what we could have had, had circumstances not stopped us!

View from chill out area outside room .... tent!

Reception and little shop

Anyway, settled in new room then lunchtime we're told we'd been booked in for a neck, shoulder and back massage for the afternoon. Wonderful!

Oh, my word! Massage? Not like any massage I'd ever had before! It certainly wasn't one that you'd ever fall asleep having. Little, teeny, tiny Balinese girls. Where did they get the strength from in those fingers! Just when you thought the worst was over back they came on the attack and, it seemed, if they found a 'knot' they attacked it until it had rolled over into submission - or was that us? Strangely, when over, it was relaxing. Just not while it was happening *lol*. I felt the bruising effects of that massage for a good 3 days!

The evening, after a couple of cocktails (and yes, we did have our faves) saw us dining on the beach for Swahili night. Local lads from the village came to entertain us for a while, until shooed away so we could eat in peace. I'd like to have seen and heard more as they were so happy and it was good seeing some of the staff join in. It was also amusing to see them picking up random things to use as instruments - like empty water bottles. The food was wonderful - all traditional Pemban/Tanzanian dishes - and cooked beautifully.

Restaurant Manager Liz, one of the chefs and a waiter joining in the fun!

We finished the first night, in our new room, in fits of laughter. Firstly, we'd finally got twin beds and it didn't help when Jackie started telling me that she missed me *joke*!  A gap of less than 6inches between beds and still under same mozzie net and ... she's missing me!  Then, housekeeping had turned the beds down but we only wanted a sheet ready, if needed, to cover us so we tried to 'strip' the beds. OMG! What a pickle! After tying ourselves in knots and making all sorts of mess we found that we had, what I can only describe as, homemade duvets, which meant we had to unmake these duvets to get a single sheet cover. Trying to figure out how these things were put together caused mayhem and ... we were asked, the following morning, if it was us making 'all that noise last night'. Uuuuummmmm - yep, guilty (was this the first sign of us getting into trouble here?)! We did, eventually, get it down to a fine art but these duvets were 2 sheets with a thick - and I mean thick - furry, fleecy blanket in the middle (as if we were going to be cold - erm, 40c daytime, 30c night???) and then the sheets were somehow twisted up to seal the blanket in to make one complete unit (duvet). The work that must have gone into making them every day only for housekeeping to find them all pulled apart every morning - ooops!  Perhaps we should have said not to bother, just leave a sheet each but only just thought of that one - *LOL*

Thanks for dropping by .....