As with every decent beach holiday life is slow here. We rise late, eat late, lie beside the pool reading, drink beer for lunch and then go to dinner.
Last night was Africa night. The beach terrace was converted into a dining area and we were treated to assorted barbecue with numerous salads, vegetables and accompaniments. The fish was particularly scrummy and included local lobster, which was delicious. We also had barbecued springbok which just tasted like meat. (Have just had a crow land on the back of my deck chair not 20cm from my head. I really don’t like those things.)
During the meal there was a performance but local dancers and drummers. They did a bit of fire eating but were not a patch on the Naivuku trio. We left when they started up a conga line with all the happy campers. Just a bit too hi de hi for us.
I am trying to get my constitution back into working order. It is taking some effort. Today I pulled out the big guns. In addition to the pills I added coconut water, muesli, bran and dried kiwifruit. I can report limited success.
In all of our lodge type accommodation the housekeeper comes and turns down the bed and closes the mosquito nets while you are at dinner. The mosquito nets here are particularly encompassing and it can be a bit of a struggle to find your way out of the bed once inside.
The housekeeper also arranges the bottoms of the curtains into little pleats folded against the terrace doors at the bottom. They do the same in the daytime when the curtains are drawn. It’s detail otherwise lost on me but I saw her doing it in the evening.
One feature here is that they leave 2 little cookies on the bed. I saved our ones from last night to have with our afternoon tea but alas the housekeeper has removed them. We probably won’t get any tonight. Damn cookie stealer!
Thursday
The crows are really unnerving. I make sure that I keep my sunglasses on so they can’t peck out my eyes. At breakfast they descended on this leftover bread roll and the waitstaff just seem to ignore them. They glide by and eventually clear the tables as if the murder of crows was not happening.
The resort itself is an interesting mixture. The rooms and housekeeping service is clearly striving for elegance, as also with the immaculate grounds. However the place caters for families and the dining areas are not elegant at all. They are more like beach laid back. The majority of the guests are either young couples or families and they have a lot of larger rooms and suites. They also have an area of accomodation and gardens to one side with signage declaring it to be “exclusive privileged area”. Not sure how you could get much more privileged but clearly you can. They do seem to have their own pool and probably eat in their rooms. There are also some ‘luxury jacuzzi suites’ just in front of us. Why anyone would want a jacuzzi in these temperatures is beyond us, particularly considering this is mid winter and it never seems to go below 25C or thereabouts.
It is also interesting people watching. We try and work out the family groupings. There seem to be a number with mixed families comprising original parents, kids, grandparents and then new partners and kid or kids. There are quite a number of people who seem to be here under sufferance which is a bit odd. The kids seem to be making the most of it though.
Today it is quite windy and a bit stormy but it’s a relief to be out of the sun just chilling. I’d quite like to go kayaking but suspect there isn’t of much interest. Just beach, hotels and more beach and hotels. It’s probably a bit windy so time for another book.
The use the same type of coral stone for construction as we saw in Stonetown. The walls are all drystone walls and the buildings themselves seem to be constructed the same way but with plastering on the outside. I suppose there is some reinforcing somewhere.