We walked and walked and walked and walked.... etc.....

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Ellie: Today was a bit of a non day, but turned out to be quite fun! We left Ubud earlier this morning, sorted out ONE set of flights, and then got dropped off....God knows where! We gave the taxi driver what we thought was the name of a street with some funky looking shops, but must have pronounced something wrong. So, we found the sea and got back by walking along the beach. We walked for miles and miles, the sand was doing that thing where it stretches out each time you make any progress, and we were slightly delirious by the time we reached our familiar patch. After that we did a little bit of a shop before going back to the beach for some late sunbathing and paddling. Right now we're sat in a cafe with free wifi having had some (too) cheap sushi. We'll see how our stomachs feel about that later...both of us have been feeling slightly delicate of late. Claire is looking at a fish tank. Having spent six weeks on Hoga, we can't help but disapprove. The tank has a juvenile Lionfish, snatched from the reef, a juvenile white damsel, snatched from the reef, a Clarke's anemone fish, snatched from the reef, and a blue damsel, snatched from the reef. They're swimming around a chunk of semi living (sub lethal mortality as Claire would describe it) coral: snatched from the reef. Probably blasted off. We're going to break into pet shops and free all the sea creatures as soon as we get back...

Claire: Ok, (eco-warrior that is now Ellie), we both now wear very nice t-shirt tans from our monstrous walk along the beach, neither of us knew quite how long our walk would be, but the fact that we found a sacred stretch of sand with no tanning or surfing allowed on the kuta stretch should have been a clue that we were very far from home...

Today was great fun, we left a very rainy Ubud, and arrived in a hot sunny Kuta, known territory and with the relief of seeing our backpacks still at the hotel foyer. We're planning a day trip to Nusa Dua tomorrow, a paradise beach in the south, only a 10 dollar taxi ride away. The resort itself is teeming with starred hotels, so it would have been too expensive to stay there over night, so we plan on just jumping in and out of them for a cocktail or two throughout the day instead.

Elly's gone off to inspect the tank further, I fear for another list of fish species, so I'll be brief! I was very wrong last night about our countdown yesterday, we only have 6 nights in Indonesia before we'll be on the over night flight home.

I am by no mean joking when I say please meet us laden with cheese, (preferably boursin) and chocolate ( a mixture of cadburys and galaxy), no cravings could be so great. We have had no dairy for 8 weeks!!

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