Ukulhas Day 4

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Wednesday July 6 – Success on the sleep front last night. My room is right next to the staff work room and they start early. Every morning at 6am I hear them raking the sand outside my door. This morning I think I heard a door close at 4:30am, so I took that opportunity to put in ear plugs and that blocked the other noise and I was able to sleep until 7am. This is the secret! Not ear plugs at night but in the early morning.

I’ve been here long enough that I’ve developed quite the routine. Breakfast then work on a Camino plan (read looked at blogs/maps/fb comments) for an hour. Walk around the island. My favorite point but had no seashells of note today. Back to the room just in time to catch the guy still cleaning it. It happens pretty much every day. Then a little more research and some ramen noodles or granola bar. Then the beach for a couple of hours, swimming and reading. Today it even got sunny with a partial blue sky at one point, possibly for the first time I’ve been on this island. Then rain drove me back inside. Time for more research. Then my evening stroll to look at bats and people. I think the fishermen and the “ritual” from last night is just fishing. But I can’t understand how they get the fish. It all happens so quickly and they toss the fish right into the boats from the pole. No hands (or line?) involved. Stalk the bats and listen to the music from the dance practice. Tonight I finally got a good video of a mom with her pup. There were also lots of herons that I noticed – about 15. I stayed longer tonight with only a few minutes to change before dinner at 7pm. No Dutch people but a family did come. Tonight I had a green salad and garlic fish. Each dinner comes with a dessert and it is really hit or miss. Tonight it was a small banana. Last night it was a pudding. No way to know what will come. Then back to chat with Jeroen and play 6 wordles…English, German, Dutch, Dordle, Quordle, and Worldle. Phew! But it has been nice to do them together. And that was my day. And most of my days here. I like the routine.

Making some progress on the Camino planning but it is slow going. Hard to book in advance when I’m not exactly sure how far I will get each day. I’m also looking at suggested stages/routes for each day and will likely have to make adjustments as needed. But as others have said, you can always book a taxi or take you the rest of the way if you over planned.

Tomorrow is my last full day in the Maldives. Back to my routine. 😊

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