Surfin' Santas and Burning Bums!

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We are heading up the coast to HaHei - but before this we went for a run to stretch the legs. Ran along the beach towards the beach towards the mount. Before having a bit of an argument, involving water, stomping off and a few temper tantrums; good to see that on a world trip there is still a bit of space for childish behaviour!

After packing up the car, set off up the coast lots of cars, boats and people out today; we think it is the start of the summer holidays down here. We called in at a town on the coast and had our lunch overlooking the beach with a flock of seagulls looking on. Once we had finished they probably raced for the crumbs!

Stopped mid afternoon at another coastal town for some tea and internet. The town was really cool, a little like Poole or Bournemouth. The xmas decorations were 'Surfing Santas' hung from the street lights. Finally made our way to HaHei which took a little longer than expected - the roads are fairly twisty and go along near the coast. Our room for the night is in a really horrible old style caravan. One of the most expensive nights, but really grotty - unfortunately there was not a lot of other choices. Paul tried to call his folks without much success - Pennie (his sister) is moving this weekend and we do not think the new phone has been connected yet. After a 'Pasta and Chorizo' dinner we just crashed out for the night.

Neither of us slept very well; the bed was really uncomfortable - head and feet were about 2ft higher than our tummies, and did we mention it was really grotty! After breakfast and packing up we decided to run to Cathedral Cove via Stingray Bay - about a 20 minute run along a coastal path. Cathedral Cove has some amazing rock formations and caves which have formed up over time with the aid of a little water! After running back to the car and an amazing fruit smoothie from a stall in the car park, we headed off to the hot water beach. Here either side of a low tide you can dig a hole and sit in some thermal waters as they flow into the sea. The rocks where is happens were crowded with people, its a real popular tourist attraction. Becks sat and chilled for a while, whilst Paul went and played in the surf. Whilst he was away Beck found a place on the beach where the waters ran down - you could sit for about 20 seconds before it started burning your bum. After a quick change we had our sarnies on the beach before heading across the peninsular to Thames. The inland route was another slippery wet gravel road which was fun to drive on. When we finally arrived at Thames it looked like the car had been through a rally stage.

Thames itself is a largeish town so we managed to find a supermarket and an internet place so all was well with the world. After our last Thai Green Curry for a while we dashed down to the coast to take some pictures of an amazing sunset. Unfortunately we missed the most vibrant bits, but did managed to get a few good shots.

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