The Volleyball Court in the Minefield?

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Today's the last full day of our trip so we decide to sleep in. I’m not quite sure why. I think we should probably be making the most of it and then sleeping in when we get home. The algae seem to have gone from the water in front of the resort and it's now crystal clear again.

We decide to spend the day relaxing on our magical secret beach. Other than coconut man, we've again got it completely to ourselves. It can be seen very clearly from the resort, yet virtually no one comes here. This is very mysterious, and we're still looking for the catch. We seem to have ruled out dangerous sea creatures, and surely if there was something sinister like unexploded mines there'd be signs warning people to keep away. Anyway, there’s a volleyball court up one end, and I doubt anyone would have knowingly set up one of those in a minefield. We decide that we need to stop worrying and just enjoy it. I hope coconut man's got some sort of side business going somewhere - he's going to starve if he's relying on selling coconuts to the small handful of tourists that come here. I s'pose if he got desperate he could just eat them (the coconuts that is, not the tourists).

We swim, and Issy falls asleep on the beach under one of the shelters with palm fronds for a roof. I spot some people in boats not too far offshore; a few of whom seem to be snorkelling and the rest staring at things in the water from the boats. I decide to borrow Issy’s goggles and swim out to investigate. I can’t see too much at all other than sand, which doesn't seem interesting enough to have attracted this flotilla. As I get closer I notice a lot of yellow and white flowers floating in the water, which can only have come from one of the boats. Hmmm. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm now getting way too close to some sort of religious ceremony. I hope it’s not a funeral. I’ve heard about funerals in Bali where they put the body on a raft, and then set fire to it and push it out to sea. I can’t see any signs of a raft or a fire, but maybe here they just toss the body overboard. I can’t see a floating body, and if they‘ve weighed it down I won’t be able to see it through my now fogged up goggles. If it's a funeral it seems a bit ironic that all the people on the boats seem to be wearing life jackets. I decide it might be best if I just headed back to shore and left boat people in peace to whatever it is they're doing.

Coconut man has been watching me. He says that the people on the boats are watching turtles, and if I swim out I should be able to see them too. That sounds preferable to looking for corpses, but why the flowers? I s'pose it's just vaguely conceivable that turtles might be attracted to floating flowers. Anyway, he says that the turtles here are very big, and if I catch one it'll make for a good meal. I‘m not quite sure how he thinks I’m going to catch one of these giant creatures and swim back to shore with it, and anyway I thought that turtles were protected here and they locked you up and threw away the key if you went anywhere near one. And what if he's wrong and it really is a funeral. I decide to play it safe and stay on the beach.

A young European couple wanders out from the jungle and takes up residence in one of the shelters, which means that the number of visitors here has now suddenly doubled. The girl wades in the shallows while her boyfriend operates a drone from the beach. I assume he’s using it to take pictures, but I suppose he could be keeping an eye out for sharks, or turtles, or corpses. I assume he’ll warn us if he sees anything dangerous.

The sun's starting to go down so we head back to the resort. We have dinner, and then again sit on the beach and sip Baileys as we watch the moon rise. We're going to be very sad to be leaving here tomorrow.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Our piece of Paradise
Mmmm. Beautiful pictures.