14 June 2019 (Friday) - A Boat Trip; A Meal

I woke in the small hours feeling like death warmed up. I wonder why (!) I had a bottle of water and went back to bed. I woke again at six o’clock, got up and had a shave… and went back to bed again. I think today was the latest breakfast of the week for me.

For some inexplicable reason most of our wedding party were also rather late for breakfast too. Mind you I still managed three courses of brekkie.

We went to our usual spot by the pool. During the week it had somehow become accepted that our gang had dibs on the corner spot by the bar and pool. We did our thing for an hour, then some of us went down to the beach for a boat trip.

A dozen of us got into a speedboat, and we were whisked along the coast. The views were stunning. We looked into a few caves, and we put a message into a bottle and chucked it into the Mediterranean. I wonder where that message will end up?

After a while our boat pulled up at a little cove. I’d brought my snorkel along just in case, and we spent a little while snorkelling and looking at the fishes. There were mullet, a couple of puffer-fish, and something that looked like a huge saltwater angel-fish.

There was a little bar in the cove; Craig got us all a drink.

There was a zip-line going across the cove. Chris was fist one to have a go. You zipped from one side to the other, and then back again. Several of our group did just that. I might have done if had I realised that this was going to be happening; there hadn’t been any mention of needing much money. It wasn’t expensive really, but everything is expensive when your money is back in the hotel room.

Craig then jokingly asked if there were any geocaches nearby. I had a look on the app. There were two – one on either side of the cove. Now I’m not saying that they had been placed just to get people onto the zip-lines, but it was rather frustrating that the zip-line operator made it clear (politely, but firmly) that I wasn’t going up to look for anything unless I paid the fee for the zip-line.

From the cove we sailed up the coast a little to where we could jump out of the boat, swim to shore, climb the rocks, and jump into the sea. Some of our number did just that; looking at the rocks I decided not to.

We then went back to base via Rabbit Island. Rabbit Island is a site of archaeological importance; you can’t land there. But you could anchor a few yards offshore and throw apples to the rabbits. Throwing apples from a boat to shore-bound rabbits was surprisingly far more entertaining than you might think.

I must admit that the people who ran the boat trip hadn’t done themselves any favours. We had a really good trip, but the trip had been billed as “Rabbit Island”. A lot of our party weren’t going to spend good money on throwing an apple at a rabbit (on the off-chance of also seeing a goat).

Had they mentioned the cove and the rock-jumping I think we would have had a lot more people along.

We went for lunch. Today there were curried sprouts on the menu. They were rather good. I washed them down with a few Malibu slushies, and did crosswords by the pool as it got hotter and hotter. The pool-side thermometer told us it got up to forty-two degrees.

After cooking all afternoon we went back to our rooms to change. I nearly overslept; but I got up in time. Being the last full day when all of our party were together, we’d arranged to go for a meal at Street 61. During the week Street 61 had become one of our favourite bars.

Once everyone was together we started off with drinkies. I had a strawberry daquiri (very nice) with a rather huge joint of lamb. However a combination of a busy day yesterday and too much sun today had taken its toll; as the evening went on I found myself wilting. Much as I had come to like Street 61, did they need to have both the music and the telly on? You can’t listen to both, can you?

From Street 61 the newlyweds went on to “Babylon”; a bar up the road. We walked up, said goodbye, and walked back to the taxi rank. Despite it being rather late, all the shops were still open. And all the shopkeepers were shouting at us that their goods were “cheap as chip” and “not cheap shit”. I was wishing they wouldn’t.

Once back at the hotel I got a lemonade (I *must* have been ill!). As I was waiting at the bar I saw a “rather delightful fellow” asking his equally “charming” children (aged about eight to ten years old) what they would like to drink. I didn’t hear what they asked for, but he gave them all a vodka and lemonade each.

I went to bed at eleven o’clock. I said I was ill… but not too ill to take some photos.