21 March- Mare.

Same drill, up, packed and out for Breaky at 8.  This morning I woke early and got up and did a walk around up to Deck 10 to do some walking, kept getting distracted by things to see, the various breakfast foods being prepared for Lido Deck buffets, and outside on the various decks, so much cleaning being done, the crew are so diligent in all they do. We are once again near land, and islands abound. The island of Mare, is quite hilly and has several stands of large pines, visible as we near the shore. While I was out and about I watched them lower them from the deck, down to the water, ready to ferry us all to shore, as there is no jetty/port to pull into. I also heard the anchor dropping.

Breaky in the Empire Room. me, Dad, Mike, Bron and.. 

Sue and Koula

Views of Mare

Walk around the deck, mini golf.

Basketball/soccer and more mini golf, looking down from Front to back of ship. 

More of the Islands

Unloading tenders, the larger orange boat is one of the tenders that takes us from the ship to shore, the smaller boat, is a speedboat also from the ship.

Lowering the tender boat, from deck 2 or 3, to the water.

Two tender boats ready to go.

Deck 10, where I was getting my walk in.

Beautiful water, the colour and clarity...perfect.

Closer shot of the speed boat.

Tender boat.

From breakfast we moved down to Pharoah’s Palace, to secure our tender boat tickets, we then sat and waited for about 20 minutes for our Tender boat # to be called. The tender boats, ferry us to shore and back again.

Today it was to shore, where we walked a short distance to catch a shuttle bus around the Island to Yeleje Beach  - a beautiful tropical beach, with white, white sand and lovely clear water.  We snagged a good tree with shade. The challenge was getting through a pile of small pumice stones, that were between us and the sea. 

Setting up our home base on Mare, Yejele beach, the sand was very clean, white and quite granular, Sue said, it sparkled with a range of colours. There was also stacks of pumice stone (which is the grey stuff you can see) which was quite 'ouchy' to walk over to the beach. 

Check out the water colour, perfect blues, with a range of reefs and coral bommies to snorkel around.

Our camp on Mare...nice shade, close to loos, food and the beach.

The beach, just stunning, you can see the rows of pumice and the beautiful sand too. 

At Yeleje, there were a variety of food stalls, and lots of the locals selling coconut shells, to drink the milk and later to eat the coconut pulp also. Later in the day we all enjoyed our lunches, chicken curry, chicken kebabs, fish and chips.

We all went snorkelling in the clear seas, with lots of coral reefs and bommies, not far offshore. Some lasted longer than others at the snorkelling, and some chose to swim in the water, rather than snorkel, Dad had a go, not too keen on regular snorkel, so tried the full face mask, that Sue bought for her and I, and that seems a bit easier to breathe with, so will try that some more tomorrow on the Isle of Pines.

Sue and Koula, enjoyed a dip in the warm waters, while Mike, Bron and I were snorkelling.

a range of the fish and coral life.

the coral was pretty damaged, not a lot of colour, not sure if they have had rough weather, or if its just overuse by us humans.

Mike

Bron and Mike

Sue and Koula caught a bus back to the ship, after lunch, while we got Dad having a go, then Mike, Bron and I went  for another snorkel, where the water was even clearer and more fish to be seen.

Then back to the bus, to go back to the landing area, into the tender and back to the ship. We were one of the last to leave the Island…poor Sue got a call to the room from Security asking if I was back on the boat, I rocked in about 20 minutes later, Sue was a bit worried. Anyway there was no hassles, but a bit scary thinking they were checking up on us, when we were well  within times.

View of Carnival Spirit, from the tender boat on return journey.

Leaving Mare, the view of the wash from our engines, from our balcony, the blue tones were just amazing.

Looking back at Mare.

Beach at Mare.

The pines up top, these are native to the islands.

More views.

Farewell Mare, from our balcony

Those hues of blues...again.

Home to clean ourselves and our gear and get ready for tea at 5.30.

Sue's tiny mushroom tartlets for entree...and a pretty good view out the back of ship.

And there's Sue with her entree.

My entree- Diced Melons with mint.

Dad with his asparagus vichysoise for entree. 

Oh here comes Oleksandra, with the soup part of the dish. Dad said it was lovely.

After tea tonight, I accompanied the rest of the crew to the show as Pharoah’s Palace, and left them to it, very tired tonight and wanted to get organised for tomorrow and at least capture some of the information for the blog, which is getting behind again, now we are having land days.