22 March - Isle of Pines

Up early to see the sunrise.

Same old, same old for breakfast, then down to Pharaoh's Palace to collect tender tickets and await our call up for the boat to the island. It's a bit of a logistical job, to get us all to one place at one time,...but so far we've managed to synchronise our group of 6 pretty well.

A little island as we neared Isle of Pines.

Looking towards the Isle of Pines. The pines are native to the area. The beach we went to was on the other side of the beach you can see, behind it really.

Onto the tender and off we go for a short trip to the island, once off the tender, we needed to wend our way through several of the ship's photographers, to avoid many snaps, that will be on display for purchase back on board this arvo.

Then a 500 metre walk to find a shady spot on a bay on the opposite side of a spit to the bay the ship was moored in. It was a lovely bay, with a white sand beach, the sand was a very fine like quicksand, soft and smooth and fine, there was a rocky island covered in vegetation, only 10 metres or so from shore.  The bay had a lot of weed on the bottom, and rocky reefs, with coral and plenty of snorkelling opportunities.

Dad was quick to spot a glass bottomed boat ride, just near where we sat, it cost $25 for an hour, and left at 11.00, we had arrived about 10.30. They were pretty much guaranteed turtles

Sue had another stab at snorkelling, but wasn't comfortable with the breathing bit, so she opted to join Dad on the boat too.  Mike, Bron and I took off to snorkel, we checked out some reefs and swam around the island, lots more coral and fish than yesterday at Mare. There are supposed to be turtles around, but we saw none.

While we were out, Sue and Dad left on the boat, we hung around and waited for them to return. Koula had paddled and then walked around the bay to the other side where there was a small resort, she also checked out the locals market stalls, with food including hot dogs, coconut cake, chocolate pastries (donuts they called them) there was also a stall selling 1/2 lobster and salad.

When the boat returned, Dad and Sue were pretty impressed - there had only been three of them on the tour, they saw 5 turtles, and some fish, some schools, so all in all a pretty good tour. The driver guy had little English, but managed to point things out, including a little reef shark. When they returned, he kindly rolled a large cut stump over for Dad to sit on, worth a tip I thought.

The Glass bottom boat driver.

One of the turtles through the glass bottom of boat.

Sue on the boat

A rock and coral shelf.

View from boat

One of the turtles coming up for air - good shot Sue!

Delivered right back to our spot on the beach.

Safe back on the beach. 

Dad's very own log chair, with palm tree back rest and all.

The Bay we were on at Isle of Pines.

For lunch, Dad, Koula and I had the lobster and salad and rice - a little hard to eat with the plastic fork provided, but we all managed to demolish the lot. Sue had a hot dog (ordinary) and Bron and Mike had the chocolate donut pastry.

Coconut man.

Fresh coconut milk.

Halving our lobster on the esky.

The lobster heating up over the charcoal grill, it was then spread with some garlic butter, and added to some papaya salad and rice.

Me paying for the meals.

The lobster was in an esky, already cooked, cut in half and heated over the charcoal.

Koula and I with our lobster, Sue with hot dog.

There it is

Bron and I ready to snorkel again. Bron got quite sunburnt yesterday at Mare, so borrowed my other gear, to prevent more sun burn.

Bronwyn standing watching she doesn't eat seafood.

Mike on their walk

After lunch, Mike, Bron and I walked around the bay to snorkel on the other side shelf, and then swim back across the bay to the Island, lots and lots of fish and coral, but alas no turtles. Bron and Mike had brought a couple of hard boiled eggs in a glad bag to feed the fish, I wasn't keen on the idea, but it sure did attract the fish and made for some good photos.

Mike

Snorkel selfie.

Mike surfacing from a dive.

Bron feeding the egg from the ziplock.

Dad had another go at snorkelling while we were out, using the full face mask, but wasn't keen to come out and see the fish etc, so we had to go again to finish the egg off.

Then the return walk to jetty and tender back to the boat. No dramas today, with security, as we were back in plenty of time.  We all stopped off at the Coffee Cafe for coffees/hot chocs and donuts, before heading back to rooms to clean up and get ready for tea.  Tonight we decided to test the Lido Deck buffet for tea, which had some good options and was a good change up.

After dinner, we reviewed some of the underwater pics on computer in Alchemy Bar, then most went off to bed early, I stayed to sort/edit some photos. I also saw the bar tender pour an awesome drink for someone, it was four mini martini glasses, on top of four different height glasses, then he poured 4 clear but coloured drinks into the four glasses from 4 cocktail shakers simultaneously. Being the Alchemy bar, it was all a bit like a science experiment, very effective, and I was too slow to get a photo.

One of the carved Watermelons.

Our Kangroo tonight.