Isolation Journal 111

We ended up going to bed late as I'd spent a lot of time ordering stuff for the kittens like a new water fountain, litter tray and food.

I woke up this morning at around 8.30am and then couldn't properly get back to sleep and so was quite tired, we got up just past 9.30am and had some apple pancakes for breakfast and I went to feed Fudge and Smudge as Alan was cooking.  

We decided to take a trip to Spurn Point - we'd discussed it last week and were too sore/tired/late, but this week felt like a better plan.  It is 72 miles away and so we went in Alan's car so he felt more comfortable and I packed up some apples and snack bars for the journey along with coffee and water and the covid supplies (hand santiser, masks and wipes)  Alan stopped on the way for fuel at a Sainsburys in Hessle and then when we arrived at Spurn Point realised he was missing his wallet.  We searched all over and he paused his cards, but we couldn't find it and I couldn't call the store to check so we decided to explore Spurn Point and call back on the way home and hope we'd find it, but it wasn't the anxiety that we needed for the calmer day we were trying to have.

We paid for parking (£5 for the day) and then walked to the visitors centre to go to the toilet and look for potential binoculours because that was the other thing we forgot which was a real shame as we definitely spotted seals off the coast and it would have been amazing to watch them.  We could have bought some there, but the cheapest on offer were £119 and they aren't renting them as I'm guessing they might usually for obvious reasons.

We wandered along the beach and it was nice to smell the sea air and listen to the waves.  Spurn Point is quite different to anywhere I've been before, as Alan pointed out it looked a bit Mediterrean and it could be the light or the plants that were around, but I definitely saw what he meant.  Alan described how there was a road to the Lighthouse at the end of the penisula which is about 4 miles long and could be driven along, but in recent years the road has been eroded and is quite broken and twisted at points.  You could get a quad bike along it, but much more would be hard!  We saw little sea birds and seals off the shore and some cool wind farms and it was just lovely and peaceful and we must have walked around 6K in total and I wished I'd remembered to put some sun lotion on as it was really sunny.  We saw at one point a place to shelter if you got cut off in high tide and a man asked us to take a picture of him, he'd been running along the road.  I asked a volunteer/employee who was pushing his bike along the shore if we were likely to have seen seals and he said it would be hard not to see them.  

We walked back to the visitor centre and we drinks (diet coke and coke) and I had a lemonade lolly and I bought Alan a vanilla ice cream.  Alan seems happier with the idea of trying to book a little break in the UK for us in November, self catered and only 2 different locations, but that should give us some ideas at least.  

We drove back home via the Sainsburys petrol station and I went in to ask if Alan's wallet had been handed in and fortunately it had, they asked for ID, but I pointed out that was his ID and they gave it to me.  

I then did the rest of the drive home which wasn't too bad and I asked Alan to see if the Fish and Chip shop would be open when we got home and it was!  I jumped into my car and drove to Sherbun and recycled my tetrapaks and then parked outside The Fish Bank and ordered 2 lots of fish and chips and I had mushy peas with mine and Alan had gravy and I ordered an extra battered sausage - today has been a naughty day for food!   We bumped into Chris and Kirsty who had enjoyed their holiday and gave us a bottle of gin to say thanks for feeding Fudge and Smudge.

We ate Fish and Chips and Alan made hot apple brandy and put Deadpool on to watch, but I couldn't get into it at all so we ended up watching some comedy instead.  The milkman (Who was a woman today, so clearly a milk person is a better name!) came this evening because the normal chap is away on holiday.

I then vacuumed, washed the floors, tidied and cleaned the kitchen and set off the dishwasher.

I came up and logged to sort some work emails and to do lists and I hope I'll have a productive day tomorrow.

Mexico... the first 3 days of our holiday... and the quest for WIFI andInternet Access!

I’m very fortunate to have been on holiday in many places in the past 5 years, up mountains in Nepal over 2500m high, in remote parts of India in a Feudal Lord’s homestay, and have always managed to get online pretty successfully.  When we booked to come to Mexico and Cuba back in March and chose relatively “upmarket” hotels, I complacently assumed that internet access wouldn’t be an issue and pictured myself and Alan watching Netflix after a busy day of sightseeing in the hotel room.

The reality has been somewhat different.  

We could buy internet access in the hotel in Mexico, but for extortionate amounts, so we purchased some roaming data instead for our phones (which was also pretty pricey) and we were able to be online most of the time we were in Mexico…Cuba however has been entirely different and I’ll come onto that in a later post.  Needless to say that the digital detox has been at the same time frustrating and freeing - being totally unable to check work emails for the first time in 5 years when on holiday has been quite relaxing and refreshing.

We arrived in Mexico on the 8th November after a very relaxing flight.  Alan had upgraded our seats to extra legroom as he’s 6”4 tall and it was totally unnecessary for my little legs, but made for a very pleasant 10-hour flight.  During the flight, I managed to watch the David Brent film, Absolutely Fabulous and a very odd coming of age type film called “Goat” that was apparently critically acclaimed, but in reality, was just a lot of examples of “hazing” for people to get into an American frat house, if there was any deeper meaning to it, it was certainly lost on me.  We collected our luggage…eventually as Alan’s was literally the last case off the belt, in fact he had to climb onto the belt to grab it as the belt had just stopped!

Our transfer was smooth to our resort – Occidental and we checked in and got our bags into the room before venturing out first to try and book some excursions as we knew we only had 5 days in Mexico, but unfortunately they were closed, so we took some leaflets and headed down to the beach club for our first buffet experience.  The air was warm and humid and the resort had familiar tropical plant type smells that I remember from being on holiday in place like Bali and there was a buzz of crickets as we walked along the lantern lit paths down to the beach club.  I’d spotted some small lizards on the walls as we’d walked to our room.

I’d had a slightly nauseous flight and this had continued once I was off the plane and I probably should have taken it a bit easier on the buffet, but I managed to tuck into various salads, meats, cheeses and plenty of dessert!  We wandered around the huge resort and jumped on a little golf type train back to where our room was and by this point it was probably the equivalent of around 3am UK time and so we had an early night at around 10pm. 

After around 5 hours at 2am Mexican time we were both aware that we were both awake and that the room next door was playing extremely loud Mexican music through the TV – Alan went to reception to ask to be moved, and I could hear their telephone ringing (I don’t think they answered) and then a security guard managed to knock at their door and got them to turn down the music and we managed to get back to sleep.

We woke up at around 8am and decided to head down to book our excursions.  We booked for Xel Ha a waterpark with natural rivers and caves to explore that Alan’s brother had recommended and for Xichen Itzu which was the main reason that I’d wanted to go to Mexico.  

We met some Scarlet Macaws that were in Lobby area and looked like a cute couple grooming each other and squawking.  We then headed for breakfast at the buffet which had been temporarily moved to the Beach Club and we feasted on a whole range of continental and Mexican breakfast food as well as the mythical “breakfast pudding” where I sampled some lovely hot chocolate with croissants to dip in.  Buffets are never a good idea for me as I love to try everything which usually means even if I only put a tiny portion of each thing on my plate, I end up massively overeating. 

We then we exploring the Occidental resort and started nearby where we had eaten breakfast which was the saltwater swimming pool and were delighted that there were Sergeant Major fish and even a puffer fish swimming around our feet and nibbling our toes!  We relaxed on some sun loungers and I read a little more of one of the books that I had brought on holiday “The Art of Travel” by Alain De Botton and we got to enjoy some of the “all inclusive” perks by getting some cocktails brought to us.  It then started to spot with rain, and then it rained a bit more so we decided to head back towards the room.  We took a quick look at the gym and the spa and ended up booking for 4.30pm a relaxing “Moon and Stars” couples massage…as the name suggests it should have been outside, but in the end due to the torrential tropical rain, it was in one of the very nice treatment rooms and included a bottle of wine.

We headed down for our massage and got to enjoy half an hour in the hot tub and drink some mint water before we went in for our treatment.  The massage we booked was 80 minutes long and enjoyed a very relaxing time and I was delighted that my back (which had been sore before we travelled anywhere and had been made worse by all the flights) felt much better.  After the massage finished we put on our robes and went into a room to drink our wine and it was very cute that there was a heart made from tealights and rose petals on the floor.  We drank the wine and then headed back to our room in theory for a rest before dinner, but ended up falling asleep and waking up at 10pm!  So we decided to just carry on sleeping – we must have been very relaxed indeed!

The following morning was an early start for us as we were going to Xel Ha!  The frustration was that breakfast didn’t start until 7am, but our pick up for the excursion was 7.15am!  We managed to find a small coffee stand that wasn’t in the “all inclusive” part of the deal and bought some coffee and pastries and made our way to the pick-up point where we were given our wrist bands for the day.  The coach didn’t take too long to Xel Ha, what took the most time were the multiple pick up points at the Hard Rock hotel. 

We arrived at Xel Ha and followed our guides instructions to one of the larger changing points “Brown” and I put my neoprene socks on as well as my swimming costume.   Xel Ha is like a natural water park and we saw beautiful trees and greenery surrounded by turquoise water.  We walked up to the bottom of the river and jumped on some bike to cycle around 1km up to the top of the river.  As we walked to the bikes, Alan nearly tripped over a huge Gecko lizard at the side of the path!  The bike ride was about 1km and I made sure to track it on Strava, the forest was humid and smelled of a fresh jungle smell and it was a refreshing ride with a bit of a breeze as we cycled and swerved to avoid trees.

We got to the top of the river and took the option of jumping in an “inner tube” rubber ring and putting on some life vests to float down the river and we let the very gentle current pull us along the mangrove section of the river and spotted a few points of interest like the “Cliff of Courage”.  

We got to a section where we got off the rubber ring and climbed up some “Ninja Warrior” type ropes and tried to cross from one platform to another – I gave up quickly and just jumped back into the water.  Alan managed to get across the whole of the rope bridge in one go, I gave up when my arms felt like I was having to stretch them out of their sockets to reach the rope.   

Jumping back in the inner tube, we continued to the “end” of the river signified by a checkered flag and jumped onto the zip line which was one of my favourite bits of the day.

By 11am we were pretty peckish and I was keen to try out the Mexican buffet, but after we’d wandered up there it wasn’t open until 11.30am so we walked over the floating bridge to the other side of the inlet to use up some time.  The bridge was very wobbly and it was if you were drunk trying to cross it!  Around Xel Ha there are lots of points where you can scan a bar code on your wrist band and then look at the nearby camera for a photo and so we spent some time swimming in a cave and trying to get photos, but managing to look the wrong way! 

Back at the Mexican buffet we were first in the queue and I took full advantage to sample as many different Mexican dishes as possible including some Mexican coffee with Churros to dip in and lots of Guacamole! 

After restocking our energy levels we biked back up to the start of the river and picked up some snorkel equipment and this time we snorkeled along the river and clipped our life jackets together so we could point out different fish to each other.  We saw parrot fish, scholes of little neon tetra, more seargeant major fish and some huge deep blue coloured fishes.  When we got to the “Cliff of Courage” again we decided to investigate whether we had enough courage to jump off.  We got out of flippers and snorkles and walked over a bridge up to the jump off point.  It was probably around 4m high, but looked much higher when you go there.  Alan went first and then I quickly scanned my wrist band and jumped getting loads of saltwater up my nose! 


         

After swimming back to the end of the river and dropping off our snorkel equipment we had a couple of drinks and then booked to go on the “Zip Bikes” that were not included in the “All Inclusive” price and walked up to the start of the Zip Bike tour.  The Zip Bikes were sit down bike on a wire that took you on a tour around the forest canopy and down and through some caves, all powered by your pedal power!  The pedaling was harder than I anticipated at times, but it was some amazing views and we got to go quite high up above some of the mangroves and then down into the caves.   There was a wonderful moist rainforest smell as we pedaled away. 

It was nearly time to head back to the bus to get taken back to the hotel so we got changed and walked back past the dolphin area.  We had debated swimming with dolphins, but I wasn’t convinced that it was right and kind for them, from a quick google it didn’t seem like most felt it was good for them and the enclosures looked a bit small, so we decided that it was best not to.  I’m still not sure whether in general it’s good for them to be swimming with humans, more research will be needed.  We bought the photos that we’d taken around the park and look forward to downloading them later.

My stomach had not been well all day, and so we opted for a trip to “Pacos Tacos” for tea and Alan had a spicey taco dish and I had a very simple, but really nice pizza to hopefully be kinder to my stomach than all of the buffet deliciousness!

Day 7 - Waking up on a Desert Island

On our first morning on Gili Air I work up to the sound of the waves crashing outside (which we could hear as long as we'd turned off the Air Con!)

We wandered over to the reception area which was the only place you could consistently get WIFI and ordered our choice - Anna had a chocolate pancake and I had an omelette with garlic, onion, tomato and cheese and I had an iced coffee.

After breakfast we packed up our beach stuff including snorkels and walked all of about 100m down to Gili Air Santay Bungalows & Restaurant where we set up in a beach hut and grabbed a couple of drinks.  I had lots of blogging to catch up on and my only goal of the day was to catch up, do some painting and read some of my book.

Anna jumped straight into the sea and came back marveling at all the different fish that she had seen including Angel fish.  I was inspired to chuck on the mask that I had bought from the supermarket back in Ubud and give it a go.  Unfortunately for me my initial walk into he sea which is extremely shallow for the first 50m - up to knee height - was a bit painful as there was lots of coral which jabbed into my feet.  I managed to get out to a reasonable depth to swim, put my mask on, adjusted it, but it seemed to make no difference what I did - I would put my head in the water - try really hard to breathe just through my mouth which I struggle with at the best of times and still I'd get water in my mask.  I saw about 5 fish which was nice, but got frustrated and walked back to the shore wincing as I stepped onto the coral with my bare feet.

We had a break from all the relaxing for lunch and I ordered Gado Gado and a Yellow fish and coconut curry - both were beautiful, but huge portions so I didn't end up eating much of it.

I continued to catch up with my blog until Anna kindly leant me her snorkel and mask to have a try myself.  She was also kind enough to let me squash my size 8 hooves into her teeny size 4 sandals so that I could get into the water without having to feel the scratchy dead coral underfoot.  Not having the mask fill up with water every 10 seconds made such a difference.  I was enthralled I saw fish that I’ve only ever seen in fish tanks at aquariums or on the TV!  There were bright, vivid electric blue tiny fish darting about in small schools only about 2 or 3cm long.  There were multi coloured and iridescent parrot fish who are about 20 cm long and just don’t realise how pretty they are.   There were loads of black and yellow angel fish about the size of my hand picking away at all the coral and nibbling the bottom of the seabed.  There were hundreds of tiny striped fish a green tinge darting around near the surface.  Lots of larger probably white snapper type fish along the bottom of the seabed.  As I swam around I kept marveling what I was seeing, wishing I had an underwater camera to record it all and trying really hard to commit everything that I could see to memory.

I've added some pictures of the types of fish that I saw - I didn't take them sadly, but they are the fish that I was looking at!

After my underwater adventure I relaxed in my beach hut for a bit longer while Anna took turns to alternate between lying in the sun on the beach and taking time out in the beach hut. I'd brought a book, brushes and watercolour paint set from home that I'd bought at Tate Modern in London just after I'd run London Marathon and painted a picture of the view I had from my beach hut.  I know I'm not very good, but there is something really relaxing and therapeutic about just painting.

We headed back from the beach and I decided that I wanted to try out some yoga at H2o Yoga which was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel - I showered and put on some leggings and a dress and sprayed the rest of me with mossie repellent - unfortunately I hadn't mitigated for the fact that mossies can bite through material and after a lovely 1 and a half hour yoga session which was challenging, but also relaxing.  The teacher was American and it was quite a busy class, but with not too many people that she wasn't able to help those with less experience and make adjustments.  It felt friendly, but perhaps I preferred Yoga Barn for feeling more welcome - although it was clear that some of the people there were regular attendees,  The session cost 100000 rupiah which is the equivalent for about £5 and so pretty good value for money - I just wish I didn't get so bitten during the class.

I headed back to the hotel and we got changed and went out for dinner - we walked up and down for a bit looking at a few different restaurants and eventually decided on Chill Out Bungalows.  Lots of the restaurants on Gili Air have the fish caught that day on display including red snapper, white snapper and perhaps most oddly - parrot fish - we weren't sure if we could bring ourselves to eat the gorgeous fish that we'd been marveling at only hours beforehand in the sea!

Our meal was lovely and the restaurant was really quite busy which is often a good sign.  We shared a pizza for a starter (after lots of curry I had started to crave a bit of western food - terrible I know!) and then I had a Lombok Salad which was spicy, but not head blowing off levels of spice and I had some potato wedges which were huge!  Full and happy we went to bed as things shut down on Gili Air in general pretty early - i.e. by 10pm most of the restaurants were in the process of closing down.