Day 1 (continued) and Day 2

Some photographs of reception - this is truly a beautiful hotel

Steps leading down into reception

Dhow display

Spice chests with actual spices in them - these are the spice islands after all. Lovely smell of spice wafts through reception

Black pepper and cloves

Cinnamon chest. Brian said he thought it was bits of bark, and seemed quite surprised when I confirmed he was right....

Had the most fantastic tuna and salad for lunch, it's all buffet-style with 4 different tables to make your selection from (entrees, fish, salads, curries, meats, puddings, cheeses etc) Loads of fresh fruit and smiling waiters on tap. I wonder if we can bring a few home to train the South African waiters before the world cup? I'm especially thinking of how much Cape Town would benefit from this....

Brian was tasked with figuring out how to operate the safe and immediately locked us out of it - requiring a call to reception to come and unlock it. I couldn't say anything about this at all, since I managed to do exactly the same thing at least 3 times in India.

LONG afternoon nap (holidays are tiring)

Followed by our briefing - which was thorough and fortunately didn't involve any disco lights, music or dancing. Just what was included in the price (practically everything) and things like operating hours for pubs (most important) The Italian "sports manager" is frightening; who has that kind of energy in this humidity? We narrowly escaped being drafted into a water polo tournament by claiming pensioner status

Fabulous dinner on the beach with entertainment in the form of traditional dancers, and bed (like I said, it's exhausting being on holiday)

Day 2

Awoke to a beautiful morning

We decided to check out the local reef before buying a tour to go snorkelling, you can see the reef from the beach and it didn't look too far away. Hah. At low tide you have to walk around a mile, I'd say, in thigh-deep water.

The reef is the dark blue bit in the far distance. The darker water closer to shore is actually a seaweed farm. I should mention that the ocean provides no relief from the heat (being around 29deg C) or the humidity (obviously, since it's wet)

A seaweed farm

Visions of sea urchins and stone fish meant we took shoes (well, Brian took his crocs, I took my slops because I'd only managed to find one of the reef shoes before leaving)

Being paranoid South Africans we also refused to leave our things on the beach which meant we were carrying everything while we walked out. When it got a little deeper I wrapped all the things I was carrying into my sarong and tied it around my head, Rambo-style.

At around this time Brian discovered he had not checked the mask before we left home so the strap was in need of some repair and he started looking around for something to use to fix it (in the middle of the ocean?) Once we got to waist-height we tried a little snorkelling but it was soon clear that we wouldn't be able to do much, encumbered as we were. Also we kept swimming into each other, regardless of the fact that there was a whole ocean to swim in.

After about 15 minutes of this we gave it up as a bad idea and trekked back to the beach. The beach boys, who had been watching us with great amusement, tried to sell us all manner of snorkelling trips - and they are not easily put off. "King Solomon" was especially committed to making a sale and I felt sorry for him, thinking of us as wealthy tourists.

We hit the swimming pool - again, around 28-29deg C, but there's a walkway over it that provides an opportunity to lurk in the shade and cool down.

We resolved to take a tour, and I met with the guest relations manager to discuss the options with the contracted operator. Visions of Sodwana, I'm afraid - where guaranteed clientele leads to arrogant service.

We decided to contact the black market operators and managed to track one down as he was briefing potential clients. Now these clients (South Africans in the middle of emigrating to Oz) were clearly wealthy, just wanting something a little different.

We retired to the bar to discuss it over local beer (Tuskers and Kilimanjaro - both great beers) We decided that we would go the next day and made our arrangements which required us to meet the transport off the hotel grounds. This didn't seem too risky to me, since we could chat to the other clients who were going that very afternoon.

We found a couple of books in the library (I use this term very loosely, really a few shelves behind the sound booth in the "disco") and settled down at the pool to read and swim.

Around this time I decided it would be a good idea to take some photos, and switched on my phone to do that (I don't have a digital camera) I was sitting peacefully reading a book when I noticed a message. I have never activated the roaming option (lacking sufficient funds to pay the upfront deposit) there was clearly something sinister in this so I switched it off immediately and locked it away in the safe for good measure.

Later on, however, my curiosity got the better of me and I switched it on again. A few messages from MTN welcoming me to Tanzania, a dialstring code to establish the costs (reasonable, in my opinion) and a rude message from the credit card company who still hadn't sorted out the problem with the online transfer. I called the children (who had thought they were perfectly safe since we were out of the country) to establish their whereabouts and check they were flossing.

We had booked for dinner at the pizza restaurant (1 free pizza included in the package) which undoubtedly makes the best pizza on the continent. We decided to skip the karaoke evening and went off to bed early. I love the airconditioning in the room.