9 Mile Beach

This Morning we didn’t have anything planned but I knew Pete would want to be out of the house for as long as possible because Anneka can’t stop talking.
Ellie and I were rudely awakened at 3am this morning by a herd of cows, first I thought I heard drumming which was obviously there horns banging against the trees then we both heard a rush of footsteps and we sat up and then 20 or so cows walked straight past our open front door.
At 6:45 I was dreading going up to the house to make the coffees but fortunately for me I was the first one up. Even Petes door was closed which is unusual but I could hear his laptop so I knew he was up. I quietly filled the kettle and put the gas on then grabbed 3 cups in silence and put them on the Coffee making table again in silence.
I was really pleased with my ninja skills until Anneka’s door opened and she came out like a tornado.
“Morning” I said
“ Good Morning “ she said back loudly “ was that you making all that noise this morning?”
“ No, I’ve just put the kettle on that’s all”
“ how long have you been here then?” She asked
“ about 1 minute, I was really quiet”
“ well someone was making a hell of a ruckus this morning and that bloody cat doesn’t know where he wants to be wandering in and out all night”
I didn’t need this conversation before coffee and luckily she went straight back into her room to put on some clothes while I took Ellie a tea and Pete came out and joined me.
He suggested we have a beach morning and I agreed so we went upstairs and had our coffee on the roof terrace. We didn’t need to leave until 10am so at 8:30 I started a quick workout but halfway through Pete came down and said he’d done breakfast.
Ellie went up and told him I would be up after a workout which I was and when I got there to eat it was non stop Anneka. What are you working out for do you think you’ll get fat? What are you looking at now? Don’t wear your watch you’ll get robbed, and she even asked Ellie what’s wrong with her sinuses.
I was done, and I could see that Ellie was taken back by that comment so I put my camera bag in the safe, locked our room and jumped in the car smiling all the way.
On the way to the beach Pete picked up a local boy who was going to watch the car in the car park, he came dressed in a black and blue tracksuit, a black baseball hat and armed with a machete.
We also passed 4 local boys on the way that were between 8 and maybe 14 years old, the eldest had a guitar while the other 3 sang while the jungle sleeps tonight. They were actually really good.
The road to the beach was 4x4 extra all the way and even Pete had to put it in low range to complete the journey through sandy forest.
We arrived in a wooded car park surrounded by forest on one side and a stunning golden beach on the other.
There were hundreds of rock pools all with fish in and we spent about an hour cooking ourselves just wandering around the pools before I finally went to a really sandy bit and had a swim. The water is a constant 24°c here and there were big rollers about 100 meters out but it was low water and the edges where we were, were lovely and calm.
Then I went back to Ellie and Pete and sat in the warm rock pools with Ellie while we both watched Pete build Turkish sand castles. After that Pete and I snorkeled in the rock pools while the tide started to come in.
Just after 12pm we knew we couldn’t hide from Anneka all day so we headed back to the house and Ellie showered while I got changed and we both went up to the house to make coffees.
Anneka was in the lounge area saying everywhere here was so hot and she was plugged in with her phone in one hand watching a tablet really loudly. She said it was to hot to sit on the roof terrace but we’d already decided that’s where we were sitting and she declined our invite and the 3 of us went back upstairs to hide, joined by Millie.
At 2pm Pete went off to catch up on some work and check on his lamps ready for a night drive tonight. He’s promised to show me bush babies but I haven’t got my hopes up. Ellie and I stayed on the roof terrace for the rest of the afternoon and we didn’t here any conversation downstairs so Pete was definitely in hiding somewhere.
At 6pm Pete started dinner, we’d all managed to hide upstairs for most of the day but now it was crunch time and we knew we’d have to sit downstairs. Pete had cooked me the biggest steak going and didn’t think I’d finish it, which I did. Ellie and Pete also had steak and Anneka had pork but told everyone all through there meal how good it was with an Mmmm with every mouthful.
After dinner Ellie went straight to bed, she hasn’t felt well for a couple of days and after a morning on the beach she had managed to cook herself and now has slight sunstroke. Pete and I decided to escape for the night and jumped in Karin with the spotlights and went on a midnight safari.
At 9pm it was a little early to really see any wildlife but we took a slow drive across the fields down towards the lake. I could see eyes glowing everywhere but they turned out to be bugs or birds, then Pete thought he spotted a bush baby in a tree but we were to far away and then finally we spotted what we thought were 2 bush babies in a tree nearby.
We both jumped out of the car knowing that we were in hippo territory as we had seen the footprints already. We made our way off the track and half way across the field it looked like the bush babies were jumping. Then they started coming towards us flying.
It turns out they were actually 2 nightjars.
We didn’t see much after that atall but Pete said he couldn’t think of anything better to do than just go on a game drive in the night with one of your mates. Then I realised he was talking about me which meant a lot.
At 9:50pm we arrived back at home and before I’d even opened the car door we could here hurricane Anneka shouting at us from the house. I said “ sorry mate, I’m done” and left Pete to go up and deal with whatever it was and I had a cold shower and went to bed. I could still hear her clearly in our room.Weiterlesen