We woke up at 8.30 am and went down for breakfast. Today we were having boiled eggs; I passed on the egg option and just had toast; Edd moaned at me for passing, he said he would have gladly hoovered up my egg for me. Oh well, next time.

The lady that ran/owned the resort suggested we take their kayaks to Gem Island - it was a small island on the other side of Kapas, you could swim it if you really wanted to, but I didn't really want to.

Edd was not overly excited about taking the kayaks as he was not keen to paddle - his shoulder was hurting and it wasn't getting better. We wanted to snorkel around that area as there were apparently baby turtles there, so he gave in and we went back to our bungalow to pack our gear.

The kayak journey was trechurous, it did not have an adequate keel that kept it straight, so we were constantly trying to stop it from veering left (with us both being right handed, this was our stronger side). The wind was behind us and we were going with the tide - the trip back was going to be even worse.

We eventually got to Gem island and pulled the kayak up onto the beach. Even though it was a small island, with an even smaller resort, there was no one in sight. We got our things together and then heard the bats squabbling in the trees above us, the first night we heard them, I thought it sounded like animals being slaughtered; Cip was of the opinion that it was monkeys, but we were both corrected that it was in fact flying foxes that were fighting over branch space, or whatever it is that they do. We got a few snaps of them hanging in the trees like big seeds and then walked through a section of the resort with a through fair, to the beach on the other side.
We'd been advised to put liquid soap in our goggles as it apparently stopped them fogging up, this little trick worked like a charm, but I hadn't washed the soap out properly the day before and with me already being allergic to liquid soap on a good day, had a rash on both sides of my nose. Not the brightest thing I've ever done. Edd washed the soap out of his mask and we proceeded to wade out into the unknown.

We had decided to chance it with our camera again and not use the underwater poach we'd bought in Koh Lipe, I'd left all its little doors open and in the sun for 2 days, hopefully whatever water had managed to get trapped inside had been evaporated by the sun. I wanted to document any new and strange creatures we were going to discover today, so the camera was just going to have to play ball.

We were the only people in that area that were snorkeling, a few boats with divers had passed us and gone further out, to where the sea is dark blue and you only see things that are basically on top of you. We swam to a rocky area 100meters off the coast of the beach, we spotted a small blacktip shark swim over the rocks about 10 meters away from us; this was my first official shark sighting and it had gone well - the shark was small, had minded it's own business and swam away from us. I could do this. Edd stood up to clean up his mask again - the liquid soap had been washed off too well. Sigh, you can't win sometimes. He pointed out the fact that the area we were in was perfect shark habitat, hopefully we'd see bigger ones; I sarcastically thanked him for pointing out something I had already worked out for myself. The affirmation was much appreciated, not.

I was not comfortable with where we were, the fish we saw were absolutely enormous compared to the one's we were used to seeing - angel fish the size of 2 dinner plates, trigger fish a meter big with massive under bites, Botox lips and apparently bad attitudes. The water was too cold and deep and the coral wasn't very exciting, it was time to go back.

We hadn't seen any turtles yet, so swam around in the shallower area to see if we could spot any babies amongst the sea grass. The coral was prettier here and it was only 2 meters deep, I figured the chances of us seeing sharks in this area wasn't as stronger possibility as the rocky hideout we'd just been in. Edd stood up again and sorted out his mask, why it kept steaming up was a mystery; he then called for me to look at something - an iguana had beached itself on a rock close to us, I didn't have a chance to get a picture as it swam off too quickly after spotting us oafs close to it. Edd swam after it to see where it went, I was less enthusiastic: they were known to be a bit vicious.

The iguana had disappeared, he turned around to swim back to me and we swam back into the coral area to look for turtles and slowly make our way back to shore. In the distance, about 25 meters away from us, we spotted 2 blacktip reef sharks. I was not ecstatic at the sighting as we were in what I had labeled a 'safe' area, he grabbed the camera and went after them - I swam behind him slowly, in the general direction of the beach. The chances of me chasing a shark were about as likely as me growing wings. Not gonna happen; I did however keep a look out for them underwater while I waited for Edd to return.

All of a sudden, from the corner of my eye, I saw a grayish movement to my right - now, the problem with sharks is that they were surprisingly well camouflaged, so actually incredibly difficult to see - the sharks had doubled back and were headed in my direction. I called for Edd above the water and then re-enacted the scene from the Bible where Jesus walks on water. I was outta there.

Edd stayed in the water for another million years (more like 10 - 15 minutes, but it felt like a million years) I got out, coughed up the water I'd swallowed when I called for him, drank some water and then noticed a yoga mat drifting on the surface of the water by the rocks. I could reach it if I put my flippers on (wary of rock fish), so I did. I might as well be useful while Edd lined himself up on the lunch menu.

He swam back after a million years (10 - 15 minutes) and announced htat the 2 sharks I had spotted whilst on my own, were in fact different ones from the pair we'd spotted originally. In fact, there were 6 sharks in total swimming in the shallows where we were. They were about 1.5metres in length and not particularly bothered with him, that I believed, as they weren't too interested in me either, I however preferred to err on the side of caution. I was born with all my extremities; I'd prefer to die with them in tact.

He spent the next half an hour acting like the cat that got the cream. Honestly, it was Christmas day come early in Edd land. We kayaked back to our resort, against the wind and the tide, which was decidedly unpleasant, but he no longer complained about the keel that wasn't long enough on the underneath of the boat. We had one aim: to get back in time for lunch!

We made it was 5 minutes to spare, ordered 2 burgers and then put the kayak back where we'd found it. We were beyond exhausted and could eat for all of England we were so hungry!
The burgers were delicious and it turned out all of England did not have a very big stomach - Edd had to finish my burger for me. We then went up to our bungalow, showered and washed all our gear and then had a nap. We were beyond tired from the morning's activities.

We had fish for dinner, the portion was perfect and I managed to eat everything. It was served with wild rice, which was black, and I'd never eated or even seen black rice before. It was a curious bound on my plate, but just like normal rice, just a bit squiggier. We ate up, had a G&T and went to bed. We may have had an afternoon siesta, but we needed a good nights rest to recover.