Tuesday 21st November

Wow! What a day! Forgive me if my spelling becomes a bit sloppy during this update but it's late here and it's been a really long day! Kerry and I were up at 5:30 this morning, got dressed in our swim wear and made our way to the gate at the back of the hotel that leads down to the beach where our tour guide for the morning was waiting for us with his little wooden boat. We had decided to spend an extra night in Lovina as we wanted to take a tour to see some Dolphins out in the bay and it was only going to cost us a couple of pounds each to do it. We waded out into the water and clambered on board our wooden vessel and our guide started up the motor. As we ventured further and further away from the shore line we looked back at volcano's in the distance and watched the sun just starting to rise over the horizon, a truly stunning image that we have managed to capture on photo for you all. After travelling a good 20 mins away from the shore the driver slowed the engine and we had our first siteing of some spotted Dolphins just to the left of our boat, it was an incredible sight watching the small pod of 5 or 6 dolphins in their natural habitat rolling across the surface of the water.

We watched these for a while until our guide noticed a gathering of 15 or so other boats in the distance to our right and gunned the boat over to them. No sooner had we arrived over the gathering of wooden boats, when a large pod of 50 or more small dolphins emerged out of the water, all seeming to roll through the water at the same time. We follwed them around the bay and every now and then one of them would jump fully out of the water, somersault and then disappear under the water again, it was a magnificent sight and truly a priviledge to get the chance to see these striking creatures in their natural environment. Some of the dolphins were babies and looked very cute swimming alongside their parents. Our guide informed us that the spotted Dolphins that we had seen earlier are a different type of dolphin and they roamed all over the Islands whereas the large pontoon of Dolphins we were now watching were pretty much always resident in the bay and could always be found this time of the morning catching their breakfast of tuna. We spent over an hour and half following them and watching them play and then we made our way back over to the coral reef nearer the shore where the driver allowed us to spend an hour and a half snorkling again around the coral. This time Kerry wasn't scared and we ventured even further away from the boat, observing hundreds of different coloured fish, including a couple of large ones that decided to come and take an interest in me!

It was truly an unforgettable morning and our most favourite memory to cherish of our time here in Bali other than the beautifully friendly people. Our hotel left a bottle of Bali Rose' wine in our room today as a thank-you fopr staying with them so many nights and it was the perfect touch to end the afternoon. We've just finished a meal here in our favourite restaurant for the past couple of days called Bunga and are about to make the LONG walk back to the hotel, which is probably part of the reason we both feel fitter! We're up early again in the morning as the shuttle bus comes to pick us up to take us back down South to Ubud where we're hoping to meet some more mischievious monkeys in the forest temple! Not sure we'll get a chance to update the blog again before we get to Perth in a couple of days time but until next time we hope you're at least half entertained by the journal so far and we'll speak to you soon. By the way we really appreciated all the messages that have been left on the message boards so keep it up!

Terimah-Kasi! (thank-you very much in Balinese)