So we arrived in Varkala after around five hours on a local bus and short tuk tuk ride. Tom managed to find a super cheap beach hut for us to stay in which was good. 
Varkala is supposed to have one of the nicest beaches in Kerala which is why we headed here. Sadly there was no beach to be found! As it was low season this also coincided with very high tides so the beach was never visible which was a shame. It was still a lovely location though. The beach was overlooked by a steep cliff upon which lots of restaurants and hotels were perched. It was nice to sit and watch the waves crashing against the rocks and to see the view along the coast. The majority of restaurants were closed for the low season so we only had a couple of places to eat. This didn't matter too much as the food was good! Had my first Indian pizza that actually resembled and tasted like a decent pizza! Gorgonzola, parmesan, mozarella and swiss cheese, yum! 
 
Woke up on our first morning to find a little rodent friend had eaten a quarter of our big bar of soap in the bathroom. Pretty sure he wouldn't be feeling too well by the morning which was unfortunately now also the case for Tom. He woke up feeling pretty unwell but seemed to perk up a bit after a couple of hours and we went out to eat but sadly he had to go back to our hut to bed. This happened a couple of times, feeling better then going downhill again. Tom's tummy was not happy.
 
I spent most of our only full day in Varkala sat with the laptop at a café looking out to sea drinking milkshakes and organising a few things. As well as trying to prevent a handful of puppies just wondering straight through the hedge and over the cliff edge! Poor Tom stayed in bed. There isn't much to do in Varkala anyway so we were only going to be relaxing here. By the evening Tom had a fever too and was in bed with lots of layers and towels on top of him whilst I was sweating buckets! Not good. Luckily by the following afternoon he was feeling a bit better and just about well enough to be able to catch our coach to Pondicherry.