Day 33 (Saturday18th November 2006)

Sarah was up all night being sick and in the morning she was a very poorly little bunny. We think she may have food poisening, but whatever it is, it kept her in bed with the fan on for half of the day.

After Marc tucked her up in bed with a cold bottle of water and a packet of Tim Tams (they sell them everywhere round here), he was in the water for a snorkel. He watched a large, beautiful titan triggerfish (from a safe distance) building its nest for a while and all the shifting of sand was attracting quite a few goatfish and tangs. Up next came a curious turtle which drifted up alongside him for a breath of air...that's 12 in 3-days for Marc now! Marc's beginning to get a bit blarzay about all these magical things he is seeing, but when a huge humpheaded Nepoleon wrasse cruised passed in the deep, it got his heart racing again. He dived down to get a bit closer to this mammoth as it swam by and a few seconds later, with one strong fliuck of its tail fin, the metre-long fish was gone.

Unfortuantely he had already used up the film in the camera, but with plenty more wonders like him lurking about, it only gives him more of an excuse to keep going out there. Before swimming to shore he saw another giant puffer, but who could ever get tired of seeing these guys?!

With Sarah sick at even the thought of eating, Marc went to lunch by himself. However, a gorgeous monitor lizard, black with yellow spots and an enormous forked tongue, scurried around below his table making him feel like he was never alone.

By the afternoon Sarah felt well enough to enter the outside world and nibbled at a bit of beans on toast. Out popped another monitor and Marc was off with the camcorder!

It got a bit cloudy, still bloody hot though, so Marc left Sarah dangling in the hammock back at the hut and went and updated the website. We had a bit of a late afternoon siesta before heading out to dinner that evening. We get a big welcome from the staff at the Gili Air Santay now, this being the third night in a row we've eaten there, but after eating just half her meal Sarah was running back to the hut feeling sick.

Marc finished his meal and sat talking with the locals for a while, including 'Bonka', a rastafarian looking chap who's always stoned and sleeps on the beach! They told him one of them has a footy somewhere and before he leaves they can have a kickabout. They made him a glass of the local drink and he politely drank it down. He hated every sip of this disgusting and alchoholic drink and if Marc was partial to smoking the old herbs, he could easily have got high with them all night. Instead, but perhaps a little drunk from his nightcap, he stumbled home in the dark to check on Sarah.

It was a good job that all these dudes on the island are so nice, because just before Marc was getting under the mosquito net for bed, Buti, one of the guys working at the restaurant was outside the door holding our camera bag containing our precious digital camcorder and camera...how lucky! What a guy! They're all great...the place is great...let's just hope Sarah's feeling better soon!

She went to bed dreaming of a nice long, candle-lit bath, a silk dressing gown, hot water bottle, feet up on the couch, Honey and Amber on one side, Molly on the other, Eastenders on the tv and the world's biggest cup of tea in her hands!!!

And as for Marc, if you're thinking he's a complete spanner, well we're paying for everything in wet notes at the moment because, yep you guessed it, muppet was back in the sea again yesterday with the wallet in his pocket...he's on the other side of the world, but he hasn't changed!!!

Day 34 (Sunday 19th November 2006)

Today was hot, really hot and although we don’t know the precise temperature, it definitely felt like the hottest day of our trip so far. But we guess it’s nothing compared to the stifling heat you guys are having to put up with back home right ? Tee hee…

After some brekkie Marc took a walk down the island to buy some new film for our new re-usable underwater camera, taking a little time out from his stroll to watch another monitor climb a tree.

Sarah, now feeling a little bit like her old self, was happily sunbathing on the beach. Marc doesn’t know how she does it, to lye still in that sun for more than a minute he finds impossible…but as for his mum, we think you just might be able to manage it!

The heat can get to you out here and if you don’t drink enough water you can feel quite under the weather. For Marc though, his sanctuary is the sea and as soon as he was back, with camera re-loaded, he was in for a snorkel.

He reckons these latest pictures he’s been taking should be quite good so we’ll have to watch this space and amongst his subjects for this particular snorkel was a big black, orange and yellow boxfish.

We can’t the pictures developed on the island so luckily, Chris the manager at the dive shop, kindly offered to get them done for us when she makes her weekly trip to Mataram tomorrow. We have also entrusted her to withdraw some cash with our bank card as Sarah, who got herself all confused with all these millions and millions of rupiah, only withdrew about 70pound!!

We had some lunch in the shade and Sarah, feeling now just about up to it, joined Marc for another snorkel. We think the tide was on the turn though and as well as it being a bit choppy, we spent the whole time being raced along in the current.

After a long walk back up the beach once we came to shore, we dried off (2 seconds in the sun) and phoned home. The phone lines were pretty bad and it cost us a small fortune but it was worth it just to hear your voices.

We were both shocked to hear about your run-in with a deer Sarah’s Mum and we hope you and the car are better soon…must of cost a buck or two!!!! Shouldn’t laugh, and we hope the poor thing’s gone to a better place now.

Sarah’s Mum we bet you weren’t quite so sympathetic…what will you do without your prize possession??? We’ve got it…we know of a lovely vw beetle up for sale!!!!!

Daddy Cool congratulations on the promotion! There’s these really cool things they put on top of traffic lights around these countries that indicate how long you must wait before the next change. How good’s that, you’re sitting at the lights and instead of concentrating hard for that amber light to start flashing, foot hovering over the excelerator, you can just relax and watch the seconds tick down in front of you! While you wait it counts down in red numbers and then it even shows you how long you have to burn off, in green…amazing!!

How many times have you been cruising down a clear road and up ahead the lights are green…then comes the decision, do you put your foot down quickly before they change, running the risk of running a red light…or do you ease off, inevitably getting stuck as the lights change??? Well with these bad boys you need worry no longer, it tells you exactly whether you’ll make it or not!! What an invention! So mention that in your next board meeting and it won’t just be another promotion, you’ll be running the company!!

Oh and we forgot to say that that thing in the pocket of Marc’s boardies, according to to old surfer boy Pete, is indeed a wax comb for a surfboard…!

Right, we’ve gone off on one a little…good to speak to you Marc’s mum and Steve too! Can’t believe Arsenal drew at home again! Marc wanted to watch some footy last night but unfortunately, there’s not too much in the way of televisions around here! So have you got old Enzo a hearing aid yet? We can’t wait to give him a good stroke!

Spartans played today so hope they did well! Who was player of the month for October by the way?? Don’t worry Kyle, as I’m not there, just give it to someone else for a change…!!

As the last bit of light descended over the Gili Islands, Marc went in for a night snorkel to use up the last few shots on the camera. He couldn’t find an octopus this time, but did photograph a hermit crab with about 87 anemones on its back, a lionfish, cowrie, decorator crab and the most incredible worms that glowed the most incredible colours in the torchlight as they drifted by.

Christ knows what they’ll look like, or even if they’ll come out at all. If an underwater camera with flashlight, aided by torch, somehow miraculously took good pictures, the countless critters  throwing themselves at the torch would surely ruin them! Who knows, but this time tomorrow we’ll find out.

Marc returned just in time before Sarah had launched the search party and after he dried off, once again back at the Gili Air Santay, he sat and ate curry with mashed potato for dinner…yummy!

PS Good to hear from you Chris mate. Marc's been thinking of you while we've been here and we can why you fell in love with the place. Sorry to hear about your girlfriend buddy and hope it all works out for you soon. We'll keep tabs on your adventure on your website too...