Varkala

And a lovely place it certainly is. We have a little bungalow on the sea shore with the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks as the soundtrack. There is a little beach with easy access to the water. Every evening, the beach is laid out with tables for dinner by the shore.

A 15 minute walk to the left takes us to the cliff top village of Varkala where there is a large selection of restaurants and shops selling tea shirts and elephants etc. I bought a tea shirt and an elephant. Just a little one. Below the cliffs there is the town beach with fine, yellow sand and lots of people enjoying the sun and the sea.

A walk to the right in the relative cool of the morning takes you along a cliff past several small beaches and a smattering of small hotels. After about 35 minutes we came to a long beach which stretched out of site in the distance. There was no-one on it except us. The sand was fine and firm and there was a very gentle slope into the waves. Out to sea, fishing boats were hauling in their nets surrounded by crows and kites looking for an easy meal. The next day we took a Tuk Tuk from the hotel to further along that beach, we had a swim and took our time walking back to the hotel. Perfect morning.

Every morning at dawn the fishermen set off from our beach to set their nets from a boat. Two long ropes are used to draw the net back to the beach. The whole process takes about an hour and provides much scope for loud and vigorous argument usually concerning who isn't pulling hard enough, who has taken more than their share of fish and who is generally being an idiot. The catch is usually a small basket of tiddlers which they sell for about 500 rupees (£5). That's about 25p per fisherman. This morning there was great rejoicing - it was a two basket catch.

The fishermen are all quite elderly - we think that it is more of a social club rather than a viable commercial enterprise. How about it Jimmy, Bob and Dave?

Our habit in the evening was to take a drink on the beach as the sun was setting and then to order dinner as the stars came out. Off to bed at 9:30pm and an early rise to watch the fishermen haul in their nets over breakfast.

Our stay at the Palm Tree Heritage Hotel has been the perfect calm down from our hectic 4 week tour of India.