Call to prayer woke me up in the early hours. I listened to the service remotely, puzzled at how a mosque with a 30.000W PA system could exist in the coconut trees and jungle across the road from Qunci.

We lazed by the pool for an hour before deciding to investigate what was along the beach. Heading left was a deserted small hotel, followed by our sister resort. After a hundred meters of coconut trees was a resort of 2 huge private villas and some bungalows. A solitary couple were having a coffee. I ploughed through the shorebreak and black volcanic sand the next "resort". If anyone wants to remake "The Shining" in a tropical location, this would be the ideal set.

Checked that A-lo was settled and headed right. There was a tiny shack selling drinks, renting a surfboard and offering massages next to a sumptuous villa. Seemed strange to see a family trying to eek out a living next to that opulence.

Holiday resort was a bit more happening - mist have been about 15 people round the pool, followed by Windy Beach - another ghost resort. Looked in to the Holiday Resort: they had a small turtle hatchery rescued eggs were buried in the sand under a cage of chicken wire. About 40 hatchlings were swimming in a tiny concrete tank. For US$5 you could release one into the wild.

Back at the pool Annelise was concerned I might have got lost. Mucked about in the pool, read a bit then decided to check our Senggigi - the resort 3km down the road. Being off season it was totally empty and we ploughed on through the one street town, trying to find somewhere to eat where we weren't the only customers. Apparently this is Lombok's biggest resort. It was tough but finally made it to Alfredos, and lapped up the welcome onshore breeze.

For the rest of the day we based ourselves at the Qunci Pool Villas: read, swam, chatted and had a massage to pass the time until sunset. The Bali volcano was clearly visible and sunset amazing. Took advantage of happy hour and stayed until the first star to appear disappeared behind the distant volcano.

For dinner we followed a tip given to us in a dive shop earlier. In the course of 6 weeks Annelise had traded Scotts of Mayfair for a large makeshift tent held up by bamboo poles with a grill at one end and residential stray cat to clean up. Ate freshly grilled snapper and king prawns. Yum!

The strip had livened up a bit by the evening and we stopped at Happy Bar for a drink. The strangest ensemble of a local pub band was playing: 2 older smiley chaps on vocals who tried to impersonate each singer (Bryan Adams was OK, Mick Jagger attempt was tragic). Drummer was a cross between a Samoan sumo wrestler and a baby gerbil. The lead guitar was a cool young dude with great talent, but a little self indulgent on the rock-solos and accompanying facial expressions. The 15 minutes at the end of "Another brick in the wall" were epic. Most of the clientele were locals although there were a few old western guy/ young local girl combos. The band humoured us and played out request - Sweet Child 0' mine" with gusto…….We'd only gone for one drink but ended up staying or a few……Comedy moment was observing the barman subtly re-filling the Smirnoff bottle with the contents of an unmarked plastic canister…

Cab.Home.Gecko Check. Bed. Sleep to the sound of crashing waves. Looking forward to the echoing call to prayer at 0445…..