After waiting half the night for the first boat of the day, along with about 100 other people I was shepherded on to a small boat with 9 others, we were all issued with life jackets- *what had I got myself into this time?* the boat set of, not even out of the harbour Walls and one of the 2 huge engines stalled, smoke everywhere, the driver then tried for 15 mins to get it back, eventually he did and we were away. The sea was calm with a little bit of swell, the driver was totally hammering it- we were jumping off the waves and hanging on for dear life, we almost lost some luggage and a small child! After touring the island and dropping others off we arrived at long beach, my stop. The islands are paradise! Silky soft sand, coral and shells on the shore line and clear blue sea - totally heaven. I found a nice safe little hostel right on the beach front, with a perfect view of the rising sun-mezin! As you know me and The Sun are not the best of friends, despite my best efforts to make piece. Yes 1 day on the beach and I'm a little pinky! I have run out of the only sunscreen that seems to work for me (only available in Europe), anyway the areas that have been exposed already, legs, arms, shoulders- totally fine with regular f30. Top of legs, back and tummy- not fine with F30, yet more ridiculous tan lines to work with!

The islands have no roads and no cars so exploring on foot is the only option, I walked across the island and scrambled around the rocky shore line for a couple of hrs to find a totally deserted beach, had to flag down a water taxi to pick me up and take me back tho because the route was a bit too dangerous to do in reverse.

The main attraction on the islands is diving, it's supposed to be really good- as a none diver my options are limited, although there are signs up and down the beach telling me the snorkelling is better than sex- looking forwards to giving that a try!