On Saturday morning I was going on another boat trip to explore a different reef with my boys!!
This was always an exciting prospect because it's incredible the difference a few miles can make. I had no idea where they were taking me, but I knew it would be (to quote Ahmed the Boat Captain) "A very good reef"
After another enormous breakfast, I popped in my contact lenses checked that the Go Pro battery was charged and that the SD card was inserted and met Adam in reception. Bari was also there and both of them asked me if I had my camera and card and a full battery. My camera catastrophes were now becoming legendary.
Just to be absolutely certain I took a picture and a bit of video of them both!!!
On the boat, we sped off in a slightly different direction to previous days. To be honest, there are so many islands and they all look pretty similar from a distance, so who knows where we were headed. It was like a little voyage of discovery.
Eventually we began to approach what looked like a resort island. These stand out from the crowd because of their many thatched buildings, little private beaches and the famous over water bungalows that we have all drooled over in travel magazines.
We seemed to be getting quite close and it looked like we were going to snorkel their house reef.
Now this was a first. Every Island in the Maldives has it's own reef and as far as I was aware, these privately owned resort island reefs were off limits to budget travellers like me.
I thought I would just check "Is that a resort island?". "It used to be", Ibrahim replied "It was owned by 2 people who couldn't agree on anything and fell out".Â
Wow!!!!
As we got closer I could see the remains of what was once, beautiful accommodation between the trees. The palm thatched roofs had holes in them and the whole place look abandoned and unloved.
What a waste! A little island paradise left to go to rack and ruin because 2 stupid people couldn't get along together.
"Does anyone live there now", I asked. "only 2 people but there is nothing there - no food, water, anything. I was keen to know how they could possibly exist without these basic requirements for life, but Ahmed announced it was time to snorkel.
This reef had a lot more live coral than the others I'd seen, the only problem was that it was a fair distance down from where I floated on the surface. As I've previously explained, I'm way too floaty and haven't anything like the strength or lung capacity to free dive down any more. The Go Pro doesn't have the ability to zoom and the photos it takes are not good enough to crop the pictures very hard.  So it was looking like I needed to just relax and enjoy the scenery. We saw another turtle (too far down to get a picture)
Adam saw 2 sharks and called me over, but by the time I'd got there, they were little dots in the distance way out over the drop off.
We spotted 2 more tiny little Nemo's (Clown fish but with the alternate colour scheme - Black, White and Yellow) and watched them going about their business for a while.
There was so much to see, I lost all track of time and it was only by checking my wrinkly fingers clock that I realised, we'd been in the water for well over an hour.
I'd kept my eyes peeled the whole time for that elusive shark picture - but it wasn't to be.
As we made out way back to Bod, the boys pointed out the sandbank and asked if I would like to go there on Monday (my last boat trip).
The sandbank trip is one where you get taken to a deserted little island for a picnic and when I say deserted - I mean deserted. There is literally nothing there except a wide expanse of sand. No trees, no shelter - nothing. Now while this might be a lovely experience for a romantic young (or more mature) couple, a family or a group of friends - I really didn't see the point of doing it by myself!!
The only possible reason to go would be to have one of the boys take a photo of me standing alone on a desert island looking like "Billy No Mates". No, on balance, I think I'll give that one a miss.
Later on that day I went for a snorkel along the house reef. My friends had their final diving exam and were busy doing some last minute revising, so I went alone (not too far of course) and tried out a new cobbled together Go Pro set up, that I had worked on after lunch.
Earlier in the week I had tried out the chest harness but all I got were pictures of the ocean floor. Then I tried the head strap - no good either, far too high in the water. So I had settled on attaching the little camera to the Yellow float accessory, which is brilliant given my propensity for dropping things! However, I also had a long extendible pole with me, which would be great for getting closer to the fish, but would sink like a stone if I dropped it.   As far as I knew, there wasn't an attachment that allowed you to connect 2 different accessories, and if there was - I didn't have one. So it was a puzzle and a challenge. In the end I secured the Go Pro to the long pole and attached the float using a padded wrist strap. It was not as easy as it sounds and I was actually quite proud of my efforts.
During my snorkel, I discovered that it worked pretty well, but there was one major drawback. For video, I was able start recording then push the pole down closer to the fish to get some great close ups. But to take a photo, the camera still had to be within arms length, which was no help to me at all. What I really needed was some sort of remote control - but I didn't have one of those either - something to work on when I get back to Spain!!!
When I got back to HVR and checked, the results were pretty much as I expected. Much better video ( although it's much harder to stop the camera wobbling when it's on a long pole) but photos that were a bit useless unless you cropped the life out of them.
That evening, Ana, Joe, Dan & Bea were going night fishing with a BBQ on the beach afterwards. They invited me to join them, but I politely declined. I'm finding harder and harder to eat fish - especially after swimming with them all day, so I really wasn't up for participating in their capture.
Ana admitted to me later that she didn't like that seeing that either (we definitely must be related in some way.)
I had ordered a pizza for dinner at 8.30. I had eaten the most delicious curries and tons of fish while I had been on Bod and just fancied something different.
At 8.00pm, Bari came by and asked if I would mind having dinner at 9.00 instead - he had something special planned!
I was full of curiosity, and after he had left, sneaked out to the garden, where we normally eat, to see what was going on. There was nothing there. No tables or chairs and no sign of anyone - very strange.
As something was clearly afoot, I decided to dress up a bit, put some make up on and attempt to do something with my wayward hair.
I very wisely left my straighteners at home - they would have been worse than useless in this heat, So tried to fashion some sort of style with the hair-dryer (kindly provided in my room by the ever thoughtful Bari).
The problem was that as I soon as I stepped outside (for a quick ciggy) the heat and humidity gave my hair a mind of it's own, which was to curl and stick out in all directions (and not in a good way). After a few attempts, I gave up and just went for the "Flumff".
"Flumff", is a technical term (invented by me) which was used to great effect when I was helping do the hair and make-up for Spotlight Productions, a youth theatre group based in Huntingdon UK. It means to fluff the hair up a bit to give it some body or height (the kids all started using the term as well - which was very gratifying)
In this climate, the Flumff was the best I could hope for.
A precisely 9.00pm I wandered out to see what all the mystery was about. Joe and Dan were waiting, but there was still no sign of anyone and still no furniture!!
We waited a bit longer, which is tricky in that heat, so I opted to return to my lovely cool room before my hair De - Flumffed itself.
I asked the boys to give me a call, when it was time to go for our mystery dinner.
At just after 9.30 -Â one of Bari's brothers (well I think it was one of his brothers - he's got a few) appeared, to invite me to join him.
Ana, Joe, Dan & Bea were waiting in reception and we all followed him out of the gate.
We headed towards Sunset beach, but of course the sunset was long gone, so we were intrigued to know what we were going to eat and more importantly how we were going to see!!
At the pathway to the beach, Bari and a bunch of other guys (no idea who they were as it was too dark to see) welcomed us, apologised for being late and guided us by torchlight onto the sand.
We were greeted by the most magical sight ( it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it).
There were our dining tables and chairs, set out beautifully on the beach and between them was a tree (brought in especially for the occasion) literally covered in little jars, with a candle burning brightly in each one.
To the side was a BBQ with the fish the family had caught cooking on the grill, a buffet of coleslaw, pasta, rice and........ my pizza!!
We were all a bit overwhelmed - it was so perfect.
I had unfortunately forgotten to bring one of my working cameras ( now there's a surprise!!) but I couldn't let this glorious sight pass, without a few photos!! So I hurtled back to HVR to get it (and a torch so I wouldn't fall over in the dark).
The pictures were ok, but they couldn't capture the atmosphere - I'm running out of adjectives here!
Just imagine eating wonderful food, under a blanket of stars, with sand between your toes, gentle waves lapping at the shore and the whole thing illuminated by hundreds of little candles.
We even had music, courtesy of the island resort nearby. Initially it seemed to be some sort of traditional local music and we guessed it was a show for their guests, (obviously we couldn't see what was going on). But it was a nice addition to what was already turning out to be a spectacular evening.
As we finished our amazing dinner, the music turned to party/disco music, which we all agreed wasn't quite the same. Having said that - Ana and I did have a jolly good go at the Macarena!!
As we sat there contemplating how lucky we were to be in this beautiful place, someone (can't remember who), spotted the Hermit Crabs. Literally hundreds of them all walking up the beach. Night time is clearly their big opportunity to get a bit of exercise, have a get together with friends and dig some new holes for unsuspecting holidaymakers to trip over in the morning.
It was fascinating to watch them, until I became slightly paranoid they were going to get stepped on when the boys carried the furniture back. Bari told me not to worry, they would be fine.
Eventually, it was time to say goodnight to our excellent hosts and return to our guest house.
We had had a lovely evening - one I will never forget and there was still more to come..............
Tune in to the next exciting instalment - coming soon!!