Lots of birdlife to be seen including herons, eagles and darting iridescent blue kingfishers. Amazingly our hawk-eyed boatman spotted cleverly camouflaged water monitors draped along branches overhanging the water at heights of about ten feet. We had no idea these large lizards could climb, let alone that they roosted in trees!
Eventually after various encounters with a small crocodile, an almost invisible green snake and birds looking like cormorants, we reached a tranquil backwater where the surface was covered in fuschia coloured water lilly flowers, their leaves floating serenely on the water surface.
Turning round, we stopped at what looked like a fish farm but was in fact a floating piscine pedimassage establishment. Christine sat with her feet dipped into various tanks each containing shoals of different size fish which nuzzled and nibbled her toes. She pronounced the experience very relaxing.
We had a tour of the various plants grown in the garden here including cinnamon, vanilla and black pepper, and met the resident porcupine. He was an amiable creature who raised his variegated quills obligingly for us. Usually nocturnal and vegetarian they are apparently very partial to the fruit of the Balsa tree.
It was 10:30 before we got back for breakfast, followed by snooze to make up for the early start.
Tuk-tuk to beach and lunch at 'the loft' before paddling to visit the rocks at the northern end of the beach. Similar to the other end but further away. I think the round trip was about five kilometres. The rocks were gneisses, probably quartz, feldspar and a mafic which looked like augite, with veins of large crystals resembling pegmatites.
Back to 'the loft' to watch the sun set for the last time over Bentota beach, beer in hand, then tuk-tuk back to the hotel. The going rate is R200 which is one pound for the pair of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment