This was an early morning for all of us. We were up at 530am to go dolphin watching. We walked down to the beach to catch the boat.

The guys from the dive shop had to swivel the boat round and then drag it down to the beach – it looked like hard work.

There were the four of us and another couple from Vienna. As we motored out into the sea, we passed ‘Lover’s Leap’.  This is a true story attested by an inscription on a pillar on Swami Rock. It follows Francina van Reed, the daughter of a gentleman of rank in the civil service of Holland. She was engaged to a young Dutch officer who broke off the engagement upon the end of his foreign service and returned to Holland. Forsaken and distraught, she watched atop Swami Rock as the vessel carrying her faithless lover passed beyond the horizon. Overcome by sorrow, she flung herself from the rock into the violent sea below – a sheer drop of 400 feet. A pillar set up on the promontory records the fateful date of the tragedy that has since propelled the location to notoriety – 24 April, 1687. Now, the authorities have taken measures to build a protective fence for the protection of visitors.

The cleft in the rock also has a tale behind it. King Ravana and his mother had worshipped Siva at the shrine. The King wanted to remove the temple of Koneswaram when his mother was in ill health around 2000 BC and take it to her.  The literature says that as the king was heaving the rock, Lord Siva made him drop his sword. As a result of this, a cleft was created on the rock, today called Ravana Vettu – meaning Ravana’s Cleft.

Not long after we made our way out of the bay, we started to see pods of dolphins. There were a few boats around, but there were lots of different pods, so it didn’t get too busy most of the time.

We were all looking out and spotting the dolphins, and then we would motor over to where they were so we could get close to them and take pictures. The dolphins were very playful, and a couple of times, they jumped right out of the water and spun around. They were the bottle- nosed dolphins.

It was really amazing seeing all the dolphins and being that close to them. Sometimes you can see whales in the sea too, but it wasn’t really the right time of year, so we didn’t spot any. We did see some local fishermen out in the sea. These small boats can only use fishing rods and not nets.

As the boat approached the beach, we were all told to hold on tight. The boat then accelerated onto the beach and came to an abrupt stop, it was really funny.

And then it was time for breakfast. I had a raspberry smoothie bowl, which was delicious.

The lattes all came out with different animals on top.

After breakfast, we went back to the rooms to dump our bits.

Then we walked down the beach to the sunloungers with umbrellas.

A lot of the stray dogs dig holes under the sunloungers and go to sleep in the shade.

We laid on the beach, swam in the sea, and I had a little sleep. Around 3pm we were a little peckish, so we just walked up to Blue Sands restaurant to have some lunch.

I had a delicious Greek salad, and we shared a bottle of white wine.

We had a furry friend for company too and I gave her some chicken that Mandy couldn’t finish.

Mandy also had some leftover sausage, so I took this and fed it to some of the dogs.

We headed back to our rooms, had a quick shower, and then headed put into the town. We all needed to get some more cash, so we headed to the main street. There was a pretty church right next to the ATM.

On the way back to the beach, we stopped at a reggae bar for a cocktail.

Outside the reggae bar they had a small fish selection.

We had such a lovely meal at Waves the previous night that we decided to go there again. The fish of the day was red snapper, white snapper or parrot fish.

They all looked a bit big, so I settled for the tuna steak, which was very tasty.

As we were waiting, Raj came back with some fish he had caught.

Ian, Raj, the local diver, Brun, and a couple of other guys all got chatting to us, so we sat around having a few drinks.

On the way home, we stopped at Fernando’s bar as there was a party going on, and we actually recognised the music.  We were all on the dance floor (sand) having a boogie, and the local guys were teaching us a few moves. We also had some fun on the swings. The photos got more blurry as the night went on!

We went home around midnight.