Day 121: Thursday 17 July – On The Beach At Sikia, by Ken

We awoke to a clear blue sky without a cloud in the sky. We decided a day on the beach at Sikia was infinitely preferable to another tiki tour in Smarty.  

The narrow beach was almost completely empty when we arrived after a 20 metre walk from Mabel. Jane had studied the beach the previous day and saw there was just about room for two rows of sunbathers between the water's edge and the back of the beach. We set up camp under our beach umbrella at the water's edge.

Early Morning On Sikia Beach

Later

The day was taken up with a lot of reading, some swimming (Jane) and dozing and generally watching the world go by. The beach slowly filled with people as the morning wore on. We had seen our Austrian neighbours set out in their inflatable first thing. They returned late morning and unloading two large containers that smelled strongly of petrol.

Austrian Neighbours Return With Consignment Of Petrol

We did mange to tear ourselves away briefly from our slumbering on the beach to visit the taverna for lunch. Jane ordered spaghetti carbonara while I had roast vegetables (tomatoes, peppers and zucchini). 

Taverna

Waiting For Lunch

Me Too

While eating a family arrived with a baby that was crying inconsolably. The man put the baby over his shoulder such that it was facing Jane. The baby stopped crying the instant Jane turned and smiled at it. The jury was out whether the baby was in shock, or whether Jane's calming visage had the desired result.

Baby Whisperer Jane

Our large lunch resulted in some snoozing on the beach for a while before normal reading and swimming (Jane) resumed.

When we got back to Mabel early evening I was surprised to see our Austrian neighbours had stacked the two petrol containers against the rear of their caravan which fronted onto the roadway that people walked along, many smoking cigarettes.  That didn't seem at all safe to me. Jane felt they probably knew what they were doing. I was concerned they might just be silly people, you can usually tell if people are sill when they speak English, but I had no idea what a silly German speaker sounded like. 

We decided we didn't need another meal and nibbled on chickpeas.