Commodore
May 28, 2023

Sunday 28 May – bundu-bashing!

We needed to get some walking in so after breakfast we headed to the dinghy dock and went for a walk. As always we managed to leave in the heat, and the only footpaths are going up hill. Rowan found a circular route on the other side of the river, we found the road that the route was marked on and it did seem to be taking us on a private road. We were just passing the last house before hitting the forest, when we got apprehended by a lady who made it clear we could not continue further and had to go around – if only we could speak French! We went around and found another road going much further up the slope, and then thanks to Rowan’s app he found the path into the undergrowth. We followed the the very overgrown path and came to a stream where they are obviously trying to dam the water to take in pipes back to the village. We crossed over and got deeper and deeper into the forest, the path becoming barely distinguishable, we were on steep terrain with loose rubble and loads of creepers to get through. I finally had enough and wanted to go back! We were not far from completing the circle, but I didn’t want to annoy the lady and I wasn’t that happy! We made our way back down safely.

We had invited Patrick and Sara, on Ostrika, to join us to go out for lunch. We dashed home to PolePole for a quick shower and went to pick them up, we had hoped to go to the restaurant nearby that was highly recommended, but it was closed again. We went further out the bay, to a resort on the reef, and had a reasonable lunch. The place is brand new, half built but lots of people eating. We returned to the dinghy to find it had got wedged under the dock, the engine was horribly scratched but not damaged thank goodness. A rather large local boy was looking rather sheepish as the dinghy was full of water, we assume he had climbed into it.

We had a couple of hours back on PolePole digesting the Sunday papers. At sunset we went over to Jan and Giorgio for sunset drinks. He is a character but it is pretty difficult to get a word in. We are so tickled that Giorgio colours Jan’s hair, being a heart surgeon he is absolutely meticulous! They have pulled out the Arc because both their sons are getting married in Italy over the summer. Both sons are in the medical world too and live in America. Rowan and I had a good chortle as Sara is an Italian Oncologist and we wondered how the two Italian medical specialists would get along!