Morning Walk, Swim and Siesta

I was awake early – again! I thought I might as well go and explore the beaches in the western direction. The walk started off quite nice while in town but quickly deteriorated to third-world status. Well, maybe not that bad, but as soon as I left town there were many stray dogs and very dirty, rough-looking streets and no civilization.

That part lasted about a kilometre, and then I turned down a side road to try and access the beachfront resorts in the next bay. The road soon turned to dirt and the houses were quite run down—cars sitting on blocks or with flat tyres, that kind of scene. But then another paved road headed down to the beach and a lovely seafront was revealed, with lounges and umbrellas. It looked like there were four or five different resorts that had been developed here. The sea looked beautiful, and according to Google, it's quite a popular place for day visitors. Absolutely no one about at 6:30am though.

Having checked the area out sufficiently to report back to Sarah, I headed home. This would also mean she wouldn't waste time with a crazy hot walk to here later.  I took a different route through town on the way back to check yet another supermarket. It was bigger than others but it might be too far away for us to walk to and back with groceries.

I arrived back just on 7am in time to tune in and watch the Warriors play the Titans. 4th vs last and yet the Warriors managed to get beaten. ☹️ I gave up on that just after half-time and we instead went to Sunset Beach for a swim.

The water was the coolest we have felt so far on holiday. It was quite refreshing. Sarah thought it was great. I initially thought it was a bit cold but after a while it was nice. We stayed in for about 30 minutes and then walked along through all the beach loungers to check out their pricing and to see if any might be worth visiting one morning. Sarah asked one place about prices and found out the ones closer to the water were 2,000 Lek and 1,500 Lek for ones about five rows back. The back ones though had a bit more shade so might suit us. You pay and have access to the two lounge chairs and an umbrella for the whole day. You can leave and come back whenever. The problem being the shade is limited and by 11am we doubt we could stand the heat down there. Something to think about.

We had another quick dip to cool off and then walked back to the apartment. It was time to video call Kate and wish her a happy birthday. She was playing games after having been out to dinner. We got to have a chat with her, Dylan, Emma, Braydon, Marion, Holly, and my Dad which was great.

We then popped out to a new bakery to get some lunch items and some treats. We also passed a vege shop so purchased things for dinner, and lastly went to the butchery for mince. They freshly ground the mince for us. The same girl from yesterday was there and she asked if we enjoyed our pork steaks. Turns out she and her family work every day during summer—7 days a week—and based on yesterday they were open from 8 or 9am until 7 or 8pm. We have noticed that with a lot of the shops—they certainly work very long hours.

By the time we got back it was 11:30 and had hit 35 degrees. Too blimin' hot for these Kiwis to be out in the sun!

After lunch there may have been a siesta x2. 😮 Later in the afternoon we had to go get more water from the Spar, plus a few other things.

Tonight's dinner was spaghetti bolognese which, thanks to the discovery of the spices, turned out pretty good. There was also watermelon for dessert.