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Shivering, sweating and convulsing throughout the night whilst enduring a pounding headache brought about the annoying reality that I had heatstroke. I have no idea how as I was lathered up to my eyeballs in factor 50 sunscreen and put plenty of water through my gills all day.
Being an absolute warrior I dragged my aching muscles out of bed, eased out of my fluorescent orange pyjamas and accompanied Chelsea to breakfast. This made me feel horrendous again, so I slunk back to our hotel and basically had a day there sleeping - bless my cotton socks.
The following day I felt positively spritely and cartwheeled into the shower ready to carpe that diem! We decided to rent a scooter and explore the beaches to the north of Palolem: Agonda and Cola. We had heard rumours of turtles hatching at Agonda so we packed our head torches just in case we were lucky enough to see them hatching at night.
Unsurprisingly, I was a pretty dab hand behind the scooter, 'Don't worry my friend', I casually winked at the salesman, 'This isn't my first rodeo! before bucking the scooter away from him, badly stubbing my toe in the process.
Later, Chelsea insisted that I wear a helmet and refused to get on until I got one - she's the bane of my life. With a helmet that made me look like a chupa chups lolly and with my toe still throbbing we whisked off on the road of adventure.
When we finally found the minuscule signpost for Cola beach we were greeted with the bumpiest path yet, Radiant Mist (our scooter) handled it extremely well - she's a great steed.
Cola beach was incredibly isolated, no doubt due to its practically inaccessible location, though it was incredibly picturesque and quiet. It had a freezing lagoon behind a sandbar to the sea which was crystal clear and housed small fish that darted about like bullets. There were only a handful of sun loungers so we had a walk along the palm fringed beach before deciding to head back south towards Agonda.
Agonda, like Cola, was also much quieter than Palolem. Our waiter (we had stopped for breakfast) informed us that Agonda was protected by the Costal Regulation Zone as it is one of only four beaches that are designated turtle nesting sites, this meant that building here was very hard to accomplish as tourism had to be kept to a minimum. Sadly, he also informed us that we were two months too early to see the olive ridley sea turtles coming ashore and their hatchlings making a break for the waves. Interestingly, Agonda beach was rated the best beach in India on tripadvisor in 2016 and the fourth best in Asia!
We mutched around Agonda beach for the rest of the day in a cafe that had a brilliant open rooftop, with comfy sofas called Saffron Sands. We gorged ourselves on watermelon juice and pizza until we were fit to burst.
Driving back in the dark was quite an experience. Despite the headlights being very strong on Radiant Mist at times it was very hard to see as there are no street lights here; not to mention that other motorist kept their full beam lights on so you were often blinded. If this wasn't enough, every single insect that crossed our path decided to kamakazi into me like a firework - it was as though I'd been paint balling. Through my shrieks of pain Chelsea had slammed her visor shut and nestled in behind me.
With my eyes streaming and my face plastered in insect bodies (I must have looked strange, smiling with insects in my teeth) we came to a wobbly stop back at the scooter store and said goodbye to the beauty that took my scooting virginity, I'll never forget her.
We have now moved - under Chelsea's singing and my protestation - to a hut that is right on the beach. The flimsy door that just screams, 'Easily accessible place to plunder someone' and chipboard walls did little to impress me as my eyes fell on the enormous mosquito net over our bed. 'Anything with a net that big over it must experience some serious buggage,' was all I thought as I suspiciously crawled through the netted door, expecting to see an insect holding a crowbar at any moment.
Hopefully I'll wake up in the morning without malaria and to find my possessions are still my own.
- comments
Sue Arnold Oh Matt, you are a card! I laughed out loud at some parts :)