Desert Sundowners

Sorry for the silence over the past while, we have had a lovely visit from Fhionna - a family friend. So, not only have I been rather busy taking her around the sights that are still bearable in this weather, she has been sleeping in my study (or my PC is in the guest room - depends on perspective, I suppose) so I've not been able to sit and spend time capturing our exciting times.

I will catch up soon, but just want to tell you about yesterday.

It was mid 40's during the day- most of which temperature we seemed to catch on our return from kayakking in the morning. Sadly, due to late lie ins by all concerned, we only got out to the mangrove swamps fairly late, and we finished our paddle in the heat of the day. Getting the paddles out of the water and onto the cars was no joke - we kept having to stop, get in the car and cool off, then continue. The kayakking was lovely, we saw flocks of flamingo's and herons and other birds we couldn't name, we saw fish leaping out of the water in front of us, we spotted thousands (and no, I'm not exaggerating) of crabs scuttling along the mud shores and under the water, even climbing up the mangrove stalks. So it was brilliant, but I think we all had a touch of heat exhaustion by our return.

So naturally, what would be more fitting than a trip out to the desert?

We decided to go for sundowners, not a whole picnic etc, but we couldn't find anyone to go with us! Most people are away at the moment, and the ones left seemed to think it was too hot. Wimps!

It's unsafe to go into the desert with fewer than 2 cars and 3 or more is actually preferable, so we drove my little runaround to the edge of the desert and left it there in case of getting stuck in Darrell's car. We then took a very short trip into the dunes and had a potter around, enjoying the sunset and downing our sundowners (water or strawberry juice - remember we were driving back) before quickly heading out before the darkness fell. It was actually a lovely trip. And not only was it Fhionna's first trip to the desert, it was Pearl's too. She took to it as if she were half saluki....