It’s been quite a busy time for us in Patnem.  On Tuesday, we were at Salida during the day although some of our number went on a public transport tour to Margao and back.  They went up by bus, toured the large indoor market and had a snack in the lovely old Portugese restaurant there and then came back by train.  Really enjoyed it.

Tuesday night is quiz night at Tantra.  The chap who has been running it has gone back to the UK but our friend, Mark, who is also part of the GoaT band, has taken it over.  It is such a fun night.  Lots of teams play.  We were doing so well right up to the last round when we blew it on a gamble…..  Had a lot of fun though.

Yesterday and today have been really hot.  35C but feeling more like 45C.  Just need to be in the shade or in the sea.  Last night we ate at SeaFront on Patnem beach which is run by an old friend of ours from another shack, called Rocky.  Food was really good, a little bit different as all the chaps come from Rishikesh in the far north of India.  Very good.  We will definitely go back.

Today we had another boat trip booked.  12 of us headed down to the beach for 9am to meet our boat.  We had breakfast on the way and also David called into the chai shop and bought a massive parcel of samosas.  Our destination was Honeymoon Beach, a cove between Palolem and Agonda.  It was a lovely boat ride as usual and we were on the beach by 945.  The beach is totally deserted as it is almost impossible to reach from the land.  There are lots of massive and interesting rock formations all around.  We had it to ourselves for about 2 hours before the tripper boats from palolem started to bring small parties of other tourists in for short swim stops.  By and large they were Indian tourists who interestingly enough cannot swim very well.  They got very excited jumping in the water in full clothes wearing lifejackets.  The men in particular squealed with excitement.

Surprisingly given the fact that many of us are divers and yachtsmen, no one had taken any account of the tide and it soon became clear that with the spring high tide imminent, the narrow cove was going to largely disappear before our boatman returned for us.  We managed to call him and he came back for us and we got back to Patnem about 145.  Sat on the beach a while in the shade.  It really was a broiler.

Tonight we headed first to Boomshankar for sunset cocktails.  Nice cocktails but the sun disappeared into some haze before it set.  Then to Magic View for dinner.  I had my usual gorgonzola fusilli and Bob had the bacon pizza.  Utterly yum.  The mayflies/flying ants were all round the lights in the early evening so we turned them off and ate by candle.  They soon disappeared.  Weird things.