Yesterday Paul went to La Chiappa's reception and asked one of the receptionists to ring VW for him. Because his French is limited he got her to find out more or less when the car would be ready (again probably Thursday after 5pm), and also asked them not to throw out the damaged radiator - Kwikfit wanted to see it. The receptionist was very understanding and was of great help to us. In the afternoon we took around the campsite's outer borders, along the coastline. The bordering fence between the campsite and a lighthouse became non-existent so we followed a path below the lighthouse and down to narrow cape or point of the coastline. During the walk we saw a baby tortoise - it was no bigger than the palm of my hand. We left him to continue his own little journey. Some of the surrounding bush had been burnt by a fire but fortunately there was new signs of life with a bit of green showing through the charred bushes. It was nice to walk as nature intended - with nothing on, feeling the fresh air, sun and water on our skin. I felt at peace, relaxed.
This morning we went to the Hippocampe Dive Centre and booked ourselves on a dive for the afternoon. It was good to see the familiar faces of Lulu, Wolfe and Nadine as well as other members of the team. They were a bit surprised to see us again because we had said our goodbyes last week, but we were made to feel welcome again. We had hoped to do a wreck dive but plans had to change because of the choppy sea. We still enjoyed our dive though. Our dive guide today was a James Bond (Daniel Craig) look-alike! Despite having a cold, my ears, nose and sinuses felt ok (one should never dive with a cold and I was fully aware of that fact prior to going out) and the dive went smoothly . My right ear though, at one point, would not equalise and became painful. I tried to surface but Paul, thinking that I my buoyancy was a problem, kept holding on to me. I tried to explain by pointing out what my problem was. Our dive guide came over to see what was up. He also didn't want me to surface and with signals, told me to stop, and then held onto my jacket whilst I tried to equalise my ear again. After quite a few tries my ear equalised and I was pain-free, ready to continue. I've not had problems with my face-mask before but today it kept on leaking. A couple of times I emptied excess water, as I had been taught, but in the end I gave up. At least I could still see to a major degree. If the water collection in my mask had been bad I would have taken it off - I can see in sea water without any problems.
We finished the day with a meal at the campsite's restaurant and have been doing a bit of packing. Hopefully the car will be ready for us sometime tomorrow!
