3rd November 2022

This picture says all you need to know about our visit to Ultroa. We were lulled into a false sense of comfort when we got off the ship and it wasn’t raining, so we decided, as the sun was shining, that we would take a boat trip. We were to stop at a pearl farm, then take a trip up a jungle river, finishing off with a snorkel by a small atoll.

This is the view of the harbour from our ship, and you can see the style of boat in which we were to take our trip. You can also see in the background that the French supermarket giant Champion has got a store here…….very handy when you run out of tonic water!

These guys were playing their hearts and souls out as we passed them en-route to our boat trip!

And then no sooner than we got on the boat……..the heavens opened……….

In addition to the rain, the boat was going so fast that the waves were crashing over the bow and we were getting soaked!! It was just as well that I had remembered to pack my waterproof jacket so that Jane didn’t get wet! (I still got soaked, right down to my underwear!!!!! – J)

Other passengers had taken the precaution of bringing along a poncho…….we will now never leave home without one!

When we got to the river we slowed down to navigate safely, but by now we were thoroughly soaked through so even though the waves were no longer crashing into the boat we couldn’t get any wetter!

The coconut vendors looked a bit cheesed off with the weather as well, still the coconut was very welcome!

The last stop of the day, the snorkelling, was the warmest I felt all day as the sea was lovely……….this was certainly a day to remember…..for all the wrong reasons!