Rural Varca

Lots of our friends seem to think we are staying in a dusty barren place. That couldn't be further from the truth. The area is lush and green from the summer monsoon with no water shortages here and we have solar heating for our water

Behind our apartment there are buffalo grazing and on our ride down the track to the beach we found "Rasher" again and he's looks to have a new family of four black piglets, they ran off in all directions. 

The Goans eat a lot of pork! 

The beaches are very quiet this year, it seems that tourists arnt coming to Goa. However, there are lots of Brits our age and younger here, who come to escape the cold winters. In our complex there are  five couples who have been coming for years. We get together in Glorios beach shack. Today one of the group said they just fancied some HP sauce and Gary conjoured a bottle from his rucksack. You can't ask this lot for the wrong thing!

Today the temperature was 34c dropping to a cool 24 at night. Daybreak is 7.15 and sunset is 6.30. It's light till 6.25 and then within 5 minutes it's pitch black.

In the evenings we walk down to the local restaurants, there's a choice of nine or ten, and the food is pretty good,all do carry outs if you want to stay in. 

Last night we had Albert (taxi driver) pick us up with Suzanna and James to go to Joes Cove for dinner and some dancing.

Thursday 21st

Today had to carry some cargo - Indian style, we have clean water in the apartment but heavy in minerals so we have a drinking water contraption 

Which works pretty well. We thought we were good at carting cargo but this guy had 60kg bag of flour

Today we had a ride out to look at some new luxury apartments with a view to next year

Still plenty of time for beach life ......, and there's plenty of it!

Shopping and the beach

Varca beach the quietist we've ever seen

After the birth of Isabelle yesterday we have spent most of the day showing our friends her picture. 

We went shopping into Varca for some essentials and to the petrol station for the scooter, and even though it's only two miles it wasn't without the odd hazard. On the way a big wild boar ran across and on the way back we played dodge the cows.  I'm not as adept as the Indians using my phone to take pictures and still hang on - yet! 

Lunch was with a couple of Ausies who are coming out with us tonight to Pedros Reggae night.

By the way Petrol is 45 p a litre here and 16 bananas 24 p. Limes for the gin were 3p each and the gins gone up to £1.90 a bottle - tough eh ?!

My birthday

Well it's been something of a hectic day,meeting up with two couples who we haven't seen since last year, phone calls from home wishing me a happy birthday; then  a FaceTime call from Sharon to say Annette our daughter in law had gone into labour. Isabelle Keira Kendrick was born 7lb 12 oz and what a little beauty

Isn't she gorgeous? Then on our way back from the restaurant tonight Albert our taxi driver screached  to a halt and presented me with a bouquet of flowers! That along with an invitation to Suku and Johns brothers wedding in Margao India next week has really made my day very special 

4 Airports in one day

We started our day at Birmingham airport our sterling driver 'coughing Ken' delivered us in style. We booked into the Aspire Lounge and I got chatting to the Indian receptionist Rajhid and explained we were going to miss our grandbaby being born. I also said I was starving and had skipped breakfast. Ok he said,would you like a bacon roll I can get some from the staff canteen, we thought he was joking but 10 mins later he appeared with four  crispy bacon rolls and brown sauce, what a star! 

As luck would have it we were surrounded by crying babies all the way to Dubai. We got our Emirates connection after a short G & T break and arrived at Mumbai 2 .5 hours later to the new terminal which is  just beautiful

 It has 90 gates all spectacularly decorated. We arrived in Goa and Albert our taxi driver greeted us, and bless him he even bought our breakfast supples, a bottle of gin and some tonics, and gave us his phone till our new SIM cards arrive. . True  Indian  hospitality. Weather on arrival 32c and that big yellow ball we don't seem to see at home .

2016 Destinations

This year we shall be staying in Varca, Goa for most of our stay which is 1 hours drive south of Panjaji on the map, but will be flying off to Pune, just short of Mumbai, where we are going to see, amongst other things the Aga Khan Palace. We have 4 days sightseeing in Pune. Hyderabad is another 4 day break we shall be flying off to, and to complete our wanderings we are going to Hampi by train! A complete day on 1st class air conditioned train carriage which should be a complete assault on the senses! 

Not long now

This jumble is the start of my packing heap, including presents for my birthday! So exciting, and really looking forward to catching up with old friends in sunny Varca 😊