Day 236 - Milling around Mui Ne

Our morning today was very similar to the days we spent at Sanya a couple of weeks ago - after exchanging a book so Liv had something to read, we found a spot on the beach which is actually more difficult than it sounds as the section of beach where we're staying is a victim of the tides meaning we have no 'beach' as such for the majority of the day. The part of beach we decided to relax on only consisted of a couple of metres of sand, but if you venture an extra 3km into town you'll find more sand to play on - and much more expensive accommodation to go with it!

After swimming and reading the morning away we walked along the beach with the sea lapping at our feet, and made our way back to the hotel for lunch and drinks before we departed for our afternoon adventure.

Our adventure would take us on a 4 hour jeep-journey around the sights of Mui Ne. Our first stop of the day was Fairy Spring, which is a stream that zig-zags its way through sand dunes and varies in depth from just at your toes to halfway up your calves. It was absolutely stunning walking through the stream looking at all the different colours of sand: white, yellow, and bright red. Not so thrilling, well for Liv at least, was the hundreds of what looked like spiders that float on water! While Liv could handle a few floating here and there, when at one stage they were covering an entire patch on water, Liv freaked and we took the mud path from there on!!

Our next stop was at the Fishing Village where hundreds of boats are occupied with the daily struggle of finding fish in the ever depleting fishing zones. The large variety of boats ranged from the small circular weaved boats, to larger rowing boats, gradually getting larger and larger depending on how far out into the ocean the boats will venture - actually when Adam was swimming today he was nearly taken out by one!

We then stopped at the not so impressive "Red Canyon", which was good for a 5 minute wander while we let all the other jeeps doing the same route as us zip past - not to worry though because we seemed to have one of the fastest drivers! The highlight of this stop was watching a bright blue swallow playing in the air currents created by the wind floating through the canyon.

The majoirty of our afternoon was spent at the White Sand Dunes that stretch for miles to nowhere in particular, but made for some fun - especially Adam enjoyed seeing how far he could jump off the peak of the steep sand dunes. Perched next to the White Sand Dunes is the Desert Lake, which is also a primo sight.We departed this sandy playground covered in sand - not only from the jumping but also the fierce wind that seemed determined to make sure sand reached every part of our bodies.

Leaving the white dunes our jeep got stuck in the only part of the trip that actually required the use of a jeep - but we managed to continue our journey a few minutes later and made it to the red dunes in time for the sunset and some more sand spray! Unfortunately the cloud cover meant we didn't get much of a sunset, it was pretty nonetheless.

Our night was spent eating drinking and once again preparing all too soon for our trip tomorrow to Saigon.

Adlibing the dunes.