After our daily exertions, the kids would unwind
in the pool, which was overlooked by Oil Palms and Bougainvillea
in which a noisy and unruly colony of Weaverbirds resided. The children's
new-found enthusiasm for water had nothing to do with the tropical
ambience or the fact that the water was cooling. It was entirely
due to the fact that they had found a wad of notes equivalent to
£20 whilst they were snorkelling one day. Gill and I would
wander the grounds of the hotel or simply sit and observe the happenings
on the lawn outside our apartment.
There was an enormous number of fascinating plants
- Frangipani, Oleander with Sunbirds tumbling through the foliage,
Indian Almonds, Jatropa, Hibiscus and Eucalyptus. The bird life
supported by this man made paradise was equally impressive. Barbary
shrikes and Coucals bobbed over the lawns. Babblers and Leaf-loves
wandered the pathways. Hornbills and Grey Plantain-eaters screeched
from the tops of Casuarina equisetifolia, and the tree outside our
apartment was visited by Little Green woodpeckers. The giant Borassus
over the hedge was the scene of perpetual Bedlam. In the wind, its
leaves clattered unmercifully and it was host to the noisiest roost
of Senegal Wood-hoopoes, Longtailed Glossy Starlings and Black Magpies
imaginable. I suppose they might be considered the ornithological
equivalents of lager louts. A Pied Kingfisher used a date palm as
a perch and took the ornamental fish from a small pool. One curiosity
in a land of curiosities was Manilkara sapota whose fruit resembles
baked potatoes.
In the absence of television, our evening entertainment
was to sit by the Calabash tree and watch the bats flutter out of
the darkness, alight on its trunk and munch the developing fruit.
The Calabash & the Wonjo 
